Martyn Brabbins reviews
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5, etc
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins, et al (Hyperion)
Reawakened
Robert Plane (clarinet); BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins (Champs Hill)
James MacMillan: Symphony No. 4; Viola Concerto
Lawrence Power (viola); BBC Philharmonic/Martyn Brabbins (Hyperion)
Alexander Goehr • Colin Matthews • Anna Meredith: Chamber Works
Aurora Orchestra; Nash Ensemble/Martyn Brabbins, et al (NMC)
Tippett: Symphonies Nos 3 & 4; Symphony in B flat
Rachel Nicholls; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins (Hyperion)
Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony
Elizabeth Llewellyn, Marcus Farnsworth; BBC Symphony Chorus & Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins (Hyperion)
Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos 3 & 4
BBC Symphony Chorus & Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins, et al (Hyperion)
Julian Anderson: Poetry Nearing Silence
Nash Ensemble/Martyn Brabbins (NMC)
Martyn Brabbins 'aims for clarity' in his approach to Tippett's Symphonies Nos 1 & 2
The torch carried for Tippett by the late Colin Davis and Richard Hickox seems to have passed to Martyn Brabbins. These readings have the intentness of conviction, which the still underrated Symphony No. 1 in particular richly deserves. Completed in 1945 and combining the springy counterpoint of Tippett’s early style with – in its grinding passacaglia slow movement – something of the darkness of the war he had just come though, this sounds like a celebration of a hard-earned maturity.
Martyn Brabbins conducts Vaughan Williams's A London Symphony