Cellist Alice Neary's championship of Herbert Howells' three-movement Cello Concerto (now in a performing edition by Jonathan Clinch) and conductor Ronald Corp's own recent Cello Concerto make for a rewarding coupling in the best Dutton Epoch tradition. The Howells, now heard complete for the first time, is a glorious and expansive score from the mid-1930s and the RSNO and Alice Neary rise to its pastoral romanticism and bittersweet half-lights with characteristic brio and understanding. Howells' two atmospheric encores, Merry Eye and Puck's Minuet, complete a fully satisfying programme.

Includes world premiere recordings

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CDLX 7317

“It’s [Howell’s Concerto] a powerful and heartfelt work. Alice Neary’s burnished tone captures its melancholy to perfection without the least show of superfluous sentimentality. Ronald Corp … Cello Concerto ... is indeed a work that is surely going to attract many in the future , with its haunting second movement especially appealing.” “Corp the conductor is a past master in this repertoire. [Puck’s Minuet and Merry-Eye]” Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone, June 2015

“… soloist Alice Neary’s skill is not to over-playing her hand too early … Her mellow, elegiac tone suits perfectly the central ‘Threnody’.” Terry Blain, BBC Music Magazine