John Wilson has done some thrilling recordings for Chandos but he already recorded an Ireland disc with the Hallé before. I confess I was a bit disappointed with his take on Satyricon. The Hickox discs were my first encounter with Ireland in the early 90s. He probably took some licence with the tempo in the middle section of Satyricon but to me this added real romance to the piece. Listening to Wilson his straight approach left me cold. The playing was of course unquestionably great but along with the Chandos acoustics Hickox did it for me. I am tempted to try this new Wilson/Chandos but...
I think it was Boult on Lyrita who first did John Ireland's orchestral works great favours, and his recordings still stand up well (to say that the Piano Concerto was once so hugely popular it's never heard now). My favourite work is
The Forgotten Rite, it reminds me somewhat of Bax at his most mysterious. I may give this new Chandos disc a spin simply because I greatly admire both composer and conductor, but
I wish that he and Chandos would get back to exploring previously-unrecorded British repertoire...
:)
I have recordings by Barbirolli and the Hallé of Mai-Dun and The Forgotten Rite but they date, I think, from the early 1950s and so while they are fine interpretations, the 'fi' is far from 'hi'.
