This collection bubbles along in great high spirits, kicking
off with a joyous suite from Noel Gay’s musical Me
and My Girl. The Gershwin influence is obvious and the tunes
will set toes a-tapping. Set in the London of the 1930s, the
show opened in the West End in 1937 and was revived in the 1980s.
Me and My Girl is best remembered for its tune, ‘The
Lambeth Walk’.
Eric Coates, known as ‘The Uncrowned King of Light Music’
was indelibly associated with London and the City inspired so
much of his music. Two of his London cameos from his first London
Suite are included: The stirring ‘Knightsbridge’
March which introduced the very many In Town Tonight
programmes and the bustling ‘Covent Garden’ with
its haunting ‘Cherry Ripe’ motif. Both pieces are
taken at lively tempi just as Eric Coates, himself, would have
wished.
Another haunting melody associated with London’s Westminster
district is Robert Farnon’s Westminster Waltz with
Iain Sutherland’s reading, gaily romantic. So too is his
interpretation of Wally Stott’s cheery trot through Rotten
Row. Sir Arthur Sullivan’s Yeoman of the Guard
Overture receives all due pomp and ironic wit as the music reminds
us of the Tower of London.
Clive Richardson’s London Fantasia scored for piano
and orchestra has all the trimmings of the 1940s - the music
is meant to be reminiscent of the wartime Blitz - and is an
uninhibited romantic concoction influenced by Hollywood and
British war film scores such as those for Love Story
and Dangerous Moonlight (The Warsaw Concerto).
As an antidote we have a comic take-off of Stanley Holloway’s
cheeky ‘Get Me to the Church on Time’ from My
Fair Lady. Then serenity descends with Vaughan Williams’
beautiful arrangement of the traditional air, Greensleeves.
Handel’s Water Music Prelude returns to the pomp
of the Royal Court.
Alan Abbott’s take on the old nursery tune London Bridge
is Falling Down bustles along cheerily until slower tempi
introduce a note of romantic nostalgia.
Sir Edward German’s light music has been unjustly neglected
until recent times and it is good to have a recording of his
sunny, vivacious and grandly patriotic Four Dances from Merrie
England. Welcome, too, are Roger Quilter’s sophisticated
Three English Dances. Charming and vivacious, these are
dances associated with happy Mayfair evenings.
Ronald Binge’s Elizabethan Serenade is probably
one of the best-known and best-loved pieces of light music and
the Philharmonic Concert Orchestra players clearly love its
intricate cross-rhythms. The concert closes with another Elizabethan
influence, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s music for the Errol
Flynn 1940 swashbuckler The Sea Hawk. Here we have an
extended treatment of the film’s Main Title with
Iain Sutherland pulling out all the zestful and romantic stops.
A rousing performance this; to be compared well with any presently
on disc.
Sparkling performances of some of the cream of light music.
Ian Lace
The Philharmonic Concert Orchestra/Iain Sutherland