BRITISH LIGHT MUSIC DISCOVERIES 3.
Royal Ballet Sinfonia/Barry Wordsworth.
ASV White Label WHL 2128.
A BRITISH LIGHT MUSIC FESTIVAL.
Various orchestras and ensembles.
ASV White Label (2 disc set) CDWLZ 250.
| BRITISH LIGHT MUSIC DISCOVERIES 3 |
A BRITISH LIGHT MUSIC FESTIVAL.
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HRH The Duke of Cambridge March, Sir Malcolm Arnold
Divertissement, Bryan Kelly
Romeo and Juliet, Constant Lambert
Elegiac Blues, Constant Lambert
Three Dances for Orchestra, David Lyon
Promenade, Carlo Martelli
Overture for Farnham, Alan Rawsthorne
Celestial Fire, Patric Standford |
Alan ABBOTT: London Fragments
Sir Malcolm ARNOLD: Sarabande (From "Solitaire")
Robert DOCKER: Commemoration March
Madeleine DRING: Danza Gaya
John DYER: Marche Vive
David FANSHAWE: Fanfare to Planet Earth
Millennium March
Peter HOPE: Irish Legends / Petit Point / Playful Scherzo / Ring of Kerry
Wilfred JOSEPHS: Aeolian Dances / Ecossaise / March Glorious
Bryan KELLY: Comedy Film / Dance Suite
Alan LANGFORD: Petite Promenade
David LYON: Dance Prelude
Max SAUNDERS: Badinage / Kanikani
Ernest TOMLINSON ("Alan Perry"): Cantilena / Lonely Journey
James Oldfield TURNER: Countryside / Passepied Des Enfants
Gilbert VINTER: April Shower / Dance Suite / March Winds / Mayflowers /
Tenderfoot |
| Crotchet
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Crotchet
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Here are two more releases in ASV's series celebrating the best of British
light music which refreshingly get away from the same two dozen or so titles
(welcome as they are) which crop up on so many other British light music
compilations on CD. Although some composers are common to both issues, they
are very different. WHL 2128 offers new recordings by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia
under Barry Wordsworth this time. It begins rousingly with Malcolm Arnold's
HRH The Duke of Cambridge March, orchestrated by Philip Lane. I am
delighted to see two pieces from the 1920s by Constant Lambert, Elegiac
Blues and the 2nd Tableau from the Romeo and Juliet ballet of
1926, brilliantly scored. Another attractively orchestrated work for the
ballet is the suite from Patric Standford's Celestial Fire (1968).
Two miniatures, Alan Rawsthorne's Overture for Farnham (1967), originally
for youth orchestra, and Carlo Martelli's Promenade (1985) are both
most entertaining, as are Bryan Kelly's Divertissement (1969), based
on French folk melodies, and David Lyon's outstandingly tuneful Three
Dances of 1975, are the other items on yet another issue which revives
much eminently worthwhile music in excellent performances, well recorded
and presented.
A British Light Music Festival comprises no fewer than 51 tracks of which
all but three (David Fanshawe's Fanfare to Planet Earth and jaunty
Millennium March, both inspired by the year 2000 and the Sarabande
from Malcolm Arnold's Solitaire ballet) were "library music" recorded
in the 1960s by Mozart Edition (GB) Ltd and are recordings, and in many cases
works, which have never been previously publicly released. It goes without
saying that there is indeed richness here. Bryan Kelly and David Lyon, surely
one of our most ingratiating composers, figure again, Kelly represented by
is pleasantly tangy suites Comedy Film and Dance Suite, Lyon
by his Divertimento and extended Dance Prelude. Peter Hope
is best known as a first-rate arranger and here his suites Ring of Kerry
(its first movement, "Jaunting Car", is quite well known) and Irish
Legend are at least in part inspired by Irish traditional melodies; his
single movements Playful Scherzo and the graceful Petit Point,
are also attractive. Gilbert Vinter, who died over 30 years ago, is represented
by four charming movements for wind instruments and the Song-Dance
for orchestra. Wilfred Josephs, also no longer with us, delights with his
Aeolian Dances - transcriptions of Northumbrian tunes - an
Ecossaise and March Glorious. And so it goes on. all these
tracks have something to commend them. Some are by lesser known figures (one
thinks of the elegant Passepied des Enfants and the gently trotting
Countrywise by James Turner (1905-90), Alan Abbott's London
Fragments, an arrangement of two London tunes, Badinage and
Kanikani by Max Saunders (1903-83), the sprightly March Vive
for strings by John Dyer 1908-86); others are by better known masters of
the light music genre,like Ernest Tomlinson (and his alter ego Alan
Perry), Alan Langford and Robert Docker. Considering the age of most of the
recordings, they sound very well (thought Docker's Commemoration March
comes over rather "boxily") and I have no hesitation in recommending this
collection (over 2½ hours music) to all lovers of tunes.
Philip Scowcroft
