The Second and Third Piano Concertos, together with the ambitious SymphonicFantasia, make a fine follow-up to the coupling of the First Piano Concerto and Violin Concerto. Such largesse deserves the highest praise and it is easy to see a wry if grateful smile crossing Bowen's face if he were alive as he remembered his dismissal by modernists who viewed him as little better than a seashell washed ashore in a ruthlessly unaccommodating age.
Today, Bowen's unapologetic romanticism has found several champions taken by his warmth and sincerity and an open-hearted nostalgia for less brittle, over-sophisticated times. How hard it is to resist the appeal of the Second Concerto's Lento espressivo. How easy to imagine an elegantly attired audience greeting the finale's virtuoso close with gloved plaudits, sighing with delight over present if fast-receding conservative values. The rippling charm of the Third Concerto's central Andante grazioso and the finale's sunlit capers are sure to please.
So, too, is the Symphonic Fantasia, an ideal ballet score where the third movement's nodal and expressive centre is countered by the fifth movement's proud ceremonial stance. All this is superbly performed by Vernon Handley while Michael Dussek plays with brilliant facility and the warmest musical commitment. Dutton's sound is excellent.

Today, Bowen's unapologetic romanticism has found several champions taken by his warmth and sincerity and an open-hearted nostalgia for less brittle, over-sophisticated times. All this is superbly performed by Vernon Handley while Michael Dussek (who teaches at Bowen's alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music) plays with brilliant facility and the warmest musical commitment. Dutton's sound is excellent and so is Lewis Foreman's predictably informative essay.