Title: No.5 is mandatory listening. Recording average.
Product review: I've known #5 since a BBC broadcast by the BBC Welsh SO with the late Bryden Thomson in the mid 80's. The opening movement has so much momentum and logical discourse that you wish everyone could hear it. The middle movement has a lot of power but Hughes overdoes the orchestral outburst half way through. The finale has been criticised for being bombastic but I love it, Unfortunately, Hughes doesn't understand this movement and misses the fun and games. The fourth symphony is relatively immature, full of curious choral outburst that don't really work for me. The recording is a little reverberant and the quality of orchestral playing is only average. In the absence of any other recordings of #5 however, this must go down as important listening.
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