COMPOSERS: Leighton
LABELS: Chandos
ALBUM TITLE: Leighton
WORKS: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1: Symphony for Strings; Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani; Concerto for String Orchestra
PERFORMER: John Scott (organ); BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Richard Hickox
CATALOGUE NO: CHAN 10461
A series devoted to Kenneth Leighton’s orchestral works is long overdue, given the sheer quality of his output and the comparative neglect the music has suffered since (and for some years before) his death. Having these three robust and superbly-crafted works on disc ought to have estimates being revised upwards. The very early Symphony for Strings, written 1948-9 while Leighton was a student at Oxford, was taken up at once by Gerald Finzi and his Newbury String Players. Finzi himself is a clear influence, as well as other representatives of the great English string tradition, notably Howells and Vaughan Williams; but Leighton’s Symphony proves to be an impressive ornament to that tradition which should not have been allowed to lapse into oblivion. By the time of the Concerto for Strings (1961) and especially the Concerto for Organ, String Orchestra and Timpani (1970) Leighton had long assimilated important continental influences – Bartók and Stravinsky in the string concerto, Bartók again (especially Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta) and Berg in the organ concerto. The latter work, especially, is a powerful and passionate utterance that displays Leighton as one of the most substantial musical thinkers of his generation. John Scott is a first-rate soloist in this taxing work and Richard Hickox directs superbly-paced and eloquent performances of this fine music. Calum MacDonald