Cyril Scott: Orchestral Works, Vol. 4 – BBC Philharmonic & Martyn Brabbins

Our survey of orchestral music by Cyril Scott comes to a close with the premiere recording of the Cello Concerto and Symphony No. 1. The BBC Philharmonic is conducted by Martyn Brabbins, with Paul Watkins as the cello soloist. From an early stage of his musical education Scott was influenced by German artistic ideas and his Symphony No. 1 is dedicated to the poet Stefan George. We have Percy Grainger to thank for preserving the score, in which Scott experiments with a modern rhapsodic style. The Cello Concerto is a later work and shows the influence of Ravel and Debussy. This is a virtuosic and extravagant work full of mysticism and haunting melodies.

FonoForum 08/08: “Wonderful the instrumentation with its palette, unmistakable the ambivalent, disembodied harmony ambivalent, as it were disembodied harmonies Cellist Paul Watkins is convincing all along the line in a work which Work that has deservedly been lifted from the fog of obscurity of obscurity.”