Notes and Editorial Reviews
Another GAOLM disc arrives from the fecund Guild. It covers the expected variety of performances, and introduces us to orchestras and directors and conductors of note, repute and somewhat lesser renown. As ever it’s been compiled with a sure eye and ear.
There are a number of ‘selections’ here from theatrical shows, ones that take up two sides of a 78. Almost always – unless they defeat the compilers and only one does, the Countess Maritza selection – these numbers are identified in the booklet notes, so you can identify the tune to which you’re whistling, so as not to be whistling in the dark. There is some perky authority from Clifford Greenwood and the London Palladium Orchestra, a suitably top notch aggregation with whom
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we start the selection. Guild has reversed the two sides of their Palladium Memories selection so that we end with the jaunty Life Begins at Oxford Circus. We can also be entertained by Anton and the Paramount Theatre Orchestra ‘featuring Al Bollington’ the organist, because their confident brio cuts a right old dash, and even Al’s woozy Wurlitzer brings period charm.
If this doesn’t grab you there’s always the selection from Vincent Youman’s show Hit the Deck – it includes Sometimes I’m Happy. The eminent conductor Richard Crean conducts Water R Collins’s Moontime – a peppy opus. And we have virtuoso trumpeter Albert Coupe (I hope he didn’t change it from Cooper) who is in galloping mood on an Edison Bell. Joseph Muscant is a big presence in this disc with four appearances, not least with the Woodforde-Finden Indian love Lyrics which are breezily orchestrated and played with – to be frank – fruity confidence on another Edison-Bell. He also conducts a genial and very attractive waltz by Zimmer called What the Forest Whispers. There are some saucy classical quotations in the music from Künneke’s show The Song of the Sea; there’s also an evocative violin solo and a saxophone one too.
Drdla’s Serenade is a highly welcome piece in the line-up; it’s played by Anton once again. The Plaza Theatre fiddlers are on tremulous form for their outing in Friml’s Chanson (in love) and the short-lived Regal Virtuosi shine on Lincke’s Beautiful Waltz.
The transfers are smooth and clean, though rather more airless than I like. But the booklet is full of great gen as always.
-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International
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Works on This Recording
1.
Palladium Memories, medley for pops orchestra by Clifford Greenwood
Conductor:
Clifford Greenwood
Length: 8 Minutes 20 Secs.
2.
Wedding of the Rose by Leon Jessel
Conductor:
Joseph Muscant
Period: Modern
Written: 1911
Length: 3 Minutes 29 Secs.
3.
Les Grenadiers Waltz for orchestra, Op 207 by Emil Waldteufel
Performer:
Al Bollington (Organ)
Conductor:
Anton
Period: Romantic
Length: 3 Minutes 17 Secs.
4.
Hit the Deck: Selection by Vincent Youmans
Conductor:
Joseph Tunbridge
Period: Modern
Length: 7 Minutes 17 Secs.
5.
Moontime, for pops orchestra by Walter Collins
Conductor:
Richard Crean
Length: 2 Minutes 56 Secs.
6.
Perfection by Stuart White
Performer:
Albert Coupe (Trumpet)
Conductor:
Joseph Muscant
Length: 2 Minutes 52 Secs.
7.
Home and Beauty: Selection by Nicholas Brodszky
Conductor:
Frank Collinson
Length: 8 Minutes 31 Secs.
8.
Indian Love Lyrics (4) for voice & piano by Amy Woodeforde-Finden
Conductor:
Joseph Muscant
Period: Modern
Length: 6 Minutes 34 Secs.
9.
Les Sylphides, for pops orchestra by Alfred Pratt
Conductor:
Richard Crean
Length: 2 Minutes 49 Secs.
10.
A La Gavotte, for pops orchestra by Herman Finck
Conductor:
Frank Tours
Length: 2 Minutes 29 Secs.
11.
What the Forest Whispers, waltz for pops orchestra by Charles Zimmerman
Conductor:
Joseph Muscant
Length: 3 Minutes 0 Secs.
12.
The Valley of the Poppies, for pops orchestra by Charles Ancliffe
Conductor:
Richard Crean
Length: 3 Minutes 16 Secs.
13.
Serenade for violin & piano No 1 in A by Franz Drdla
Performer:
Al Bollington (Organ)
Conductor:
Anton
Period: Modern
Written: by 1929
Length: 2 Minutes 57 Secs.
14.
Beautiful Spring, waltz for pops orchestra by Paul Lincke
Performer:
Sidney Torch (Organ)
Conductor:
Emanuel Starkey
Length: 3 Minutes 21 Secs.
15.
Gräfin Mariza: Excerpt(s) by Emmerich Kálmán
Conductor:
William Pethers
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1924; Vienna, Austria
Length: 6 Minutes 15 Secs.
16.
Lady Hamilton (The Song of the Sea): Selection by Eduard Kunneke
Conductor:
Eduard Kunneke
Written: 1926
Length: 7 Minutes 11 Secs.
17.
Chanson "In Love" by Rudolf Friml
Conductor:
Frank Tours
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 4 Secs.
18.
The Busy Bee, morceau caractéristique for pops orchestra by Theodore Bendix
Conductor:
Frank Tours
Length: 2 Minutes 33 Secs.
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