Various Artists - England This England (CD)

Facts This new release is an uplifting collection of moving and wistful orchestral classics which celebrate the English landscape and it's natural beauty. English composers have always excelled at pastoral music with a hint of nostalgia: from 'The lark ascending' to the strains of 'Greensleeves' this evocative selection features some of this pleasant land's finest music. English music-making and composition has long been associated with a reaction to the beautiful and varied rural landscapes of this historic country and is often tinged with nostalgia and a forlorn romanticism. All of the composers on this disc were fascinated by English folk music and many used folk songs as the melodic basis of many of their works. Bax was reflects the subject matter of Tintagel with it's association with King Arthur, Gustav Holst loved the English countryside, having been brought up in Gloucestershire.