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.

Edward Gregson, 75 last year, is one of those rarities among composers of his generation in that throughout his career he has not abandoned tonality or melody and still developed an international reputation.

In his introductory note to the first piece on the CD, pianist Duncan Honeybourne writes regarding the music of Cummings-Knight that it is ‘Always steeped in his musical inheritance and the example of composers he loves’.

The mysterious and chilling Peter Grimes haunts us all. Benjamin Britten’s anti-hero has become one of British music’s most complex figures in opera.

This is a disc of English songs with a strong bias towards settings of A.E. Housman.