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Light Music from the Silver Screen - The Golden Age of Light Music   Compilation   Recorded 1946-53   Available on Guild Light Music 5109 Running time 78.31 Crotchet   Amazon UK   Amazon US Trad, arr. Robert FARNON Early One Morning featured in "Spring In Park Lane" Robert Farnon and his Orchestra ORTELLI, PIGARELLI Song of the Mountains (La Montanara) from film "The Glass Mountain" Sidney Torch and his Orchestra Arthur SCHWARTZ Dancing in the Dark soundtrack recording from "The Band Wagon" MGM Studio Orchestra Conducted by Adolph Deutsch Bronislau KAPER Adoration soundtrack recording from "Lili" MGM Studio Orchestra Conducted by Hans Sommer Victor YOUNG Call of the Faraway Hills from film "Shane" Ron Goodwin and his Concert Orchestra Francis CHAGRIN The Beggar's Theme from film "Last Holiday" Charles Williams and his Concert Orchestra Clifton PARKER Seascape from film "Western Approaches" London Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Muir Mathieson John ADDISON Theme from the film "The Man Between" Cyril Stapleton and his Orchestra with Dave Shand, saxophone Mischa SPOLIANSKY Dedication from film "Idol Of Paris" Queen's Hall Light Orchestra Conducted by Sidney Torch with Mischa Spoliansky, piano José PADILLA La Violetera from film "City Lights" Philip Green and his Orchestra Allan GRAY Theme from the film "This Man Is Mine" Queen's Hall Light Orchestra Conducted by Charles Williams Guy WARRACK Men of Arnhem – March from film "Theirs Is The Glory" London Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Muir Mathieson Philip GREEN Romance from film "The Magic Bow" Louis Levy and his "Music From The Movies" with Reginald Leopold, violin Andre MATHIEU Quebec Concerto from film "Whispering City" Charles Williams and his Concert Orchestra with Arthur Dulay, piano Maurice JAUBERT Valse Grise from film "Le Carnet De Bal" Sidney Torch and his Orchestra Charles WILLIAMS Throughout the Years from film "Flesh And Blood" Charles Williams and his Concert Orchestra George MELACHRINO Vision d'Amour from film "Woman To Woman" Melachrino Strings Conducted by George Melachrino Philip GREEN Hour of Meditation from film "Twenty-Four Hours Of A Woman's Life" Sidney Torch and his Orchestra Anthony COLLINS Saga of Odette from film "Odette" Charles Williams and his Concert Orchestra George MELACHRINO Danse d'Extase from film "No Orchids For Miss Blandish" The Melachrino Orchestra conducted by George Melachrino Kenneth LESLIE-SMITH Mansell Concerto from film "The Woman's Angle" Charles Williams and his Concert Orchestra – piano Arthur Sandford hilip GREEN Gaelic Fantasia from film "Saints And Sinners" Philip Green and his Orchestra Here's another in Guild's far trawling selection. The company has a capacious but finely woven net and manages to surprise through inventive programming and, as here, unusual and lesser-known items from the Decca, Parlophone, HMV and Columbia catalogues. There are also a few MGMs here as well to add a more concentrated American spice. Though not all the items were specifically composed for films they achieved some degree of fame in that format – enough, at least, to be immortalised on shellac. All date from the immediate post-War years. It's a necessarily disparate collection with a fair sprinkling of styles and idioms but all played with panache and élan by some of the best such bands in the business – as a look at the roster call of talent in the head note will show. The MGM Orchestra's big fat trumpets punch out Arthur Schwartz's Dancing in the Dark and under Hans Sommer they let rip their jazzier credentials in Adoration. Ron Goodwin and his Concert Orchestra contribute a number from Shane and then the appositely weird John Addison score for The Man Between where Dave Shand's disembodied saxophone sends shivers up the spine. Mischa Spoliansky, then a London resident, fuses a butch orchestration with vampish piano in his score for the Idol of Paris and Philip Green's band turns on the Spanishry in La Violetera. One doesn't hear so much of Guy Warrack these days but his stirring March from Men of Arnhem is certainly tinged with gaunt nobility. It's programmed next to music from The Magic Bow, the Stewart Grainger Paganini biopic played on the soundtrack by Yehudi Menuhin (I'm not quite sure now but it was either Menuhin or Frederick Grinke who "played" Grainger's bowing arm in the film). Here we have Philip Green's version with an altogether lighter player, Palm Court maestro Reg Leopold. Andre Mathieu's Quebec Concerto has made at least one appearance over the last few years. He wrote it at fourteen, believe it or not, and obviously in love with Rachmaninov. It fits into the genre of pocket battleship piano concertos – a well nigh endless list – with particular affection and considerable cleverness. This is just part of it but Arthur Dulay sets to with vigour. Pretty good transfers and notes – and a variety bandbox of pleasurable and entertaining listening. Jonathan Woolf 4
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