This CD offers just under an hour of agreeable if slightly – well, slight – listening, and as such it might be best thought of as a sampler or calling card for a composer whose major achievements are to be found elsewhere.

This collection of compositions by 15 living composers is perfectly described in an introduction by Paul Hindmarsh of the Royal Northern College of Music as a ‘Garland of tributes to Sir John Manduell.

These remastered recordings are taken from early recordings and film soundtracks. The music ranges from ballets Holst’s The Perfect Fool and Falla’s El Amor Brujo, through incidental music for a play Delius’s Hassan, to films, with well-known music by Vaughan Williams, Walton, and Bliss.