These symphonies, arguably Alwyn"s best, comport themselves through various impulses of modernism, never going too far afield in their search for the necessary expression of ideas. You can almost hear the composer glancing nervously over his shoulder at the specters of Vaughan Williams and perhaps Delius, ever alert to any wayward expression of Romanticism. If anything, Alwyn takes many of his dramatic turns of phrase from Vaughan Williams" turbulent and very uncharacteristic Symphony 4. Also in the Third are occasional homages to Holst, especially in the last movement. Symphony 2 and 3, though, are clear masterpieces and belong in any library of 20th-century British music. --Paul Cook