CD: Milford: Piano Music and Songs

Robin Milford (1903-1959) belonged to the line of English composers who followed in the footsteps of Finzi and especially Vaughan Williams, who along with Holst was one of Milford's teachers at the Royal College of Music. Milford's music, however, was much less sophisticated than that of either of his contemporaries, remaining far closer to its folk-song roots, and hardly attempting the leap from the vernacular to art music that Vaughan Williams in particular made so convincingly. Alongside someone such as Finzi, too, Milford's songs seem almost naively straightforward. Listening to this collection, in which simplistic piano music is mingled with settings of Hardy, Blake and Robert Bridges, it's hard to pin down Milford's style, which often seems as if it has been deliberately simplified to make the music accessible to amateur performers. Like every release from Toccata, Like every release from Toccata, the disc comes with copious sleeve notes championing Milford's cause. But this disc hardly supports their case.