The lyrical Second Symphony is haunted by a restless melancholy... yet the result is in no way depressing. Chamber Symphony No.2 is a relatively late work and although it is freely rhapsodic, the mood is more positive and often songful... The nostalgic feeling returns in the central movement, but the atmosphere darkens in the long drawn finale which reaches a passionately plangent climax before it's quietly resigned coda with a single tympani stroke resolution... both played with great eloquence and warmly and naturally recorded. (Penguin Guide 3 stars)
