"This most generous and consistently distinguished collection is tossed off by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia with their customary spontaneity and panache."
Paul A Snook, Fanfare, March/April 2007

CDLX 7170

CDLX 7190

The fifth instalment in Dutton Epoch’s ongoing series focusing on British light music features sumptuous works by Paul Carr and conductor Gavin Sutherland, along with the suite from Richard Addinsell’s incidental music for Jean Anouilh’s play Ring Round the Moon and orchestral delights by film music legend Roy Budd (Tricolour Overture) and Francis Chagrin (Aquarelles). The concertos by Gavin Sutherland (for clarinet) and Paul Carr (for oboe) are both real finds. Sutherland writes essentially in a lighter vein, taking a melodic route through a variety of idioms including the ballad style of the exquisite second movement Song without Words. Carr’s Oboe Concerto, played by its dedicatee Nicholas Daniel, highlights the increasing reputation of this composer; here the sorrowing threnody encapsulated in the stillness of the second movement’s evocation of snow is particularly striking, while Carr’s Air for Strings is uniquely compelling, an orchestral love song that bids fair to supplant Barber’s celebrated Adagio for Strings.

CDLX 7209