This wonderful set from Hyperion contains all the Light Music
Classics that you could wish to hear, as well some that will probably
be new to most listeners – a fantastic selection.
It opens with a lively and rousing performance of Eric
Coates’s much-loved Calling All Workers, and works its
way through all the greatest composers of this genre – Robert
Farnon, Frederic Curzon, Albert Ketèlbey, Haydn Wood, Ronald
Binge, Sidney Torch, and so on. Some of the delights featured
include a sumptuous version of Geoffrey Toye’s The Haunted
Ballroom and an extremely perky The Jumping Bean by
Farnon – brought wonderfully to life in a crisp, dancing performance.
There’s also an exhilarating Devil’s Gallop (Charles
Williams), an evocatively descriptive Carriage and Pair
by Benjamin Frankel and Tomlinson’s utterly charming Little
Serenade. Let’s not forget the sparkling Beachcomber
(Clive Richardson) - of which Corp here gives an effervescent
rendition and a gentle version of Edward White’s The Runaway
Rocking-Horse.
The incredibly famous ones include White’s Puffin
Billy, Binge’s Elizabethan Serenade, Vivian Ellis’s
Coronation Scot, Ernest Bucalossi’s Grasshopper’s
Dance, and Jack Strachey’s In Party Mood. There are
some also really unusual and interesting works, such as Ketèlbey’s
Sanctuary of the Heart, a “méditation réligieuse”, In
a Monastery Garden and In a Persian Market - where
the New London Light Opera Chorus join forces with the New London
Orchestra in a lively performance. Duncan’s Girl from Corsica
is wonderfully exotic and opulent. Peter Hope’s gorgeously evocative
Jaunting Car from the Ring of Kerry, the Siciliano
by Harry Dexter - founder in 1956 of the Light Music Society,
and Archibald Joyce’s luscious Songe d’Automne also deserve
mention.
The set features waltzes (such as Destiny by Sydney
Baynes, Farnon’s Westminster Waltz, and Ivan Caryll’s
Pink Lady Waltz) and marches (Coates’s Knightsbridge
from his London Suite, Trevor Duncan’s March from
A Little Suite and Curzon’s splendid March of the
Bowman from the Robin Hood Suite). Television and
radio music is also represented (Binge’s Secret Garden
for the television series setting the children’s book, Vivian
Ellis’s Alpine Pastures – the theme tune for the radio
series My Word, Arthur Wood’s Barwick Green, surely
eternally immortalised as the theme tune for The Archers,
and Coates’s gorgeous By the Sleepy Lagoon (Desert
Island Discs), as is music from plays (Lionel Monckton’s
march Soldiers in the Park from his The Runaway Girl,
a popular musical play that showed at the Gaiety Theatre, and
Frederick Rosse’s The Doge’s March from his music for
a 1905 Garrick theatre production of A Merchant of Venice).
Several composers are featured whom one might not immediately
associate with light music, especially on the slightly more
high-brow fourth disc: Armstrong Gibbs, whose Dusk is
given a serenely beautiful performance, Elgar (Carissima),
John Foulds (Keltic Lament) and Samuel Coleridge Taylor,
whose Petite Suite de Concert brings the set to a scintillating
conclusion. However, the choice of lighter works by these composers
mean that the pieces fit into the programmes on the discs perfectly
well, and they make excellent additions to the set.
Ronald Corp is a great exponent of light music and these
discs see him, and the New London Orchestra, in their element,
capturing a great sense of fun, such as in Curzon’s Dance
of an Ostracised Imp, Arthur Benjamin’s Jamaican Rumba
and Henry Balfour Gardiner’s much-loved Shepherd’s Fennel
Dance.
All the works are performed with spirit and verve, and
a real love and understanding of this music. A superb set.
