Granville Bantock orchestral works featured in new recording

A new recording by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rumon Gamba and released via Chandos, highlights the orchestral works of Granville Bantock. The collection includes the Hebridean Symphony, Prelude to ‘The Bacchae’ of Euripides, and English Scenes.

Bantock, born in London in 1868, was a significant figure in British music who served as the first Principal of the Birmingham and Midland Institute School of Music and later as the Peyton Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham. His musical style was characterized by a blend of Wagnerian romanticism, English and Scottish folk music, and Eastern influences. He was highly regarded by contemporaries, with Edward Elgar describing him as ‘the most fertile musical brain of our time’ and Jean Sibelius serving as the first president of a society established in his memory.