While Malcolm Arnold achieved fame and popularity with his light concert music and film scores, his nine symphonies are likely to be his most enduring legacy. Despite their internal eclecticism and the seeming lack of any stylistic continuity between them, the symphonies are Arnold's most serious and personal works, and they challenge listeners with their restless probing into darker expressions. Richard Hickox and the London Symphony Orchestra recorded the first six symphonies for Chandos between 1993 and 1995, and Rumon ...
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While Malcolm Arnold achieved fame and popularity with his light concert music and film scores, his nine symphonies are likely to be his most enduring legacy. Despite their internal eclecticism and the seeming lack of any stylistic continuity between them, the symphonies are Arnold's most serious and personal works, and they challenge listeners with their restless probing into darker expressions. Richard Hickox and the London Symphony Orchestra recorded the first six symphonies for Chandos between 1993 and 1995, and Rumon Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic completed the cycle with the last three in 2001. This 2015 box set presents the recordings on four CDs, and the symphonies are presented in numerical order except for the placement of the Eighth Symphony on disc 3 to save space. Because recordings of Arnold's symphonies only appear sporadically, this complete set is strongly recommended for the convenience of having them all in one package. ~ Blair Sanderson, Rovi
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