Derek Scott, born in Birmingham in 1950, has an international reputation as an historian of the British music hall and other forms of light entertainment. But he is an outstanding composer in his own right – a master craftsman and natural tunesmith, who manages to unite good humour, unerring technique and deep feeling in music of immediate appeal. Although the works recorded here represent his most recent harvest of orchestral music, for many of them he revisited material composed earlier in his career, using it as the basis for a series of new scores, some exhibiting a very English sense of whimsy, others concerned with deeper matters – one, indeed, inspired by the war in Ukraine. This album has been released with remarkable speed: it was recorded only on 15–18 May this year.

Derek Scott, born in Birmingham in 1950, has an international reputation as an historian of the British music hall and other forms of light entertainment. But he is an outstanding composer in his own right, his music treading a fine line between a very English whimsy and a profoundly felt and natural response to his (often Celtic) subject matter. These works reveal a master craftsman and natural tunesmith, who manages to unite good humour, unerring technique and deep feeling in music of immediate appeal. His two symphonies – originally written for brass band – embody a return to the formal, Classical clarity of Haydn, though expressed with the satisfyingly beefy textures of the modern orchestra. He lists among his influences Shostakovich and Sibelius and, less predictably, The Beatles and The Kinks.

"The 1930s are a particularly notable time for the development of Latvian music. This can be observed in the work of composers of all generations, as well as in music education, concert life, periodicals and the beauty of the Song Festivals. Throughout all these, Pēteris Barisons (1904–1947). is an active and fruitful participant. His dynamic and varied work in one area is particularly noteworthy – that is his rich and bountiful achievement in the field of symphonic music. [..] The symphony confirms both the author’s conceptual ability to transform his own complex intentions into a musically rich, but natural, organic whole, as well as his ability to use the possibilities of the orchestra in varied and rich ways. Today, with its language and message rooted in late romantic traditions, it does not at all sound outdated or anachronistic. No, it offers a universal concept in a natural, organic way, which is effective still in the 21st century." Jānis Torgāns.