Recordings

Josef Holbrooke was for a time one of the most talked-about composers in Britain, and then he was not. The music here comes from his later years and draws largely on themes from his earlier successes; his inspiration was almost always literary, which is why so much of his work list reads like a shelf of books. The eight Nocturnes, Op. 121, rework material from his most popular scores and show his gift for a long melodic line. The two Fantasie-Sonatas, Opp. 124 and 128, are substantial late statements — the first closely based on the opening movement of his dramatic choral symphony Homage to E. A. Poe, the second, ‘Destiny', entirely original. The Cambrian Ballade No. 4, Maentrog, opens in the character of a berceuse and closes like a sudden shower of rain.

…Holbrooke can do quite easily and unconsciously what [Richard] Strauss has only done half a dozen times in his career — he can write a big, heartfelt melody that searches us to the very bone…

— Ernest Newman, 1902

Booklet notes by Gareth Vaughan.