Here's a recipe guaranteed to delight Grainger acolytes and inquisitive newcomers alike: a liberal sprinkling of old friends, three of the composer's most ambitious creations and no less than four world premiere recordings. Falling into the last two categories comes the giddily inventive English Dance No 1. Bearing the inscription 'For Cyril Scott with long love', this is the work of which Gabriel Fauré exclaimed: 'It's as if the total population were a-dancing.' Hickox and company have already set down this remarkable piece in its final scoring from 1924- 9; the present orchestration dates from 1906-9 and wears an even more exuberantly colourful demeanour than its successor.
Originally conceived in 1907 for 24 winds (in which guise it can be heard on Chandos), the bracing, somewhat Delian Hill Song No 2 is played in its final incarnation from 1948 for symphony orchestra. That same year, Grainger accepted a commission for an even more ambitious wind-band creation, The Power of Rome andthe Christian Heart, based on ideas from as far back as 1918 and given here with the optional string parts. It's an imposing, oddly moreish affair, whose second half borrows material from the 1943 orchestral essay Dreamery (Chandos) as well as the first movement ('The Power of Love') of the marvellous Danish Folksong Suite. From a clutch of indelible favourites, to be singled out are the well-upholstered 1919 orchestration of the supremely touching Colonial Song, GreenBushes and that memorably tangy 1920 harmonisation of the Irish Tune from County Derry.
Hickox secures a set of performances that are simply past praise in their combination of stylish swagger and heartwarming commitment to the cause. Wonderful Chandos sound, too, irrepressibly vivid. Terrific stuff!