Steve Elcock: Orchestral Music, Vol. 3

This third volume of orchestral music by the Anglo-French composer Steve Elcock (b. 1957) features two symphonies and a quasi-concerto. Over the course of its two movements, the Sixth Symphony, which bears the title Tyrants Destroyed, moves from grief to outrage, rising to a grimly triumphant conclusion. The one-movement Seventh – with some of its material derived from the words of a song Elcock heard in a dream – runs a gamut of emotion, from anger to heartbreak, in its impassioned narrative. Manic Dancing, a piano concerto in all but name, inhabits a complex world of driving rhythms, nostalgic flashbacks and hectic dance music – buoyant and good-natured, like Martinů on speed.