Barber: Capricorn Concerto; A Hand of Bridge; Canzonetta for oboe and strings; Fadograph of a Yestern Scene

COMPOSERS: Barber
LABELS: Naxos
WORKS: Capricorn Concerto; A Hand of Bridge; Canzonetta for oboe and strings; Fadograph of a Yestern Scene
PERFORMER: Vocal soloists, Stéphane Rancourt (oboe), John Gracie (trumpet), Karen Jones (flute); Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Marin Alsop
CATALOGUE NO: 8.559135

Naxos’s Barber series has come to an end – unfortunately without the dramatic scena Andromache’s Farewell or the orchestrated songs, though there would have been room for them in this bits-and-bobs final volume. What is here, unexpectedly, is A Hand of Bridge, a ten-minute mini-opera in which the characters articulate their inner thoughts as well as delivering their bids at the card table: done with as much clarity and naturalness as this, it’s a delight. Also filling a gap in the catalogue is the late Fadograph of a Yestern Scene: its nostalgically lyrical lines are shaped with affection by the RSNO’s wind principals, though tuning goes slightly awry at the climax. The main work is the ‘neo-Brandenburg’ Capricorn Concerto, well paced by Marin Alsop and with three excellent wind soloists. The oboist Stéphane Rancourt also shines in the Canzonetta, the slow movement of an unfinished concerto. The Mutations on Bach is a very slight sequence of chorale transcriptions for brass; but the Intermezzo from Vanessa is a lovely example of the sadly forgotten genre of the operatic interlude. Here and elsewhere the recording lacks a little bloom on the strings. But altogether this is an enjoyable conclusion to a valuable series. Anthony Burton