Lawrence Power/BBC NOW

Vaughan Williams: Suite For Viola And Small Orchestra etc

(Hyperion)

IT'S only two-and-a-half weeks since I sat in the City Hall, completely entranced by the great viola player Lawrence Power's beautiful and mellow playing in Ralph Vaughan Williams's Suite For Viola And Small Orchestra, with Martyn Brabbins and the BBC SSO wrapping the loveliest and lightest of accompaniments around this gorgeous and fascinatingly structured piece. Here it is now, again with Power as soloist and Brabbins the conductor, but with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. I can't stop listening to it, and there's more to it than some (who feel the composer should have written instead a "proper" viola concerto) seem to perceive.

Michael Tumelty