condition (record/cover): NM / EX- (light creasing)

Three works by Anthony Payne that together constitute one of the best introductions to a composer who worked in admirable independence from the currents of fashion and received more attention for his completion of Elgar's Third Symphony than for a body of original work that fully deserves to stand on its own terms. Phoenix Mass and Paean display the qualities that run consistently through Payne's output: a tonal language rooted in the English choral and orchestral traditions but inflected with the harmonic extensions of the post-war period; a formal sense that is architectural without being mechanical; and an expressive directness that never mistakes complexity for depth.

The World's Winter, for soprano, baritone, and ensemble, brings the same qualities to a more intimate and searching vocal context, the two voices in a relationship of counterpoint and exchange that gives the work its formal identity and its human warmth. The BBC Records pressing documents these works with the authority of the institution whose commitment to British new music during this period was among the most consequential of any broadcaster anywhere. BBC Records, REH 297.