Ernest Moeran

Ernest Moeran, born in 1894 to an Irish clergyman father and raised in England, spent his happiest hours outdoors. As a young man he cycled around Norfolk collecting folk songs from singers in village pubs, and that melodic world colored everything he later wrote. He served in the First World War and was wounded, and his life afterward was unsettled, marked by heavy drinking.

He worked slowly and left a small catalogue, mostly orchestral music and songs, shaped by both the English countryside and the west of Ireland, where he spent long periods in the town of Kenmare, County Kerry. His Symphony in G minor, finished in 1937 after years of struggle, is his largest achievement. He died at Kenmare in 1950, collapsing on the pier.

Start with that Symphony in G minor, windswept music that earns its stormy stretches. The compact, cheerful Sinfonietta makes a good follow-up.