Great Christmas Classics
Leroy ANDERSON (1908 - 1975)
Christmas Festival (1950) [7:05]
Sleigh Ride (1948) [3:14]
Iain SUTHERLAND (b.1938)
Copenhagen Carnival [2:58]
Peter Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840
- 1893) Suite: The Nutcracker, op.71a (1891) [18:01]
John IRELAND (1879 - 1961)
The Holy Boy (1913 - 1941) [3:03]
Johann STRAUSS II (1825 - 1899)
Champagne Polka, op.211 [2:19]
Leroy ANDERSON Song of the
Bells (1952) [3:28]
J S BACH (1685 - 1750)/Charles
GOUNOD (1818 - 1893) Ave Maria [4:50]
Sergei PROKOFIEV (1891 - 1953)
Troika (Lt Kij-, op.60 (1933)) [2:59]
Eric COATES (1887 - 1956) The
Three Bears (1926) [9:45]
Iain SUTHERLAND Amazing
Grace Anthem [3:01]
City of Glasgow Philharmonic Orchestra, Iain Sutherland
Recording details not given DDD
REL/RIVER RECORDS RECD 564 [61:06]
Great Scottish Classics
Iain SUTHERLAND (b.1938)
Fanfare for St Andrew's Night [0:33]
The Black Bear Salute [3:43]
Robert DOCKER (1918 - 1992)
Abbey Craig [2:48]
Arthur BLAKE Take the High
Road (the STV theme) [3:01]
Iain SUTHERLAND Amazing
Grace Anthem [3:09]
Granville BANTOCK (1868 - 1946)
Kishmul's Galley (Heroic Ballad) [4:35]
George McIIWHAM Alba: Fanfare
Salute [7:35]
Kenneth J ALFORD (1881 - 1945)
The Thin Red Line (Regimental March of the Argyll and Sutherland
Highlanders) (1908) [2:48]
Ernest TOMLINSON (b.1924)
Cumberland Square [3:13]
Iain SUTHERLAND Dunvegan
Castle [3:45]
Robert FARNON (1917 - 2005)
From the Highlands [9:17]
Hamish MacCUNN (1868 - 1916)
The Land of the Mountain and the Flood, op.3 (1886) (Sutherland's
Law title theme) - arranged by Iain
SUTHERLAND [3:48]
Robert DOCKER Fairy Dance
Reel [2:42]
Alexander C MacKENZIE (1847
- 1935) Benedictus, op.37/3 (1888) [7:12]
Ian WHYTE (1901 - 1961)
Devil's Finale/Reel O-Tulloch [6:14]
City of Glasgow Philharmonic Orchestra, Iain Sutherland
Recording details not given DDD
REL/RIVER RECORDS RECD 563 [64:51]
Great Viennese Classics
Richard HEUBERGER (1850 - 1914)
Overture: The Opera Ball (1898) [7:48]
Johann STRAUSS I (1804 - 1849)
Radetsky March, op.228 (1848) [3:04]
Eduard STRAUSS (1835 - 1916)
Anvil Polka [3:01]
Johann STRAUSS II (1825 - 1899)
Overture: Die Fledermaus (1874) [9:04]
Josef STRAUSS (1827 - 1870)
Chatterbox Polka, op.245 (1868) [3:04]
Josef and
Johann STRAUSS II Pizzicato Polka (-) [2:19]
Johann STRAUSS II Champagne
Polka, op.211 [2:19]
Eduard STRAUSS Clear Track
Polka, op.45 [2:03]
Josef STRAUSS The Dragonfly,
Polka/Mazurka, op.204 (1866) [4:16]
Johann STRAUSS II Trisch
Trasch Polka, op.214 (1858) [2:48]
Salute the Magyars Polka, op.332 [2:22]
Thunder and Lightening Polka, op.324 (1868) [3:10]
Bandit Galop, op.378 (1877) [2:58]
Perpetuum Mobile, op.257 [3:04]
Blue Danube Waltz, op.314 (1867) [10:21]
City of Glasgow Philharmonic Orchestra, Iain Sutherland
Recording details not given DDD
REL/RIVER RECORDS RECD 565 [66:13]
Great Irish Classics
Leroy ANDERSON (1908 - 1975)
Irish Suite (1947/1949) [7:07]
Peter HOPE (b.1930) Jaunting
Car (Ring of Kerry Suite) (1961) [2:24]
Percy GRAINGER (1882 - 1961)
Molly on the Shore (1907/1914) [4:05]
Hamilton HARTY (1879 - 1941)
The Fair Day (An Irish Symphony) [3:25]
Peter HOPE The Lark in the
Clear Air [3:16]
Leroy ANDERSON Horse and
Buggy (1951) [4:05]
Percy GRAINGER Shepherd's
Hey (1908/1909 - 1913) [2:02]
Peter HOPE Cockles and Mussels
[4:17]
J S BACH (1685 - 1750)/Charles
GOUNOD (1818 - 1893) Ave Maria [4:50]
Peter HOPE Killorgan Fair
(Ring of Kerry Suite) (1961) [3:07]
Leroy ANDERSON Chicken Reel
(1946) [3:09]
Peter HOPE Lilliburlero
[3:20]
Shaun DAVEY (b.1948) Reel
- Briochan and Columba (The Pilgrim) (1983) [2:58]
City of Glasgow Philharmonic Orchestra, Iain Sutherland
Recording details not given DDD
REL/RIVER RECORDS RECD 566 [58:38]
These disks derive from the Pops At The Philharmonic concerts
held in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall which were given by the
City of Glasgow Philharmonic and they represent, if I may quote
a well known figure from nearby Edinburgh, the créme de la
créme of those live shows. They consist of some teriffic
light music, are intelligently planned, and they complement,
perfectly, all other series of light music recordings which
have appeared over the past few years - both new and re-issues.
