In London Town
Noel GAY (1898-1954)
Concert Overture: Me And My Girl (The Lambeth
Walk) (1937) arr. Iain Sutherland [7:48]
Eric COATES (1886-1957)
London Suite (1933): ‘Knightsbridge March’ [4:34];
‘Covent Garden’ [5:02]
Robert FARNON (1917-2005)
Westminster Waltz (1956) [2:49]
Wally STOTT (1924-2009)
Rotten Row (?) [2:22]
Sir Arthur SULLIVAN (1842-1900)
Overture: The Yeoman of the Guard (1888) [5:47]
Clive RICHARDSON (1909-1998)
London Fantasia (1941?) [2:49]
Frederick LOWE (1901-1988)
My Fair Lady (1956) ‘Get Me to the Church On Time’
[3:21]
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
arrangement of Greensleeves (1934) [4:31]
Sir Edward GERMAN (1862-1936)
Four Dances from Merrie England (1902) [7:21]
Alan ABBOTT (b. 1926)
London Bridge is Falling Down (1952) [2:40]
Ronald BINGE (1910-1979)
Elizabethan Serenade (1951) [3:15]
George Frederic HANDEL (1685-1759)
Water Music Prelude (1717) (2:41)
Roger QUILTER (1877-1953)
Three English Dances (1910) [7:23]
Erich Wolfgang KORNGOLD (1897-1957)
The Sea Hawk (Suite) (1940) [7:18]
The Philharmonic Concert Orchestra/Iain Sutherland
rec. originally released on LP, dates unknown, from Iain Sutherland’s
Radio Clyde archives
SOMM SOMMCD 0117 [70:45]
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
Sparkling performances of some of the cream of light music.