"English String Miniatures?" Surely and why not? English composers began writing string miniatures under Elizabeth I, but they really started cranking them out under Edward V and they now show no signs of stopping. But five volumes of "English String Miniatures?" After running through everything from everybody from
Elgar to Delius to
Vaughan Williams to
Holst to
Howells to
Warlock to
Walton to
Britten to
Tippett, one might reasonably suspect that the Brits had run out of string miniatures. But no: in this, the fifth volume of
Gavin Sutherland and the
Royal Ballet Sinfonia's apparently encyclopedic survey, yet more English String Miniatures have surfaced. And while they're not in the same class as the works of any of the above-mentioned composers, these works are still quite beguiling in their way. Pamela Harrison's five-movement Suite for Timothy from 1948 is a childhood charmer.
Francis Chagrin's four-movement Renaissance Suite from 1969 is silly and saucy. Percy Fletcher's two-movement Folksong and Fiddle Dance from 1914 is instantly delightful. And so it goes on through three more wholly unknown but nevertheless appealing works by three nearly unknown but apparently quite competent composers until the final pièce de résistance, John Ireland's wonderfully witty and fabulously inventive A Dowland Suite.
Sutherland leads the Sinfonia in performances that are polished, professional, and often even enthusiastic, and anyone who loves English String Miniatures should not hesitate, especially in Naxos' cool, dry, clean sound.