This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.
Notes and Editorial Reviews
Once the Holst and Vaughan Williams band suites sadly lacked good recordings: no longer, happily. That the best of our own bands should play, and record, them regularly is highly desirable; especially so in that those bands change character fairly frequently as their direction also changes hands. RAF Central is always among the best, and it gives the present programme very good performances.
The Holst suites are given in lively fashion, as they basically demand; and if, in the F major Suite, the "Song without words" has none too clean a start then amends are certainly made when the following "Song of the blacksmith" is allowed a very worthwhile anvil. Here and there the general balance is rather
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brass-heavy, but Hoist does seem often to demand this. 'Seem', because information on the point is offered only by his scores; and those scores, in their present published form, do certainly have their inaccuracies and editings (would Holst, for example, have ever really written ffff for his brass?). It is good to learn (from an article by Timothy Reynish in the July Musical Times) that these scores are about to be, replaced by more authentic versions.
Vaughan Williams suffered less in this respect; and if as a result his score tends to play itself, as it were, it does not always do so to such good effect as it does here, with some especially good euphonium-playing. (RAF Central always seems to be lucky—or chooses wisely!—in its euphonium soloists.) But perhaps the best performances of all are reserved for the Grainger, the band understandably responding to the altogether splendid scoring. In this respect Grainger was way ahead of his time; and it is really only today that his scores have come into their own, when put into the hands of more sophisticated bands than were normally available in his own day. And it is very agreeable to hear them do so on this record. And to hear them, along with all the other music, so very well recorded.
-- Gramophone [10/1984]
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Works on This Recording
1.
Suite for Military Band no 1 in E flat major, Op. 28 no 1 by Gustav Holst
Conductor:
Eric Banks
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Air Force Central Band
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1909; England
Date of Recording: 1984
Length: 15 Minutes 2 Secs.
2.
Suite for Military Band no 2 in F major, Op. 28 no 2 by Gustav Holst
Conductor:
Eric Banks
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Air Force Central Band
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1911; England
Date of Recording: 1984
Length: 12 Minutes 13 Secs.
3.
English Folk Song Suite by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Conductor:
Eric Banks
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Air Force Central Band
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1923; England
Date of Recording: 1984
Length: 14 Minutes 58 Secs.
4.
Sea Songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Conductor:
Eric Banks
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Air Force Central Band
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1923; England
Date of Recording: 1986
Length: 3 Minutes 41 Secs.
5.
Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Aldridge Grainger
Conductor:
Eric Banks
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Air Force Central Band
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1937-1938; USA
Date of Recording: 1986
Length: 16 Minutes 51 Secs.
6.
Molly on the Shore for Band by Percy Aldridge Grainger
Conductor:
Eric Banks
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Air Force Central Band
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1920; USA
Date of Recording: 1986
Length: 3 Minutes 41 Secs.
7.
Irish Tune from County Derry "Danny Boy" by Percy Aldridge Grainger
Conductor:
Eric Banks
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Air Force Central Band
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1913; England
Date of Recording: 1984
Length: 4 Minutes 6 Secs.
8.
Children's March "Over the hills and far away" for Band by Percy Aldridge Grainger
Conductor:
Eric Banks
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Air Force Central Band
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1916-1919
Date of Recording: 1984
Length: 6 Minutes 47 Secs.
9.
Country Gardens by Percy Aldridge Grainger
Conductor:
Eric Banks
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Air Force Central Band
Period: 20th Century
Written: England
Date of Recording: 1984
Length: 2 Minutes 0 Secs.
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