HOLST. Lyric Movement for viola and small orchestrat. Brook Green Suite for strings. Nocturne for strings. Fugal Concerto for flute, oboe and strings*. St. Paul's Suite. English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Imogen Hoist. Item marked t with Cecil Aronowitz (viola), item marked * with William Bennett (flute), Peter Graerne (oboe). Lyrita RCS34 0 SRCS34 (12 in., 40s. 7d. incl. PT).

The St. Paul's Suite used to be recorded quite often in the days of 78s when string orchestras played a larger part in our musical life than they do today, and there's usually been a version in the Classical Record Catalogue. None of the other works on this disc appears to have enjoyed an LP recording before.

In her sleeve-note Imogen Ho1st describes the Lyric Movement for viola solo and small orchestra as "one of the best and least-known of my father's works". He wrote it in the last year of his life, and it might have been better known had he added movements before and after and so built it up into a full-length concerto. There is not much demand for ten-minute movements of this nature, and more's the pity, for this is without doubt a masterpiece. Though the music is in the austere style of Hoist's last years, there is a warmth, indeed a lyricism about it that make response easy and rewarding. Nothing else on the disc reaches this level, though the Fugal Concerto is engaging and very well worth hearing. As Miss Hoist points out, the composer was achieving the neo-classical style of the 1920s before Stravinsky had begun to exploit it. The slow movement is especially Bach-like, at least at the start. I'm not sure that the sudden intrusion of "If All the world were