Steve Schwartz:

>One can easily imagine both works played much better.  The recording
>does Benjamin little good, unfortunately.  We will have to wait for
>another.

An earlier version of the symphony, also with the Queensland Symphony
but conducted by Patrick Thomas is, IMO, a far better performance but
was never released commercially.  Marco Polo has been known to use
Australian Broadcasting Corporation in-house tapes on other occasions
but for some reason, not this time.  Vernon Handley or David Lloyd-Jones
would be the man for a new recording.

I recommend a Chandos CD containing Symphony 1940 by the Australian
Hubert Clifford and Symphony #2 by Edgar Bainton, a British composer who
spent much of his life in Australia.  These have the same appeal for me
as the Bax symphonies, and are the sorts of performances in which the
Benjamin would shine.

Richard Pennycuick
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