Matty
MALNECK (1904-1981)
Robert MAXWELL
(b.1921)
Shangri-La
Monty Kelly and his orchestra
Joyce COCHRANE
Starry Night
Danish State Radio Orchestra/Robert
Farnon
David ROSE
(1910-1990)
Deserted City
David Rose and his orchestra
Cecil MILNER
Primrose Dell
Harmonic Orchestra/Hans May
Cyril SCOTT
(1879-1970)
Lotus Land
Camarata
Robert FARNON
(b.1917)
In a Calm
Robert Farnon and his orchestra
Walter COLLINS
Linden Grove
London Promenade Orchestra/Walter Collins
Kenneth ESSEX
Starlight rendezvous
Louis Voss and his orchestra
Bob HAYMES
(b.1922)
Beyond the next hill
La Brilliante
Acquaviva and his orchestra
Donald THORNE
(1901-1967)
Rippling Waters – arranged Busby
Queens’ Hall Light Orchestra/Robert
Farnon
Richard RODGERS
(1902-1979)
Bali H’ai
Monty Kelly and his orchestra
Eric COATES
(1886-1957)
Under the Stars
Queens’ Hall Light Orchestra/Charles
Williams
Peter DENNIS
Packet Boat
Dolf van der Linden and his orchestra
Archibald JOYCE
(1873-1963)
Dreaming arranged Sidney Torch
Sidney Torch and his orchestra
Charles WILLIAMS
(1893-1978)
Lizard Point
Danish State Radio Orchestra/Robert
Farnon
Angela MORLEY
(b.1924)
Adrift in a Dream
Danish State Radio Orchestra/Robert
Farnon
Reginald KING
(1904-1991)
Autumn Sunshine
London Promenade Orchestra/Walter Collins
Trevor DUNCAN
(b.1924)
Moon Magic
New Concert Orchestra/ Dolf van der
Linden
Al HOFFMAN
(1902-1960)
A Night of Stars
Richard Hayman and his orchestra
Hans MAY
(d.1959)
Rippling down the mountain
Harmonic Orchestra/Hans May
Burton LANE
(1912-1997)
How are things in Glocca Morra
Monty Kelly and his orchestra
Robert FARNON
(b.1917)
Mid Ocean
Danish State Radio Orchestra/Robert
Farnon
Belle FENSTOCK
(b.1914)
Safari
David Carroll and his orchestra
Recorded 1946-54
There’s a large amount
of Golden Age Light Music and Guild
is mining the best of it. Some of the
specialist labels that produced so much
– Essex, Chappell, Paxton, MGM and Bosworth,
all of which have been well featured
in this extensive series – are here
of course. But it’s good to see that
Guild has dug up some sides issued by
Harmonic with its eponymous house band
and have taken in Mercury as well as
the more standard Parlophones and Deccas.
It’s one of the pleasures of the series
to be acquainted with the diverse collection
of competing companies who were so active
in the field in the forties and fifties
and indeed beyond. In this release Guild
push up to the fifty-year copyright
period and cover an eight-year span
from War’s end to the rise of the LP.
We start with the glutinous
promise of Shangri-La (amazingly
co-written by that adept jazz player
Matty Malneck). With its cascading harps
and ripe strings, via the agency of
Monty Kelly and his orchestra, this
summons up Technicolor and Rank School
smiles, ankle socks and Joan Collins.
It certainly summons up an era, but
then in its much subtler way so does
genre-maestro David Rose and his languid
Deserted City – the other
side of the escapist fantasies so richly
evoked in this series. Primrose Dell
is mood music pure and simple –
and very English – whilst we also find
the supposedly hot house Lotus Land
of Cyril Scott (still alive and kicking
at the time of this recording), which
tends to wilt under the pressure of
Camerata. Admirers of the Canadian genius
Robert Farnon will note the Delian cast
of In A Calm, which has here
been programmed to precede the older
Walter Collins’ rather Elgarian influenced
Linden Grove – strongly in the
tradition of English Marches despite
the Vaughan Williamsy title.
These tints of the
influences of older composers are matched
by the brasher modernity of contemporary
style. There’s a great big fat trumpet
solo in Starlight Rendezvous over
swirling strings, that shows the kitsch
was alive and well on the Bosworth label
in 1952 but Rippling Waters shows
some aquatic charm to counter balance
the band stand brio elsewhere. Aspects
of style of this kind recur throughout
this disc. Pastel shades are programmed
next to cheesy Hawaiian numbers, which
in their turn rub discographic shoulders
with, say. Eric Coates’ Under The
Stars. One of my favourite tracks,
once past its portentous opening, is
Archibald Joyce’s easeful and charming
Dreaming in its Sidney Torch
arrangement (always a sign of quality).
Then there’s the ex fiddle player Charles
Williams whose Lizard Point is
not unacquainted with Tintagel –
and manages to pack a lot of incident
into three minutes; a feature of all
these genre pieces. Hans May was a distinguished
figure in this company and his Rippling
Down the Mountain shows that cascading
harp and string numbers can be imbued
with delicacy and a degree of orchestral
discretion as well as colour. And we
end with Belle Fenstock’s brashly dancing
Safari, chock full of high spirits.
David Ades contributes
his usual helpful, biographically astute
notes. The transfers are generally fine
though there were a few moments when
I suspected that slightly too much treble
filtering has taken place. Otherwise,
more pleasures.
Jonathan Woolf
various Orchestras
