This is an invigorating,
touching and impressive celebration
of the ever tuneful and often bewitching
talent of John Fox. He will be known
to denizens of BBC Radio, to aficionados
of staff arrangers of celebrated bands
(Harry Rabinowitz, Paul Fenoulhet) and
admirers generally of light music served
up with the kind of art that decades
have honed. He also happens to write
damn fine tunes.
The title track is
a splendid opener, showing his rich
and sumptuous orchestration and from
time to time we encounter his own orchestrations.
Try Scarborough Fair, with its
wistful cantilena and VW string choirs
that show something of his daily-bread
work. I’d also draw attention to She
Walks Through The Fair for evidence
of his practical but poetic approach
to things that could otherwise be merely
scrubbed up and dished out - none of
that from Fox. Some Arnoldian moments
(Malcolm not Matthew) seem to hover
briefly over the Jovial Knights Overture
whereas we get a full-blooded tribute
to his hero Gershwin in Love Walked
In where his late wife Joy takes
the vocals so adeptly.
His Suite Earth
and Space has some of the most advanced
sonorities here and they show that Fox
has tilled the soil. There’s a certain
cinematic and Holstian element here
in this compact little work but the
Ethereal Sphere, the first movement,
will certainly interest those for whom
Fox is otherwise "merely"
a light composer. There’s no stinting
some MGM moments, nor the baleful brass
of the Aliens, nor indeed the
swirling star vistas of the last tableau,
Visions. In all, this is a delightful
suite.
The other suite is
the most touching, written in memory
of his wife, though the pain is recollected
through nostalgia and the living sonorities
evoked by their time together. It’s
cast in eight compact movements – only
the last breaks four minutes – and summons
up a rich array of times and places.
We journey onwards from the violins’
coiled warmth of First Meeting
(lots of harp flutter, brass strength
and glittery percussive tints) and then
meet the bustle of Joy In a Mad Rush,
where aided by a drum kit and tambourine,
suspenseful strings and brass she scurries
around breathlessly – and collapses
exhausted at the end. The suite thrives
on contrasts of mood and colour – a
waltz, Scottish tunes – until the final
moments that evoke her passing, when
three doves flew down to sit on the
windowpane. Flute sonorities and harp
glissandi couple with gentle recollections
of Scottish songs in this touchingly
recollected and refashioned moment.
Fox is one of our leading
composers in this genre and he and Gavin
Sutherland lead their various orchestras
with vigour, panache and sweeping authority.
This is lyrical and superbly crafted
music in the great line of British composers
in the genre.
Jonathan Woolf
Royal Ballet Sinfonia/Gavin Sutherland 
for
details