Leroy Anderson's Christmas Festival (is there any event
that he didn't write a piece for?) makes a good start for this
carnival of Christmas music but the following Sleigh Ride
is better and, in this performance, the appearance of stride
trombones is utterly hilarious. His Song of the Bells
is a waltz in the modern manner, with a bit of naughty swing
in the middle of the kind you'd expect from Alec Wilder!
Sutherland's own Copenhagen Carnival is a marvellous
piece of whimsy and it's good to hear The Nutcracker Suite
in this context for it fits perfectly and seems all the more
charming because of it. Ireland's The Holy Boy isn't
the kind of piece which would immediately spring to mind for
this kind of concert but it's lovely to hear it in a no-nonsense,
unsentimental way, and to follow it with Strauss's Champagne
Polka, shows the sacred and profane sitting side by side
in perfect harmony!
It's a great delight to welcome Eric Coates's Fantasy The
Three Bears into this collection, for it is not one of his
best known works and one wonders why. Starting with a musical
phrase which represents the words -who's been sleeping in my
bed-- the composer builds a movement which is occasionally reminiscent
of his younger contemporary Constant Lambert, but none the worse
for that, and is generally racy and fun.
For the rest Ave Maria and the Amazing Grace Anthem
appear elsewhere, but their charm cannot be denied here, and
the ever popular Troika really makes its mark. A delightful
stocking filler which can be enjoyed the year round.
The Great Scottish Classics album starts with a brief
fanfare by the conductor which is followed by an exciting arrangement
of The Black Bear Salute, complete with pipes. This is
very exhilarating. Sutherland's Amazing Grace Anthem
uses massed pipes and orchestra. I assume that this tune has
been granted a Scottish connection because it was made into
a number 1 hit in 1972, by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards -
it sold over 7,000,000 copies and was awarded a gold disc. Sutherland's
original composition Dunvegan Castle is an imposing musical
picture, full of longing and wistfulness.
Sutherland's Law was a TV series, made by BBC Scotland,
which ran from 1973 to 1976 and it used an excerpt from Hamish
MacCunn's marvellous Overture, The Land of the Mountain and
the Flood as its title theme. I wonder if this is where
this lovely work's popularity started. Here we have an arrangement,
by Sutherland, of the second subject of the work, what a tune
it is!, and despite being a mere moment from the complete work,
it retains all the verve and liveliness of the complete piece.
Robert Docker was a Londoner but here, in Abbey Craig
he supplies a brilliant reel, and the Fairy Dance Reel continues
the revelry. This is what light music is all about! Arthur Blake's
theme for the TV series Take the High Road (it ran on
national TV from 1980 to 1993 and a further 10 years on Scottish
Television) is a lovely piece of Celtic nostalgia. Granville
Bantock's Kishmul's Galley (Heroic Ballad) is
a strangely subdued affair, but it's good to have it here, as
a sobering influence in the midst of much good natured music.
George Mcllwham's Alba: Fanfare Salute is a romp
with solo for pipes in the middle - the composer is a well known
piper himself - and it turns out to be a rather good tone poem.
Kenneth Alford's The Thin Red Line was written when the
composer was made Bandmaster to the Band of the 2nd Battalion
of the Argyyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The colonel asked
for a new regimental march and Alford responded with this piece,
based on two bars of the regiment's bugle call. It sounds well
in its full orchestral clothing. For all fans of light music,
the name of Ernest Tomlinson will always feature as the doyen
of the genre. Cumberland Square is a brilliantly conceived
and executed miniature tone poem.
