Couple dancing in between around all the other couples getting whiffs of their perfumes colognes, worlds different happiness York Bowen's Symphony No. 1, written in 1902 at the age of 18 is a remarkably assured, elegant piece subtly endowed with stylistic trappings of the 17th to 18th centuries. In the opening movement, melodic turns of phrase, cadential gestures and ornaments of an earlier era mingle with occasional late-romantic harmonies and the sound of a modern orchestra giving the music an overall effect similar to 20th century neo-classic orchestrations of Baroque and Classical era works, such as Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances. Of a gentle nature, the music impresses with its lyrical, polished refinement and seems to stem more from Elgar's romanticism than Vaughan Williams' modal expressions.
The Symphony No. 2 from 1909 is a larger scaled, more dramatic work with many effective moments and gorgeous orchestration, particularly the brass writing. The score glows with beautiful horn harmonies and an opulent richness of texture not unlike the orchestral music of Bowen's classmate Arnold Bax. The dramatic opening movement is attention getting. The slow movement contains a marvelous effect, achieve by richly divided strings, of suddenly opening up new vistas in sound and the Scherzo has a magical, glittering 'Mendelssohn meets the Firebird' quality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQKpZqDACVY
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