When I reviewed Naxos’s
first volume of original Ketèlbey recordings last year I
observed, "Here is some of the first original film music, written
for accompanying action on the silent screen. It is unashamedly unrestrained
and sentimental and melodramatic. Albert Ketèlbey acknowledged
a growing need for mood music to accompany the flickering images and
he responded by writing accessible atmospheric and dramatic music that
was within the grasp of the average cinema pianists yet thrilled our
grandparents."
Here is another sampling of the sort of OTT music that
would have been heard in theatres before the advent of the talkies,
pieces like: In a Persian Market, In the Mystic Land
of Egypt and In a Monastery Garden.
This second collection of historic recordings has all
the excesses we associate with the period: the purple OTT bravura and
portmanteau indulgences, the sentimental slurs - take the sweet, quasi-religious
Sanctuary of the Heart, for instance, sung here by Nellie Wallace
wringing out all its emotional intensity. Yet, there is an impressive
role call of famous artists of the day in this collection. The great
Australian bass/baritone, Peter Dawson sings The Sacred Hour,
another méditation réligieuse; Dennis Noble sings
In the Mystic Land of Egypt, and the popular violinist, Albert
Sandler, with Ketèlbey himself, plays another colourful evocation,
Algerian Scene. Bass, Robert Easton, is featured in Ketèlbey’s
little-known fantasy on popular Christmas music, A Dream of Christmas.
The composer's concert orchestra conducted by Ketèlbey play the
sentimental Bells Across the Meadows and another more obscure
composition, the coy In a Fairy Realm written in three treacly
movements ‘The Moonlit Glade’, a fluttery, twee waltz, ‘The Queen-Fairy
Dances’ and ‘The Gnomes’ March’. Two more fluffy items are sung by twittering
soprano Florence Smithson in old-world affectedness accompanied by Ketèlbey
and his orchestra: Fairy Butterfly and the precious King Cupid.
Ketèlbey moves to the piano as well as directing the orchestra
playing his charming Wedgwood Blue
Another portion of nostalgic period charm for those
with a very sweet tooth. Not quite as appetising as Volume 1 but still
perfectly attuned to the world of the silents.
Ian Lace
Various orchestras conducted
by the Composer, Ray Noble, Charles Prentice and Henry Geehl