I would rate Bartok's Cantata Profana (The Nine Enchanted Stags) pretty
highly too, non-British though it is. But you may have a point. I think
Michael Tippet just missed greatness a couple of times. A Child of Our
Times can be intensely moving, for example, but there's a fair bit of
mawkishness to get past.
Richard, who invites you to visit his music, outdoors and other WWW sites at:
http://infoweb.magi.com/~richard/