Em
Marshall
Detailed tracklisting:
CD 1 [76:53]
Eric COATES
Calling All Workers [3:20]
Geoffrey
TOYE The
Haunted Ballroom [8:15]
Anthony
COLLINS Vanity
Fair [3:53]
Robert
FARNON Jumping
Bean [2:24]
Sydney
BAYNES Destiny
[8:29]
Frederic
CURZON The
Boulevardier [3:55]
W Meyer
LUTZ Pas
de quatre [3:39]
Ronald
BINGE The
Watermill (with Ruth Scott, oboe) [3:45]
Charles
WILLIAMS
The Devil’s Galop [3:12]
Armstrong
GIBBS Dusk
[6:07]
Edward
WHITE Puffin’
Billy [3:40]
Albert
W KETÈLBEY
Bells Across the Meadows [4:40]
Charles
WILLIAMS
The Old Clockmaker [3:12]
Archibald
JOYCE Dreaming
[6:04]
Ronald
BINGE Elizabethan
Serenade [3:20]
Vivian
ELLIS Coronation
Scot [2:57]
Charles
ANCLIFFE
Nights of Gladness [5:39]
CD 2 [76:25]
Eric COATES
Knightsbridge March from London Suite [4:34]
Percy FLETCHER
Bal Masqué: Valse-Caprice: [6:35]
Ernest
BUCALOSSI
The Grasshopper’s Dance [4:10]
Arthur
WOOD Barwick
Green - A Maypole Dance from My Native Heath [3:20]
Fred HARTLEY
Rouge et Noir [2:46]
Robert
FARNON The
Peanut Polka [2:56]
Benjamin
FRANKEL Carriage
and Pair [2:49]
Haydn WOOD
The Horse Guards, Whitehall from London Landmarks
[3:50]
‘Trevor
DUNCAN’ March
from A Little Suite [3:18]
Ronald
BINGE Sailing
By [2:50]
Gilbert
VINTER Portuguese
Party [3:19]
Clive RICHARDSON
Beachcomber [3:13]
Herman
FINCK In
the Shadows [5:54]
Robert
DOCKER Tabarinage
[3:28]
Albert
W KETÈLBEY
Sanctuary of the Heart ‘Méditation réligieuse’ [4:50]
Robert
FARNON The
Westminster Waltz [2:58]
Edward
ELGAR Carissima
[3:41]
Charles
WILLIAMS
Girls in Grey [2:38]
Edward
WHITE The
Runaway Rocking-Horse [3:59]
Frederic
CURZON March
of the Bowmen from Robin Hood Suite [4:42]
CD 3 [78:45]
Haydn WOOD
Montmartre [3:47]
Clive RICHARDSON,
arr. HANMER Melody on the Move [2:42]
Jack STRACHEY
In Party Mood [4:01]
Trevor
DUNCAN The
Girl from Corsica [4:37]
Lionel
MONCKTON
Soldiers in the Park [3:51]
Felix GODIN,
arr. Adolf LOTTER Valse Septembre [5:22]
Ronald
BINGE Miss
Melanie [2:25]
Ivan CARYLL
Pink Lady Waltz [5:25]
Robert
FARNON Portrait
of a Flirt [2:44]
Harry DEXTER
Siciliano [4:37]
Albert
KETÈLBEY
In a Persian Market [6:15]
Jack STRACHEY
Theatreland [3:19]
Archibald
JOYCE Songe
d’Automne [4:46]
Vivian
ELLIS, arr.
Sidney TORCH Alpine Pastures [3:40]
Ernest
TOMLINSON
Little Serenade [3:31]
George
MELACHRINO
Woodland Revel [3:10]
Tolchard
EVANS, arr.
Fred HARTLEY/Ken WARNER Lady of Spain [3:02]
Charles
ANCLIFFE
Smiles, then Kisses [4:26]
Sidney
TORCH On
a Spring Note [2:31]
Eric COATES
Music Everywhere (‘Rediffusion March’ [3:20]
CD 4 [77:58]
‘Marshall
ROSS’ Marching
Strings [2:45]
Peter HOPE
Jaunting Car from The Ring of Kerry [2:46]
‘Trevor
DUNCAN’ High
Heels [3:13]
Frederic
CURZON Dance
of an Ostracised Imp [3:21]
John FOULDS
Keltic Lament from A Keltic Suite Op. 29 † [4:14]
Charles
WILLIAMS
Rhythm on Rails [2:47]
Eric COATES
By the Sleepy Lagoon [4:03]
Arthur
BENJAMIN
Jamaican Rumba [2:06]
Albert
W KETÈLBEY
In a Monastery Garden [5:53]
Charles
WILLIAMS
A Quiet Stroll [2:55]
Percy FLETCHER
Demoiselle Chic - Parisian Sketches No 1 [3:59]
Jack BEAVER
Cavalcade of Youth [3:40]
Fredric
BAYCO Elizabethan
Masque [2:16]
Henry BALFOUR
GARDINER
Shepherd Fennel’s Dance [5:31]
Charles
ANCLIFFE Thrills [6:04]
Frederick
ROSSE The
Doge’s March from The Merchant of Venice [4:55]
Samuel COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Petite Suite de Concert
Op. 77: La caprice de Nanette [4:00]; Demande et réponse
[4:56]; Un sonnet d’amour [4:01]; La tarantelle
frétillante [2:23]
New London Orchestra/Ronald
Corp
