Bax, Vaughan Williams, Holland, Harvey: Viola Musi

Roger Chase (viola), BBC Concert Orchestra, Stephen Bell, Richard Harvey

Bax: Phantasy; Holland: Ellingham Marshes; Vaughan Williams: Suite for Viola & Small Orchestra; Harvey: Reflections for Viola & Small Orchestra

In his third recording for Dutton, celebrated violist Roger Chase again presents repertoire associated with the great Lionel Tertis, played on Tertis's own Montagnana viola. The Bax Phantasy is the highlight, with its lyrical slow movement based on lovely Irish folk song. Vaughan Williams's eight-movement Suite for Viola and Orchestra, too, has elements of folksong, this time English, and is both virtuosic and catchy. Theodore Holland was a friend of Bax at the Royal Academy of Music. A remarkable discovery, his substantial tone poem Ellingham Marshes is a wartime musical picture of the dreamy and wistful atmosphere of the Suffolk marshes. The program is completed by Richard Harvey's Reflections, a four-movement score in today's most approachable idiom.

Price: $24.98