Mimi Ezust asked:

>Would someone tell me about this work, please.  How long is it? What
>are some good recordings? Is it scored for full orchestra? What
>does it sound like? If it is on a cd with other pieces, what are they?

Egdon Heath is a strangely unsettling work inspired by Thomas Hardy.  It
starts and ends quietly with a more agitated central section.  The general
"feel" is like Saturn from The Planets or the last movement of Vaughan
Williams' 6th.  There's also a trumpet figure that reminds me of the
opening of Schmidt's 4th.  It's not an easy work to love but it grows
on you.  Holst thought it his best.

I know three recordings - Sir Adrian Boult (Decca, not sure of CD
couplings, I know it from LP), Richard Hickox (Chandos, with the Fugal
Overture, Somerset Rhapsody, Scherzo, Hammersmith and Capriccio), and David
Lloyd-Jones (Naxos, with Somerset Rhapsody, Fugal Overture, Hammersmith,
Invocation for Cello and Orchestra and Beni-Mora).  It is scored for full
orchestra.  The Boult and Lloyd-Jones versions each run about 12:30, the
Hickox about 16:30.  I usually find Hickox to my liking but I think he's
miscalculated this time - it's just too slow.  The Lloyd-Jones has the
advantage of the comparatively rare Invocation and Beni-Mora, about 12'
more of music on the CD and, of course, a better price.  His recordings for
Naxos of English music have generally found favour and, IMHO, rightly so.

Richard Pennycuick
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