Reginald King had a solidly classical training. His Piano Concerto
was first conducted by no less a figure than Sir Alexander MacKenzie,
and a broadcast recording of his 1945 Fantasy for piano and
orchestra played by Philip Fowke is available on the internet. He
made his reputation almost entirely in the field of light music, conducting
his own orchestra and working for the BBC until his retirement in
1964. Some of his own recordings have been made available in the Golden
Age of Light Music series, and his piano music has been recorded
by both Eric Parkin and Alan Cuckston. Both these latter recordings
are no longer available, so Mark Bebbington’s new collection has the
field entirely to itself.
It is perhaps significant that there have been no modern recordings
of King’s orchestral music, neither by Ronald Corp in his series for
Hyperion nor in any of the Marco Polo/Naxos collections nor in the
ASV series featuring the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Indeed King’s music
may fairly claim to have been neglected in more recent times; and
one suspects that the lack of sheerly catchy melodies may have told
against him, especially when producers came to selecting signature
tunes for television programmes. There is something slightly withdrawn
about his music, a hint of impressionist influence which undermines
the purely popular nature of the ‘light music’ repertoire. This makes
it all the more desirable that an artist like Mark Bebbington has
taken it upon himself to investigate the music.
I have listed the music above which lacks opus numbers -
the assignment of such references itself an earnest of King’s serious
intentions - in the order of composition insofar as I have been able
to ascertain this; one or two of the dates are speculative. The disc
opens with the track Song of Paradise, Reginald King’s ‘signature
tune’ and the piece that gives its title to this recital. It is the
earliest work on this disc, which covers the whole of King’s career
right up to the Meditation written a year before his death.
The booklet gives us a personal appreciation of the composer by Allan
W Hughes as well as an extensive biographical sketch by Robert Matthew-Walker,
but says very little about the music in its own right. That said,
the latter draws our attention to the contrasting developmental passages
in several of these pieces “placing them on a higher level of interest
than the ‘novelty’ numbers of many of King’s contemporaries”.
That indeed proves to be the case. It is not until we get to the Toccatina
which forms the first of the Three miniatures (track 3) that
we encounter something that is indisputably light music in the purely
popular sense. Money spider is definitely in the form of
a ragtime which recalls the music of Scott Joplin (little-known at
the time of composition) or Billy Mayerl – who, it is interesting
to know, admired King’s music. At other times, such as the opening
of Spring meadows (track 13) we are suddenly given a jolt
as King begins in a sternly classical style before remembering that
he is supposed to be writing music for a popular audience. Dreamy
willows (track 20) has a real barnstorming finish, and Passing
clouds (track 21) opens with a passage that comes straight from
Debussy. It has to be said that I found my attention beginning to
wander as one delicately scented piece succeeded another, and there
was nothing in the music which immediately grabbed the attention.
Now if only he could have found a catchy tune such as one finds in
the work of other ‘light music’ composers such as Binge, Haydn Wood
or a number of others one could name. Maybe King’s classical credentials
loomed just too large in his sights to allow him to unbutton fully.
This is not perhaps a disc to be listened to at one sitting. Nevertheless
there is much here to delight and to charm, and one hopes that Bebbington’s
disc will not be allowed to slip into oblivion like its predecessors.
The playing, it need hardly be observed, is excellent throughout and
Bebbington clearly loves the music. He is given an ideal recording,
not too closely observed but not too distant either.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
Track Listing
Three Impressions, Op.3 [4.26]
Humoreske, Op.4/1 [1.57]
Beside the lake, Op.4/2 [2.42]
Three miniatures, Op.8 [3.41]
Song of Paradise (1934) [4.03]
Moonlight Reverie (1935) [4.31]
Passing clouds (1935) [4.09]
Windflowers (1935) [4.29]
Summer breezes (1936) [5.39]
June night on Marlow Reach (1937) [4.31]
In the shade of the palms (1937) [3.50]
A prayer at eventide (1938) [3.02]
Melody at dusk (1938) [4.44]
Pierrette on the balcony (1941) [3.46]
Lilacs in the rain (1942) [5.09]
Spring meadows (1946) [4.52]
Money spider (1955) [2.37]
Dreamy willows (1958) [3.32]
Meditation (1990) [4.31]