Robert Farnon's From the Highlands is a gambol through
several well known Scottish tunes - Comin- Through the Rye,
My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose, The Bonnie Banks
o' Loch Lomond (these two providing a wistfulness to counter
the boisterous outer sections) and The Keel Row (Northumbrian,
but so what?) to name but a few. It's brilliantly orchestrated
and constructed, as you'd expect with this composer, and I wonder
why it's taken so long for it to reach a recording.
Alexander C MacKenzie's Benedictus is a simple melody,
devout and full of fervour. The violins get to shine here. Not
wishing to insult anyone whose work is included on this disk,
I have to say that the best has been kept for last. The name
of Ian Whyte is, for many, merely that of a conductor, the founder
of the BBC Scottish Orchestra and its chief conductor for 15
years. But he was also a composer and his large output is mainly
based on Scottish subjects. Devil's Finale/Reel O-Tulloch
is an older kind of riot of song and dance, compared to some
of the pieces here recorded, but it's no less valid for all
that. Like all the music on this disk it's brilliantly scored
and really packs a punch. For pure pleasure this disk is hard
to beat.
Not being a devotee of the Strauss family, the Great Viennese
Classics disk was a delight to me, not least because it
contains some items which I'd never heard before - such as the
Anvil Polka, Chatterbox Polka and The Dragonfly.
There's a real exuberant feel to these pieces and Sutherland
and his players have the right party spirit for the dances.
Best of all, however, are the four big works, the waltz, the
march and the overtures. Heuberger's The Opera Ball Overture
is a slightly laboured piece of work and no matter how hard
the musicians try they cannot hide this fact, but high spirits
reign in the jovial account of the Radetsky March, complete
with audience clap-along. My favourites are the Overture
to Die Fledermaus - a piece, which in the right hands, cannot
fail to entertain - and The Blue Danube - which is the
real winner here. If Sutherland doesn't quite have that special
spring in his beat which the great JB brought to these piece
then that is no fault of his, and these performances are most
enjoyable. My one complaint here is that the acoustic is different
from the acoustic on the other disks in the series and, at the
start, it sounds like a large empty hall, which it obviously
isn't! But the ear adjusts and after a couple of tracks it won't
be noticeable. With such lovingly directed performances this
disk cannot fail.
The Great Irish Classics disk is fascinating for there
are only two works written by Irishmen, yet all the music is
as Irish as you could wish. Leroy Anderson's Irish Suite
is a five movement composition which contrasts riotousness -
the first movement, The Irish Washerwoman - with calm
and serenity - the second movement The Minstrel Boy.
You cannot fail but to take it to your heart. This is Anderson
at his very best and most entertaining. Anderson's Horse
and Buggy and hilarious Chicken Reel add to the enjoyment.
I am always happy to welcome the music of Peter Hope on disk
- there's far too little of him available - and the five pieces
here recorded show him at his best; two movements from the marvellous
Ring of Kerry Suite and three arrangements. Percy Grainger's
Molly on the Shore and Shepherd's Hey are given
in their full orchestral clothing - and how well they work this
way - and Hamilton Harty's The Fair Day is a breezy affair.
The disk ends with an excerpt from Shaun Davey's The Pilgrim
- a large'scale work which has been recorded complete by the
same forces as here, with various soloists and choruses (Tara
3032) and Davey's Relief of Derry Symphony for pipe,
reed and concert bands with organ, uilleann pipes, saxophone,
vocalist and orchestra is available on Tara 3024 and should,
on no account, be missed. Davey is one of the best of the younger
Irish composers who are using traditional forms and instruments
in their compositions. This short excerpt is a thrilling introduction
to Davey's work and will, I am sure, make you want to hear more.
The only thing missing is the sound of the audience going wild
at the end! I am sure that it did. My one question is exactly
what does Gounod's arrangement of J S Bach's 1st
Prelude from the 48 have to do with Great Irish Classics-
And isn't Shepherd's Hey based on an English dance tune-
Should I care- Perhaps. Do I care- Not a bit because this is
a thoroughly enjoyable disk and if you only want one of the
series this is the one to choose, simply for its exuberance
and good feeling. You'll return to it again and again.
Throughout the performances are first rate, Sutherland really
knows how to get the best from his players, and the sound is
very good, but I wish that some applause had been left on the
disks - with a couple of brief exceptions, only the first contains
the audience reaction - for these are live performances and
one feels the anticipation and excitement of the audience but
one never enjoys, or is able to share, the release after great
music-making. There are no notes but who needs them when the
music speaks so clearly to you-- The créme de la créme-
Without a doubt.
The good news is that Sutherland has told me that a disk of
English music is currently being prepared and there is also
a disk of Hollywood to come. Riches indeed.
Bob Briggs
City of Glasgow Philharmonic Orchestra, Iain Sutherland 
