Another great selection from Guild, full of the most delicious
things. George French’s title piece, Highly Strung,
is a wild scherzo in the manner of David Rose’s Holiday
for Strings, with lots of swirling string movement and great
support from the brass and winds. Jack Mason’s Pops
Polka is a typical Boston rush and Steve Race’s Ring
Ding has a touch of Latin about it. Very nice.
I am a big fan of Roger Roger, and it’s good to have his
racy Paris Pullman here, perhaps not exactly highly strung
but it does have a great string tune. David Rose’s compositions
really do grow on you, and Gay Spirits is a delightful
concoction which has some splendid pizzicato writing, not to
mention a lovely violin solo. Bob Farnon’s Little Miss
Molly has a Ravelian fairytale quality about it. It’s
a delightful miniature with a prominent part for flute. Lovely.
Zez Confrey, sans both kitten and keys, but armed with a xylophone
delivers a good tune, with great orchestration - especially in
the middle section for piano with a guitar or banjo in the background!
Alex North is a much underrated composer and I welcome this excerpt
from his music for The Wonderful Country - Americana at
its very best. Charles Williams’s Toy Violin is
a perfect pizzicato study. Fred Hartley’s Jack In The
Box is a lovely piece of chamber music swing - of the kind
sometimes offered by Alec Wilder.
Song of Lisbon is the kind of music you’d hear in
a Mexican-set western of yesteryear, “we go to de cantina
and drink wiz dee greengos”, and the cool sax of the late
Johnny Dankworth graces Philip Green’s theme from Sapphire -
a fine composition. Gaste’s Le Soir is a sleepy
cor anglais and strings duet which is followed by a sterling
Ronald Binge arrangement of Harry Warren’s (known, quite
rightly, as ‘Mr Hollywood Musical’) Afraid To
Dream, a beautiful song very well served by its arranger.
The illustrious Clive Richardson, under a pseudonym, gives us
a lovely string melody with the additional of a trumpet with
felt mute. This is a lovely relaxed desert island thing.
OK, so I’ve gone to my favourites first, but can you blame
me? If I didn’t it would be impossible to know where to
start. For the rest there are pleasures aplenty. Schick’s Sheerline is
made of the finest denier. Cry Of The Wild Goose is a
bongo-driven flight, a fabulous Philip Green arrangement here.
Cesana’s Whirlwind is a depiction of the wind, with
romantic music in the middle, how strange this is; perhaps he
had a film scene in mind. It was Cole Porter who introduced the
world to the beguine and here Frank Chacksfield offers a rather
lovely one, with a haunting theme, not to be forgotten in a hurry.
Debussy wrote a Marche écossaise and to match it,
another Frenchman crosses Hadrian’s Wall and gives us a Gigue
Ecossaise, which is great fun. Ron Goodwin’s All
Strung Up has the feel of the coffee bar to it, but no Teds
are in evidence. Perpetual Notion, a nice title, is reminiscent
of Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from On The
Town.
For the rest, the most important is probably Adolph Deutsch’s
underscore from Some Like It Hot, a real slice of Hollywood,
but with a most unsatisfactory, inconclusive ending. But that’s
the trouble with underscore. It comes and suddenly it’s
gone!
Guild has done it again, compiling a fascinating collection of
pieces in excellent sound, and with helpful, but not exhaustive,
notes. I have a list of pieces I’d love them to do and
my mouth waters at what delights they will come up with next.
As ever, I am all anticipation. This is an invaluable series.
