These eight overtures, written between 1887 (Stanford's Prelude to Oedipus tyrannus) and 1934 (Bantock's The Frogs), are from a world too genteel to have trucked with the more adventurous musical developments of their time. You'll find Sullivan without Gilbert (probably unrecognisable to many
G&S fans in Macbeth), plus humorous undertakings by Cowen (The Butterfly's Ball, a Proms favourite with 23 performances between 1901 and 1930), and Balfour Gardiner (Overture to a Comedy). Mackenzie provides national Scottish flavour in The Little Minister and Austin some spray in The Sea Venturers. Coleridge's The Song of Hiawatha (a cantata receiving a partial airing from the NSO in May) was once standard fare. Rumon Gamba presents them all with loving care. url.ie/f1f2 MICHAEL DERVAN