This disc marks the sixth issue in Hyperion's trail-blazing belief in the robust romanticism and musical energies of Bantock. This is music of power and immediacy, inspiration and technical invention that have an often epic dimension.

Bantock came from an affluent background and began training as a chemical engineer, but there was no stopping his musical talent. The Wilderness and the Solitary Place is part of one of no fewer than ten segments of a massive Festival Symphony based on the life of Christ, a score completed in 1901 that runs to over 700 pages. The settings from The Song of Songs, constructed as a drama, were perhaps too epic to have frequent performances, and we have world premiere recordings on this present release.

All the works on this disc offer perfect examples of that heady brew of eroticism and religion that boiled over in the early 1900s, once again expertly championed by Vernon Handley and the RPO.

All of the music on this album is also available as part of the specially priced box set Bantock: Orchestral Music: ‘What an achievement! Bantock's lavish romanticism is superbly served by both artists and recording team. Discovery after discovery’ (MusicWeb International).