Guildhall Strings, Robert Salter - Robin Milford: Fishing by Moonlight & Other Works with Strings (2004)

Tracklist

01. Fishing by Moonlight, Op. 96a
02. Miniature Concerto in G, Op. 35: I. Allegro
03. Miniature Concerto in G, Op. 35: II. Adagio
04. Miniature Concerto in G, Op. 35: III. Allegro vivace
05. Elegiac Meditation, Op. 83
06. 2 Orchestral Interludes, Op. 19e: I. Mr John Peel Passes By. Briskly
07. 2 Orchestral Interludes, Op. 19e: II. Mr Ben Jonson's Pleasure. At a Leisurely Pace
08. Go, Little Book, Op. 18: I. Introduction. Allegro vivace
09. Go, Little Book, Op. 18: II. Thy Garden. Andante
10. Go, Little Book, Op. 18: III. Meat in Thy Hall. Tempo di menuetto, in Strict Time Throughout
11. Go, Little Book, Op. 18: IV. Thy Bin of Wine. Adagio – Allegro
12. Go, Little Book, Op. 18: V. Thy Wit. Andante con moto
13. Go, Little Book, Op. 18: VI. Thy House and Lawns. Adagio
14. Go, Little Book, Op. 18: VII. Thy Living River. Moderato
15. Go, Little Book, Op. 18: VIII. Thy Nightingale. Con moto
16. Elegy for James Scott, Duke of Monmouth & Buccleuch, Op. 50
17. Interlude for Flute and Strings, Op. 69a
18. Festival Suite, Op. 97: I. Overture. Adagio – Allegro moderato – Adagio
19. Festival Suite, Op. 97: II. Siciliana. Adagietto
20. Festival Suite, Op. 97: III. Slow Minuet & Trio. Poco lento
21. Festival Suite, Op. 97: IV. Scherzo. Poco adagio – Allegro – Poco adagio – Allegro

Robin Milford is one of those distinctive English composers who proliferated between the wars, but whose reputation suffered in the face of the avant garde establishment in vogue during the 1950s and ’60s. Milford composed a range of music, from short practical works for children or amateurs to large-scale works including oratorios, an opera and a symphony.

This delightful disc presents Milford’s music at its most quintessential and endearing. During the war Milford lost his six-year-old son to a road accident, a shattering personal catastrophe that blighted the remaining eighteen years of his life. Milford’s idiom deepened and matured, and his ability to distil a mood or atmosphere into surprisingly simplelooking textures is his most rewarding trait. The music on this disc ranges from the soaring intensity of the Elegiac Meditation for viola and string orchestra of 1946–7 (a meditation on the losses of six years of war, or perhaps Milford was thinking of his dead son Barnaby), to the spirited and easy-going Festival Suite, written in 1950 to mark the Festival of Britain the following year. Milford’s most famous work, Fishing by Moonlight, opens the disc, and is ravishingly performed by Guildhall Strings, with the composer’s grand-nephew Julian Milford at the piano.

Once again, Guildhall Strings perform unduly neglected British music with refinement and a rare sense of shared enjoyment.

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