Sir Malcolm Arnold: Wind Chamber Music- Wind Quintet, Three Shanties, Suite Bourgeoise.
Performed by East Winds
Naxos 8.570294
This could be a good example of judging a book by its cover. The jolly little sleeve painting ‘From a Cornish Window’ by Christopher Wood sums up the content of the album perfectly.
The music here is often somewhat complex in nature but relatively easy on the ear. Much is joky and light hearted and reminds me of the soundtracks to those Czech cartoons about a mole that were staple diet on BBC Children’s Television in the early nineteen-sixties. In fact, like Walton, Arnold is well known as a film composer and his Overture for ‘Hobson’s Choice’, the David Lean film starring Charles Laughton and John Mills, is included here.
My only reservation regarding this CD is that one should make sure one is in the right mood to listen to it before doing so. The constant high pitched jollity and jazzy jauntiness has a tendency to grate on one’s nerves and annoy if one is already slightly irritable. You have been warned!
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