Harmonica Concertos (1994)

"The Spivakovsky concerto is a particularly engaging work, with a catchy tune in the first movement (much like a Leroy Anderson encore), another semi-pop romantic melody for its centre-piece and an infectious moto perpetuo finale. Tommy Reilly plays it superbly. Not surprisingly the Malcolm Arnold work, one of this composer's best miniature concertos is very appealing too. The Villa-Lobos, written in 1955, deserves to be much better known. Scored for a small orchestra, it has a neo-classical opening movement which is pastoral in feeling, then produces a quite beautiful melody for the Andante. The finale has a few piquant hints of the composer's usual Brazilian geography. James Moody's A Spanish fantasy offers the soloist a chance to demonstrate his easy bravura. Farnon's characteristically nostalgic Prelude and Dance (a light-hearted yet bittersweet waltz) interweaves both its themes felicitously and calls for more virtuosity and dash, plus a ready response to quicksilver changes of mood." (IM, Gramophone)

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