The final volume of Percy Grainger’s complete music for wind band once again respects his precise instrumental demands in pieces that span the breadth of his career, from his first large work in the genre, The Lads of Wamphray March, to The Power of Rome and the Christian Heart, his largest such work and one of his last. Also to be heard are A Lincolnshire Posy, one of the genre’s most famous and beautiful works; The Immovable Do, which contains ‘the most long-held pedal note in all music’; and the revolutionary Hill-Song No.1, which Grainger considered the greatest of all his compositions.

All the scores in this series follow to the letter Grainger’s specific instructions as to the instrumentation.

The Royal Norwegian Navy Band have starred for Naxos before, not least on some Sousa discs, volume 9 of which series (8559396) about which American Record Guide wrote: “Here is another excellent recording … the enthusiastic playing is always tasteful, never bombastic… The Royal Norwegian Navy Band sounds terrific.”

Another disc to be promoted is a recording of Geirr Tveitt’s music on 8572095 played by the band with the conductor of this Grainger disc, Bjarte Engeset – it received rave reviews; American Record Guide wrote: “This fascinating and dramatic music, played by an outstanding band, makes for an hour of terrific listening.”