Customer Reviews

Bantock: Hebridean Symphony; Celtic Symphony; The Witch of Atlas; The Sea Reivers

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Here ia a CD with a lot to offer. Two symphonies and two tone poems, all masterfully written and wonderfully programmed. The theme of this CD is genuinely received.

First, the Celtic Symphony is written for strings and harps (a whole bunch). This one movement symphony gives me a feel of the coastal regions of the Scotch highlands with its modal pleasures and lush, rich sound.

The contrasting tone poems are marvelous. The Sea Reivers is a whirlwind of woodwinds and brass. The Witch of Atlas is a very descriptive tale of the Celtic fokelore. Both are very colorful in sound and beauty.

The masterpiece on this recording, however, is the Hebridean Symphony. Again, it is an extended one movement symphony, but this time for the whole orchestra. It brings back the tumultuous sounds of the crashing waters along the Celtic shores. This time, the colorful brass section gets to amaze us as well as the spright woodwinds. The whole work ends in a paen of triumph to bring this recording to a fabulous close.

Suprisingly, the Royal Philharmonic on the Hyperion label gives their best performance on this CD. The climaxes are grand enough to truly compliment the opposite dance and largo sections. If you enjoy the mysterious modes of Grieg, Sibelius, and Janacek along with the sumptuousness of Vaughan Williams (who doesn't really?), you have to pick this up.

I, too, have a very large classical CD collection, with my tastes running primarily to Mahler, Shostakovich, Brucker, and Sibelius - though I recently added Rubbra to this group of frequent musical companions. My brother gave this CD to me for Christmas a few years ago, but it was within the last year that I decided to really give it a close listen. I now consider it to be one of those pieces (like Mahler #4, Shostakovich #5, and Sibelius #2)that always sound fresh to my ears - always feel like musical home!

Though I love the initial three pieces on this CD (particularly the lovely Celtic Symphony with its gloriously peaceful opening), it is the Hebridean Symphony that is on my Desert Island list. From its brooding, dramatic opening (clearly preparing the listener for a meaningful experience) to the lovely climax and ending, this music is always totally involving. The recording is spectacular - the dynamic range is huge, and the brass the percussion make some huge punctuations; it is hard to find just one listening level for the car, in fact!

Don't miss this high point of not only British classical music, but all of music, in total! Now if only it would start showing up in local concert halls....

It's absolutely astonishing how a composer of the range and impact of Sir Granville Bantock has been forgotten for so long, not only at concert halls but also (and this is even more surprising) by recording labels.I agree in every word with the opinions of previous Bantock's lovers reviews, but I want to add a few more things. I have also a huge classical symphonic CD'S collection, but among them all I consider a few of them as authentic jewells, hidden treasures which must be urgently unburied.This is one and, probably, the most valuable of them.It is impossible to describe the sense of emotion, grandiosity and splendour this "God of Symphonic Music" is able to display in each of his, fortunately, prolific compositions, and specially in his Hebriddean Symphony, which is, undoubtedly, one of the master works, not only in the History of Symphonic Music but in the History of Music.Mysterious woodwind passages preceed others of sublime brass magnificency and glory, all involved in a lyric ,epic and romantic wave;a dream come true thanks to the brilliant sound of the RPO under the baton of Vernon Handley.
Each new listening becomes a new delight for the ears, and deep emotions arise once an again, making this CD a unique experience, unforgivable to miss by any symphonic music lover.
I'm absolutely delighted with Hyperion, the RPO and Vernon Handley, as they keep recording Bantock's music, and I hope they will be doing so. I'm craving for more Bantock!.

This is the first disc of the RPO/Hyperion/Handley collaboration that is a sonic masterpiece. If you like Bruckner, Mahler, Elgar, and any of the composers that use full orchestral writing (lots of horns!), you will love this disc and the ones that follow. Listen to this one, and you will be hooked.

I heard a portion of this work (Hebridean Symphony) on public radio a while back. Having never heard of Sir Granville Bantock, I was curious enough to seek out and purchase the CD. I keep asking myself "How could such a wonderful, exciting work be kept so obscure?!?" The Hebridean Symphony is an excellent work, worthy of much higher prominence in the Music world.

The "3 Minute surprise" on this album?:

"The Sea Reivers" is a thrilling, roller-coaster ride of musical enjoyment. Having heard only the Handley version on Hyperion, I cannot imagine any other version having any more excitement or fire! Bravo!!

Like another reviewer, my initial exposure to this music was through an NPR broadcast. I quickly purchased the CD and have enjoyed the echt-Richard Strauss "Hebridean" symphony many times. Like the other music on the CD -- none of which has the lasting effect of this symphony -- it heaves and rolls with all the emotions of a sea journey. For that reason, I burned my own CD, mating this version of the "Hebridean" with Handley's performance of Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" from "Peter Grimes" and his recording of Frank Bridge's "The Sea" suite. I think this places the Hebridean symphony in more appropriate company than with Bantock's lesser music. Still, this CD makes a wonderful introduction to the music of a composer not well-known in America. If you buy it, you won't be disappointed.

What a wonderful release this is, and there is no doubt that it, upon its original release, contributed significantly to putting Granville Bantock back on the map where he firmly belongs. The Hebridean symphony was Bantock's first, and it was already available on a recording by Adrian Leaper on Marco Polo. But Handley and the RPO turns what sounded like an interesting, worthwhile curiosity into a marvelous, subtle score of real stature. And it is a superb work, essentially written in one continues movement but with several discernible sections. The themes are memorable and imaginatively developed, the scoring is fabulous - the end result is a powerful work of a generally wistful and dreamy character, and one that should be far better known.

The tone poem The Witch of Atlas is perhaps not quite in the same league. It is a lushly scored late-romantic work, but one which seems to draw more on French models than e.g. Richard Strauss (nothing wrong about that, but the themes and sections aren't quite in the league of the Hebridean symphony). The short Sea Reivers is a delightful, imaginative miniature that packs a a real punch into its short time-frame. The highlight of the disc, however, is the Celtic Symphony. At the time of composition (1940) and first performance, it might have sounded desperately out of date, and the fact that it requires six harps certainly didn't help it achieve a firm place in the repertoire. But this wonderful work, with a main theme based on a Hebridean folk-song, is fully worthy of comparison with Vaughan Williams's Tallis fantasia (to the audience of which it should surely appeal). It is, as the other works on the disc, a generally wistful, dreamy work, and so superbly constructed and scored, and with so many magical touches that it should probably be described as `unmissable' for any music-lover. The performances are again superb, and the sound quality of the whole disc is outstanding. This, then, is a disc no one can afford to overlook. Urgently recommended.

My husband & I heard this piece on our local classical music radio station and decided right then (at 11:30 at night) that we had to order the CD. Since it arrived, we have been playing it (and the other Bantock CD that we ordered - the Pagan Symphony) almost non-stop. We love celtic music and these two CD's add so much to our collection. The only down side is that the dynamics go from pianissimo to fortissimo quite often, so it's hard to find the perfect volume setting, but who cares! it's beautiful!

Coincident with some research for a seniors celebration of St. Patrick's day I heard an intriguing snippet of the Celtic Symphony on a regional FM station. I loved the harp ensemble that was a beautifully unique experience. Additional research turned up the CD and its pairings with the Celtic. All of it is a delight I hadn't anticipated. Different beautiful music so nicely done. A great introduction into the classical Celtic world.

I have a very large classical CD collection and this CD is the best of the lot. If you like Elgar you will love this.