Arthur Benjamin
(1893-1960)
Overture to an Italian Comedy (1936) 1
Cotillon, Suite of English Dance Tunes (1938) 2
North American Square Dance Suite (1951) 3
Symphony (1945) 3
1 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Myer Fredman
2 London Symphony Orchestra/Nicholas Braithwaite
3 London Philharmonic Orchestra/Barry Wordsworth
Lyrita SRCD.314 76:50
Benjamin was an Australian composer who spent most of his life working in Britain, and knew well such composers as Bliss and Howells. He is best known for Jamaican Rumba, and although much of his work was light-hearted as in the first three items on this CD, the more serious side of his nature appears in his only symphony, which runs about 45 minutes. It was clearly influenced by World War II and is an essentially tragic work with some of the feeling of Bax and Walton.
