Search MusicWeb Here Custom Search     International mailing Up to 40% off

Searching Musicweb Monthly index Recordings of the Year Label index Masterwork index Series index Search engines Review Archive Classical Downloads Jazz Concerts Nostalgia Books Film music Resources Composer pages National discographies Online books Piano Trio Survey Gerard Hoffnung Arthur Butterworth's columns Philip Scowcroft's British light music collection Interviews Programme notes Other material Articles Seen & Heard Jazz reviews Message Board Announcements About Musicweb About Musicweb Contact Musicweb Contributors What they say about us Visitor stats Site Map

Founder: Len Mullenger

BUY NOW  Crotchet   AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Mantovani - By Special Request - The Golden Age of Light Music Cole PORTER Begin The Beguine Benjamin FRANKEL/PURCELL Carriage And Pair Sydney BAYNES Destiny Waltz Nicholas BRODSZKY The Way To The Stars – theme from the film Morton GOULD Tropical Richard ADDINSELL Blithe Spirit – Waltz Theme – from the film Whirlwind - arranged Ronald BINGE MANTOVANI September Nocturne – with Arthur Sandford, piano STANLEY/BORGUNO/ARRES The Timbalero – Rumba Phil CARDEW Passing Clouds Pedro MANILLA Blue Mantilla Dennis FERN Flying Saucers (Bees in the Bonnet) – with Arthur Sandford, piano A VILLOLDO El Choclo (Kiss Of Fire) (arranged Barry) Adrian ROSS/Lao SILESU Love Here Is My Heart DOELLE/MAIR When The Lilac Blooms Again Oscar STRAUSS, DUCREUX, PURCELL Love’s Roundabout (La Ronde de L’Amour) E DONATO A Media Luz Zdenek FIBICH Poème (My Moonlight Madonna) Alfons CZIBULKA Love’s Dream After The Ball BERGER Amoureuse (So Madly In Love) Paul REMY/Felix KING Chiquita Mia BIXIO/SIEVIER Love’s Last Word Is Spoken Josef RIXNER Blauer Himmel HEUBERGER/COCHRAN Suddenly (Im Chambre Separeé) Ian STEWART The Whistling Boy HANNAH/WILLIAM/KENNEDY The Agnes Waltz Mantovani and his Orchestra Recorded 1943-53 GUILD LIGHT MUSIC GLCD 5110 [77.44]

Britain benefited enormously from expatriate Italian musicians. Both Mantovani and Campoli came to London within a year or so of each other, aged no more than six, as their musician fathers sought better employment prospects. Both men’s careers began similarly; prodigiously talented, early training (in Mantovani’s case at Trinity) and early debuts. Both gravitated towards the light field, restaurants and theatre bands, and grew to fame. Of course Campoli’s ambitions lay elsewhere but Mantovani’s career in light music was long lasting and famously productive. It helped that he also played the piano and that he had such fine arrangers. It was Ronald Binge who was largely responsible for the Cascading Strings, that glamorous waterfall that was so much a part of the Sound. But there was much else; the standard of musicianship in all sections was high, the songs were snappy and brightly contoured and Mantovani had an ear for piquant colour. So Begin the Beguine is here – of course – as is The Way to the Stars with its fine strings but there’s also the Noel Coward selection, with the Waltz from Blithe Spirit proving to have a sultry wash of fiddles and notable clarinet. Binge’s Whirlwind is rousing stuff and there’s some ruminative, romantic piano in Mantovani’s own September Nocturne. He wrote quite a fair amount, often under pseudonyms, and this one shows his sensitive palette and romantic affiliations. With Flying Saucers (Bees in the Bonnet) we embrace the novelty genre and there’s the tang of the accordion in the promisingly titled El Choclo (Kiss of Fire). We can sample the Binge-Mantovani strings at their most cascading in Love’s Roundabout – and the band at its most soupy in Fibich’s Poème (a performance that would have made a Palm Court fiddler blush). To balance that there’s the rococo charm of Ian Stewart’s The Whistling Boy which like the rest of this programme was recorded in the decade between 1943 and 1953. Mantovani’s was the top band of its type and here’s a fine selection of its Deccas. I have a strong feeling that the discs could yield more treble than they do in these transfers; there’s been just a little too much noise reduction and that’s squeezed a bit of the air from them. Still, that’s a relatively small matter; there’s no surface noise in compensation. Jonathan Woolf . Advertising on Musicweb Donate and keep us afloat   New Releases Nimbus Podcast Obtain 10% discount Special offer 50% off Musicweb sells the following labels Acte Préalable (THE Polish label) Altus 10% off Atoll 10% off CRD 10% off Hallé 10% off Lyrita 10% off Nimbus 10% off Nimbus Alliance Prima voce 10% off Red Priest 10% off Retrospective 10% off Saydisc 10% off Sterling 10% off Follow us on Twitter Subscribe to our free weekly review listing sample Sample: See what you will get Editorial Board MusicWeb International Founding Editor    Rob Barnett Senior Editor John Quinn Seen & Heard Editor Emeritus    Bill Kenny Editor in Chief    Vacant MusicWeb Webmaster    David Barker MusicWeb Founder    Len Mullenger

Return to Index

Reviews from previous months Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.