CCMusic.com

Those who think of Malcolm Arnold as the composer of sparkling orchestral music and highly successful film scores will be delighted and perhaps surprised at the feast of smaller-scale treasures on this recording, several of them recorded here for the first time. They span virtually his entire composing life from the early Constant Lambert-inspired 'Overture for Wind Octet' to the enigmatic 'Duo (Divertimento) for Two Clarinets' written after serious mental illness and a number of years of compositional silence. This release follows March's issue of more Arnold Chamber music, the first and second String Quartets, released after the composer's death late last year at the age of 85. All nine symphonies are also already available separately on Naxos.