Vale : A pastoral symphony ; Tristan - still ; Pluen (feather) (2026)

"William Mival describes his foray into romanticism and tonality as ‘provocative’. "Tristan – still" (2003), the earliest work here, could not have more romantic resonances, yet, for all the images and sensations that Wagner’s groundbreaking work conjures – forbidden love, sensuality, thematic organicism – Mival’s symphony in one movement embodies a very different early 20th-century manifestation of these sentiments. "Pluen" is based on a Welsh folk song, but again only splinters of the melody (much like that of "Tristan") are discernible within the hybrid structure of 3 extended variations. The same neo-romantic style is prevalent, though now imbued with rhetorical references to Mahler rather than Wagner. "Vale: A Pastoral Symphony" (2023) builds on the oblique references to Austro-German romanticism in Tristan and Pluen, and is the most ambitious work on this recording. Brabbins and the Philharmonia Orchestra sympathetically capture this elusive, evocative world with subtlety and insight." (Gramophone)