Bob Briggs
Details
Jack MASON (1906 - 1965) Pops Polka [2:47]
Steve RACE (1921 - 2009) Ring Ding [2:33]
George FRENCH Highly Strung (1959) [2:17]
Carlos ROCHA Song Of Lisbon - Sempre Que Lisboa Canta;
[2:34]
Roger ROGER (1911 - 1995) Paris Pullman [2:35]
Philip GREEN (1911 - 1992) Sapphire (theme from
the film) [2:51]
Louis Felix Marie GASTÉ Le Soir (I’d Love
To Fall Asleep) [3:06]
Mack GORDON (1904 - 1959) and Harry REVEL (1905
- 1958) Afraid To Dream (arranged by Ronald BINGE (1910
- 1979)) [2:59]
Fred HARTLEY (1905 - 1980) Jack In The Box [2:17]
David ROSE (1910 - 1990) Gay Spirits [2:37]
Kurt SCHICK Sheerline [2:38]
Robert FARNON (1917 - 2005) Little Miss Molly [3:01]
Zez CONFREY (1895 - 1971) Stumbling [2:12]
Terry GILKYSON (1916 - 1999) Cry Of The Wild Goose
(1950) (arranged by Philip GREEN) [2:30]
Otto CESANA Whirlwind [3:14]
Bernie WAYNE (pseudonym for Bernard WEITZNER) (1919
- 1993): Life In New York [2:49]
Frank CHACKSFIELD (1914 - 1995) Sunshine Beguine
[2:42]
Gérard CALVI (pseudonym for Grégoire
Elie KRETTKY) (b.1922) Gigue Ecossaise (Scottish Jig) [2:45]
Paul DUBOIS (pseudonym for Clive RICHARDSON) (1909
- 1998) Sentimental Magic [3:12]
Ron GOODWIN (1925 - 2003) All Strung Up [2:22]
Mikis Michel THEODORAKIS (b.1925) The Honeymoon
Song (from the film Honeymoon (1959)) [2:21]
Albert MARLAND ((1904 - 1976) Limelight Waltz [2:38]
Rudolf FRIML (1879 - 1972) Ma Belle (from The Three
Musketeers (1928)) [2:03]
Alex NORTH (1910 - 1991) The Wonderful Country
(theme from the film) [2:13]
Charles WILLIAMS (predunym for Isaac COZERBREIT) (1893
- 1978) Toy Violin [1:26]
Mitchell PARISH (1900 - 1993) and Frank SIGNORELLI (1901
- 1975) A Blues Serenade [2:43]
Percy FAITH (1908 - 1976) Perpetual Notion [3:30]
Irving BERLIN (1888 - 1989) A Pretty Girl
Is Like A Melody (1919) (arranged by Peter YORKE (1902
- 1966) [3:28]
Adolph DEUTSCH (1987 - 1980) Park Avenue Fantasy
(underscore from film soundtrack Some Like It Hot (1959)) [4:03]
Ronald Binge (GORDON/REVEL), Gérard Calvi (CALVI), Otto Cesana (CESANA),
Percy Faith (FAITH), Ron Goodwin (GOODWIN), Morton Gould (CONFREY), Philip Green
(GILKYSON), Eric Jupp (ROCHA), Monty Kelly (WAYNE), Groff Love (Friml), David
Rose (ROSE), Boris Sarbek (GASTÉ), Axel Stordahl (PARISH/SIGNORELLI) all
conducting “their own”orchestras; Peter Yorke and his Concert Orchestra
(BERLIN); Fred Hartley and his Music (HARTLEY); Manuel (pseudonym for Geoff Love)
and the Music of the Mountains (Theodorakis); Boston Pops Orchestra/Arthur Fiedler
(MASON); Group-Forty Orchestra/Eric Cook (FRENCH and MARLAND); Hollywood Studio
Symphony Orchestra/Mitchell Powell (NORTH); The Knightsbridge Strings (RACE);
Pinewood Studio Orchestra/Philip Green featuring Johnny Dankworth (saxophone)
(GREEN); The Paris Studio Orchestra/Philippe Pares (ROGER); Queen’s Hall
Light Orchestra/Charles Williams (WILLIAMS); Studio Orchestra/Adolph Deutsch
(DEUTSCH); The Symphonica Orchestra/Curt Andersen (SCHICK and Chacksfield); Telecast
Orchestra/ Charles Williams (DUBOIS and FARNON)
rec. 1946-59;
re-issues
from 78 rpm discs
and 33 rpm LP records. ADD
