Music and Vinyl: Walter Leigh

Walter Leigh (1905-1942) was a British composer who studied composition at Cambridge with Cyril Rootham (whose splendid 1st Symphony can be found here) before going to Berlin to study with Paul Hindemith. His overture Agincourt featured recently here as part of an anthology, but this Lyrita disc is totally dedicated to Leigh's music and includes his well-known (in relative terms) Concertino for Harpsichord and Music For Strings - a short work, but one able to hold its own against for example, Holst's St Paul's Suite. Stylistically these are neo-classical (or neo-baroque maybe), and the Suite from his music to a German schools' production of a Midsummer Night's Dream (in Weimar in 1936) brings to mind Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances.

Five years after being in Weimar Germany Leigh enlisted in the British Army and was killed in action in 1942 in North Africa.

The comprehensive sleeve notes for this album can be read by clicking on the scan below.