R Still

Quintet'. Viola Sonata No A A Song of Pain and Beautyc. From Ode to a

Skylark, 'Hail to thee, blithe spirit! c. The Kingfisher'. When I am dead, my dearest'. Sister Awake!'. Song of the Sirens'. Sonnet, 'Bright Stard. August'. Beauty Bathingd. Awaiting Executiond. ToJulia'. Sunset on the Moread. The sea hath many thousand sand se. Shall I, wasting in despair?1 'Heather Harper, eJessiCa Cash sops John Carol Case, Gordon Clinton bars aGeoffrey Gilbert, aGeorge Crozier, 'Lionel Solomonfls 'Jean Pougnet vn bFrederick Riddle va aFdsCO Gabarro vc bEdc Harrison, cdejohn Russell pft Ismeron mono ® JMSCD8 (72' • ADD • T) An enterprising tribute to an unjustly forgotten figure

London-born Robert Still (1910-71) originally studied History and French at Oxford before switching to Music and studying under Gordon Jacob at the RCM. After a spell teaching at Eton, he was conscripted in 1940, becoming conductor, arranger and composer of the Royal Artillery's travelling orchestra (other colleagues performing music to the troops included Cecil Aronowitz and Manoug Parikian). After the war, Still settled in Berkshire and penned a stream of civilised and sensitive compositions (many unpublished), one of which, his Third Symphony, was submitted for a Doctorate of Music from Oxford University in 1963. A much-loved teacher, the self-effacing Still was only 60 when he suffered a fatal heart attack.

As you can see from the line-up of artists, Still's music by no means lacked high-class advocacy, so it's a shame that the transfers of these mono tapes from the 1950s (both the Quintet and Sonata originally appeared on the fledgling Argo label) are uneven to say the least. In the two purely instrumental offerings background noise has been completely banished but at the expense of truthfulness of timbre (the discoloration at the start of the Quintet beggars belief). Fortunately the very fine songs fall rather more gratefully on the ear (the idiom here is altogether less astringent, more generously lyrical) and presentation is beyond reproach, with full texts as well as knowledgeable and informative annotations from Deryck Cooke and the composer's widow Elizabeth. Who knows, perhaps one day Lyrita might be persuaded to disinter its trusty recordings of Still's Third and Fourth symphonies under Sir Eugene Goossens and Myer Fredman respectively. Andrew Achenbacli