• 2(pic)222/2200/timp.perc/str
  • 24 min

Programme Note

I. Allegro con brio
II. Tema con variazoni
III. Allegro risoluto

The Sinfonietta, dedicated to Arthur Bliss, was composed largely in Radnorshire in 1944, both in the studio Moeran made in the house at Kington which had been his father's retirement home (until his death in 1943) and during walks over the surrounding Welsh hills.

This is a new-classical work in its scoring, using only two horns, two trumpets and no trombones. The music especially in the outer movements, is charged with tremendous rhythmic energy (a hint of Portsmouth Point at the start of the final Allegro?), the sense of urgency being increased by a harmonic idiom which leans towards the bitonal. But the lyrical Celtic strains of Moeran's musical personality are never far away, (witness the rich, folklike character of the second subject of the opening Allegro and the long melodic threads woven in the variations of the second movement).

© Robert Gower

Media

Moeran: Sinfonietta: I. Allegro con brio
Moeran: Sinfonietta: II. Tema con variazioni
Moeran: Sinfonietta: III. Allegro risoluto

Discography

Moeran: Cello Concerto | Sinfonietta

Moeran: Cello Concerto | Sinfonietta
  • Label
    Chandos
  • Catalogue Number
    CHAN8456
  • Conductor
    Norman Del Mar
  • Ensemble
    Bournemouth Sinfonietta
  • Soloist
    Raphael Wallfisch, cello
  • Released
    1st September 2013

Moeran: Sinfonietta et al

Moeran: Sinfonietta et al
  • Label
    Lyrita
  • Catalogue Number
    SRCD247
  • Conductor
    Adrian Boult
  • Ensemble
    New Philharmonia Orchestra / London Philharmonic Orchestra / London Philharmonic Orchestra
  • Released
    1st February 2007

Moeran: Symphony in G minor | Sinfonietta

Moeran: Symphony in G minor | Sinfonietta
  • Label
    Naxos
  • Catalogue Number
    8555837
  • Conductor
    David Lloyd-Jones
  • Ensemble
    Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
  • Released
    2002