Steve Elcock - Orchestral Music, Vol 1

The Guardian 80

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Mann
(Toccata)

Steve Elcock (born 1957) is a phenomenon. With no conservatoire training, but obvious careful study, he has for years been quietly writing music of awesome power and majesty that has gone completely unheralded. Now, championed by the conductor Paul Mann, we can start to savour this extraordinary mind. This first disc features his dark, titanic Third Symphony, its unstoppable energy brilliantly captured by the RLPO. His Choses renversées par le temps ou la destruction pits fragile beauty against brute forces of ignorance, while his Festive Overture is a breathtakingly clever pastiche of Walton and Elgar. A triumphant debut recording.