US TARIFFS UPDATE | August 2025 | No impact expected on your Presto orders | Read full details
John Ireland: Orchestral Works
John Wilson
Sinfonia of London
Awards:
-
Presto Editor's Choice, June 2022
John Wilson’s expertise in this repertoire secures crisp, mint-condition performances whenever the music allows.
John Ireland: Orchestral Works
John Wilson
Sinfonia of London
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Presto Editor's Choice, June 2022
John Wilson’s expertise in this repertoire secures crisp, mint-condition performances whenever the music allows.
About
John Ireland was something of a child prodigy, entering the Royal College of Music at the age of fourteen. There he studied piano, organ and composition (under Charles Villiers Stanford). He quickly progressed to significant positions as an organist, whilst continuing to pursue his interests as a composer. The Forgotten Rite, from 1913, is one of his earliest orchestral compositions, and was premired by Sir Henry Wood at the Queens Hall. The symphonic rhapsody Mai-Dun was inspired by the Dorset countryside Thomas Hardy Country a landscape that exerted a lifelong influence on Ireland. While it was commissioned for the national Brass Band Championships in 1932, Ireland later arranged the central two movements of A Downland Suite for strings. The first and last movements were later arranged by his pupil Geoffrey Bush. The overture Satyricon was one of Irelands final large-scale works, and is based upon texts by the Roman writer Gaius (or, in some sources, Titus) Petronius Arbiter, a courtier of Nero. A London Overture and the Epic March were both commissioned by the BBC the latter as a morale-booster during World War II. It was during this period that Ireland orchestrated The Holy Boy a piano piece composed on Christmas Day in 1913. John Wilson and Sinfonia of London present these works with care and conviction, revealing the great quality of this unjustly neglected composer.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
-
Presto Editor's ChoiceJune 2022
August 2022
John Wilson’s expertise in this repertoire secures crisp, mint-condition performances whenever the music allows.
August 2022
Wilson’s interpretations remain just as glowingly understanding as before…Even if you already possess Wilson’s earlier Hallé anthology, this is an album not to be missed.
June 2022
This isn't Wilson's first rodeo with Ireland on disc: he recorded a near-identical programme with the Hallé back in 2009, but even if you own and love that earlier set this new volume is well worth hearing - not least for the arrangement of A Downland Suite, which showcases the Sinfonia of London's distinctive lush string-sound to perfection. The cinematic qualities of Mai-Dun are even more thrillingly captured here than on the previous recording, and the gorgeous orchestration of The Holy Boy is a little gem.
17th June 2022
Good tunes abound in A Downland Suite, while the bustle of A London Overture and Satyricon is very fetching. But the heart of this collection lies in Ireland’s sensitive responses to natural landscapes, their histories and inner spirit...It’s all lovely music, superbly played with plenty of poetry and fire. Memo to John Wilson: continue doing just what you’re doing.
30th July 2022
There are some wonderful things here... Wilson’s players give the “Prelude” just enough bite, and the “Elegy” plumbs incredible depths in four and a half minutes... The opening is as sinister as it is witty, and there’s an exquisite horn solo eight minutes in.
Limelight Magazine August 2022
Wilson and his Sinfonia of London give the bulk of Ireland’s orchestral output their usual crisp yet sensitive treatment.
