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Alan Rawsthorne was born in Lancashire in 1905 and originally was persuaded by his parents to become a dentist, though soon found that he disliked the profession. ‘I gave that up, thank God, before getting near anyone’s mouth’, he said later and his friend Constant Lambert remarked, ‘Mr Rawsthorne assures me that he has given up the practice of dentistry, even as a hobby.’ He studied instead with the great pianist, Egon Petri, and obtained a teaching post in one of England’s specialist music schools at Dartington Hall. His first composition to gain significant recognition, the ‘Theme and Variations for two violins’, did not appear until he was 33. The following year he had a most successful first performance of his Symphonic Studies at the International Society of Contemporary Music held in Warsaw. He volunteered for the army during the Second World War but continued writing, and in 1942 his First Piano Concerto was performed at a Promenade Concert in London’s Royal Albert Hall. Two years later there was to follow the work that cemented popular acclaim, the insouciant ‘Street Corner’ Overture, with its affectionate view of London. He went on to write background music very successfully for films, many with a message of hope, and his 26 film scores included The Cruel Sea, The Captive Heart, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, and The Man Who Never Was. He only lived to the age of 66, and apart from film work his output was modest, though it included symphonies, a number of concertos for a wide range of instruments, chamber and choral works. He remained a very personal composer and was never a popular figure within the British music ‘establishment’.

‘Rawsthorne and Other Rarities’ is in a way a sequel to ‘A Garland for John McCabe’ (Divine Art DDA 25166). Originally intended as the second disc in that set, the project grew to be an album in its own right, and is dedicated to the memory of the late McCabe with first recordings of works by his fellow composers. It’s a feast of fine music by British and American composers Arthur Bliss, Basil Deane, David Ellis, Donald Waxman, Halsey Stevens, Karel Janovicky, Malcolm Lipkin and Ralph Vaughan Williams. All (except one short track) are here recorded for the first time, including Alan Rawsthorne’s unknown early and jolly String Quartet in B minor, his 1939 Chamber Cantata, and the piano version of his witty and entertaining ‘Practical Cats’ arranged by Peter Dickinson, which outshines Andrew Lloyd Webber’s settings of the same T.S Eliot poems. Clare Wilkinson is receiving rave reviews for her work and is a mezzo with beautiful tone; veteran baritone Mark Rowlinson is the fine reciter of ‘Cats’. Leading recorder player John Turner and highly regarded pianist Peter Lawson are joined by keyboard maestro Harvey Davies and the excellent Solem Quartet.