GUSTAV HOLST (1874-1934): Symphony in F, Op. 8 "The Cotswolds", Walt Whitman Overture, Op. 7, A Hampshire Suite Op. 28/2 (orch. Gordon Jacob [1895-1984]), Ballet Music from The Perfect Fool, Op. 39, Scherzo for Orchestra.

Description: We first offered this on the defunct Classico label in August 1999. The "Cotswold Symphony" shows the young composer beginning to find the importance which folk-song would hold in his later works. The brief first movement is in march-time and the second (performed separately now and then as one of Two Portraits) is a deeply felt Elegy in memoriam William Morris, bold and intense. The scherzo contrasts lumbering barn-dance and thistledown fast music, seeming to depict a country fair while the finale carries on in a bucolic good humor, not uninfluenced by Brahms and Dvorak. The Walt Whitman Overture (1899) is a vigorous and delightful piece in 19th-century Germanic tradition. Munich Symphony Orchestra; Douglas Bostock. Original 1999 Classico release.