Bantock

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performs magnificently from beginning to end, coupling elegance, eloquence, passion, and poser with Hyperion's fastidious sound in a way that compels admiration from the listener for conductor, ensemble and composer alike. Handley's is the definitive version of the Hebridean Symphony, outstripping that available on Naxos in every regard, and with the other works on this disc to further commend it, this release sails effortlessly into port as the newest inductee into Fanfare's Classical Hall of Fame.

This release is of a different and more ambitious kind than other releases of the mid-2010s on the Lyrita revival label. Like the others, it is taken from BBC broadcasts, but in this case, the recording was made in a studio, not live, and the sound quality is much superior. The most unusual feature is the music by the almost-forgotten Granville Bantock, who was as responsible as anyone else for the ongoing popularity of Sibelius in Britain, and who, believe it or not, liked to dress up as the medieval Persian poet Omar Khayyam.

Beginning in 1900 with Richard Henry Walthew and ending in 1999 with David Bedford, the intrepid musical journey undertaken by Laurence Perkins and friends celebrates the extraordinary versatility of the twentieth-century bassoon.