Few anthologies find room for a symphony; but this one does, and in doing so offers us a very good one, Ives's Third: three gently affectionate movements (for once no jokes, no revolutions) ... it is music of great charm, and given exactly that quality in the continuously eloquent performance of Neville Marriner's Academy... there is also playing of the very first order in Barber's Adagio, with an intensity of string tone at the climax hardly to be believed possible with the number of players likely involved. The Copland is splendid too, trumpet and cor anglais exceptionally well balanced with each other - projecting their solos with a long-lined beauty matching that of the string players. Creston's A Rumour is in a sense a party piece for the orchestra... perhaps in this little piece Creston has produced the record's second triumph of good nature; hardly comparable in scope with the Ives, but an effective one nevertheless. Its performance and recording are of an equal standard to that of the whole disc: impeccable

Marriner's nobly restrained performance with the ASMF, which dates back to 1976, is still unsurpassed. Its climax is absolutely gripping and the remastered Argo recording shows just how good Decca string-sound was in the mid-1970s.

Neville Marriner conducts the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in this wistfully poignant piece, with elegant contributions from Celia Nicklin on cor anglais and Michael Laird on trumpet.