BBC Symphony Orchestra - Anthony Payne: Visions and Journeys (2024)

Days before his sudden death in 2021, composer Anthony Payne spoke with NMC's Founder and Executive Producer Colin Matthews about plans for a future album of his unreleased orchestral works. Thanks to the generous support of individuals including many of Payne's friends and colleagues, NMC is pleased to be able to pay tribute to Payne and his close relationship with the BBC Symphony Orchestra through the release of this new album, Visions and Journeys.

Among the remarkable generation of British composers born in the 1930s, Payne is probably best known for his masterful realistion of the sketches Edward Elgar left behind for an unfinished Third Symphony. Recorded by the BBC Symphony Orchestra for release by NMC in 1998, and described by The Times as “a landmark in the history of British music,” this work quickly became NMC's best-selling album of all time (a title it holds to this day).

"For a time its huge success dominated his life, and he found it unexpectedly difficult to return to his own music," recalls Colin Matthews. "Visions and Journeys, completed in 2002, marked his return to large-scale composition". Here, a BBC Proms recording of the album's title work, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, is paired with exceptional studio recordings of two other works, again played by the BBCSO, this time conducted by Martyn Brabbins.

In the programme note for The Seeds Long Hidden (1992-94), Payne details the transcendental feeling he experienced when hearing Brahms' First Symphony for the first time as a child. In this set of Orchestral Variations, he charts this important moment in his musical life, as well as several "other formative encounters with composers who have helped to shape my view of things."

Payne describes Half-Heard in the Stillness (1987) as a tone poem, which "somehow draws together the sonorous 'objets trouvés' which float into the mind during intense contemplation of a still landscape".

A vital part of NMC's work is to provide a platform for works of the giants of the twentieth century which have not yet been released. We are pleased to be releasing this album during our 35th Anniversary year, and are grateful to all who have made this important project possible.