• Forget any notions of wistful pastoral this title might suggest: English Music for Strings, performed by the Sinfonia of London, conducted by John Wilson (Chandos), is a collection of works from the 1930s, with a sharp, modernist energy to match. Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937), with its poise, angularity and gleam, receives a virtuosic performance from this ace ensemble. The influence of Britten spills lightly into Lennox Berkeley’s lovely Serenade for Strings (1938-39), a work that travels from vivacity to urgent sorrow.
In his Music for Strings (1935), Arthur Bliss explores all the colours and possibilities of the string orchestra, requiring playing of immense technical flair, beautifully delivered here, the resonance of the recording venue, St Augustine’s, Kilburn, adding sonic bloom. Bliss’s own Bauhaus-style home in Somerset features on the CD cover: a perfect fit for the music.
• The British composer David Matthews (b.1943) has been loyal to the idea of the symphony all his creative life, even when fashion has led his contemporaries in other, non-tonal directions. His Eighth Symphony, Op 131, which pivots around a central, slow lament, is among the works in the BBC Philharmonic’s A Vision of the Sea (Signum Classics), conducted by Jac van Steen. Having performed 11 of his works and commissioned five, the orchestra has a strong association with Matthews. You sense it in the precision and warmth of their playing.
All the music here is steeped in spray and tide, as the title, taken from Shelley and used by Matthews for a four-movement work, suggests. Based in Deal, in Kent, with the sound and sight of the English Channel ever present, Matthews conjures a poetic seascape in this work, with the evocative calls of herring gulls never far away.
• Much needed joy with the right degree of horror: Scottish Opera’s new, filmed version of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, directed by Daisy Evans, starring Kitty Whately and Rhian Lois, is free to watch, part of the company’s unmissable Opera on Screen series.
