Listeners who have followed Dutton's series of recordings of the music of Richard Arnell may be interested in this disc with three of the English composer's lightest-hearted works: the ballets, Punch and the Child, and Harlequin in April, plus the Concerto Capriccioso for violin and orchestra. These are light works compared with the composer's much more substantial symphonies, but the scores are full of eloquence and vivacity. Arnell was one of the more conservative of English modernists -- compared with him,
Vaughan Williams was a wild-eyed serialist -- but he didn't lack either skill or inspiration. In these works, Arnell plies the listener with enchanting tunes, charming harmonies, brilliant colors, infectious rhythms, and buoyant tempos, until resistance is all but futile. Performed by
Martin Yates and the
BBC Concert Orchestra with the same insight and enthusiasm as they've brought to Dutton's other Arnell discs, these readings are uniformly convincing, particularly with violinist
Lorraine McAslan's witty and infectious account of the Concerto Capriccioso.