The fifth volume of John Wilson’s series of orchestral works by his mentor and friend Sir Richard Rodney Bennett features three works composed between 1973 and 1989. The Concerto for Orchestra is an homage to Benjamin Britten, taking a twelve-note series used by Britten in his Cantata Academica as an abstract musical starting point. Bennett’s rarely performed cello concerto Sonnets to Orpheus is performed here by Norwegian cellist Jonathan Aasgaard, principal cello of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Sinfonia of London. It was written at a crisis point in the composer’s life, as Bennett split with his partner and left the UK for New York, where he would spend the rest of his life.

Diversions was commissioned to celebrate the tercentenary of the Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys Schools in North London. It was first played by the combined orchestras of all seven schools at a celebratory concert in the Royal Festival Hall. The work is a colorful set of symphonic variations on the Scottish folksong “Whistle and I’ll come to you, my lad.”