Notes and Editorial Reviews
This is a really splendid collection – the epitome of British light music standing out in a crowded market.
Iain Sutherland served a long and benign apprenticeship with the BBC. His metier is light music, a genre he practised with various BBC orchestras including the ‘regionals’. These included, pre-eminently, the BBC Concert Orchestra, adaptable as ever and still going strong. With that orchestra he took on the mantle of Ashley Lawrence who in turn had taken over the baton from Stanford Robinson - himself a doughty champion of more momentous British music (glorious studio recordings of Bax Symphony 5 and Boughton
Queen of Cornwall).
Sutherland's craft and inspiration irradiates
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this exuberant and poetic collection. Things start with the Coates romp that is
The Merrymakers. This crashes along with pinpoint euphoric accuracy. Much the same applies to his
Dance in the Twilight. Duncan's
Corsican Maid is a Mediterranean sultry if ever there was one. Long high string lines mix it up with castanets, tambourines and the bluest of blue marine horizons. Add to this a faint dash of Berber exoticism. Ernest Tomlinson's
Little Serenade is an innocent little Delian play-some thing. The same composer’s
Dick's Maggot is a bowing and courtseying dance. Iain Sutherland's arrangement of the cantabile section of Macunn's
Land of the mountain and the flood gives us the theme from the Scottish 1960s procurator-fiscal TV series ‘Sutherland's Law’. Grip and raw bite, especially from the brass, provide cordite and pepper. It's crackingly done. After Bliss's mordant and despotic march we hear the Binge miniature,
The Watermill with its prominent and unsleepy role for the cor anglais.
Playful scherzo by Peter Hope, has a slightly jazzy-bluesy overlay. It flaunts its way into Armstrong Gibbs' classic
Dusk. Again the cobwebs are dashed away with pin-point rhythmic intricacy in RVW’s
Seventeen Come Sunday. Chaplin's super-sentimental
Limelight is set amid a hush and tension conjured by Reg Tilsley.
The merry
Arcadians overture precedes the sumptuous but empty
Dream of Olwen. Arnold's gleamy-fresh and rumbustious
English Dance No 6 is belted out with the spirited dial turned up to max. The French horns are just resplendent at 1:05.
My love is like a red red rose, arranged by Gordon Langford, has prominent solo voices for harp and viola. Peter Hope returns for the cheeky
Mexican Hat Dance. The traditional Welsh
Suo Gan, as arranged by Adrian Staines, is straight and soulful. Ketèlbey's
Bells across the meadow adds distanced contentment – shame that the bells sound more iron than devotional. Lastly we hear
Tam O’Shanter’s boozy Caledonianisms from Arnold. The performance is exceptional with that sense of unfocused alcoholically swimming eyes and supernatural danger fully in gear. Sutherland, himself a Scot, ensures that the whinnying and braying brass have never sounded as raucously nor staggered as bibulously.
The liner note is by Sutherland himself. He knows his stuff though Alto’s proofing let through Ketèlbey’s name as ‘Ketelby’. Minor stuff!
This is a really splendid collection – the epitome of British light music standing out in a crowded market. I wish there had been more from Sutherland. Are there other tapes for a second collection? I hope so and so will you if you seek this one out.
-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International
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Works on This Recording
1.
The Merrymakers: Miniature Overture by Eric Coates
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
2.
The Girl from Corsica by Trevor Duncan
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: England
3.
Little Serenade by Ernest Tomlinson
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1955
4.
Springtime: no 3, Dance in the Twilight by Eric Coates
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1937; England
5.
Sutherland's Law (Land of the Mountain and Flood) by Hamish McCunn
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Notes: Arrangment: Iain Sutherland
6.
Things to Come, F 131: Happy March by Sir Arthur Bliss
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1934-1935; England
7.
The Watermill by Ronald Binge
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1958; England
8.
Playful Scherzo by Peter Hope
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
9.
Dusk by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: England
10.
English Folk Song Suite: no 1, March "Seventeen Come Sunday" by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1923; England
11.
Limelight: Theme by Charlie Chaplin
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
12.
The Arcadians: Overture by Lionel Monckton
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1909; England
13.
The Dream of Olwen by Charles Williams
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1947; England
14.
English Dance(s) by Malcolm Arnold
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: England
15.
Mexican Hat Dance by Peter Hope
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
16.
My love is like a red, red rose by Traditional
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Written: Scotland
Notes: Arrangement: Gordon Langford
17.
Suo Gan by Traditional
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Written: Wales, UK
Notes: Arrangement: Adrian Staines
18.
Suite of English Folkdances no 1: Dick’s Maggot by Ernest Tomlinson
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
19.
Bells across the Meadows by Albert William Ketèlbey
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1921; England
20.
Tam O'Shanter Overture, Op. 51 by Malcolm Arnold
Conductor:
Iain Sutherland
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Concert Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1955; England
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: 
( 1 Customer Review )
Altogether Excellent! March 3, 2013
By Henry S. (Springfield, VA) See All My Reviews
"Classical music need not always be stuffy or high brow. Just ask the British, who have excelled in developing an extensive alternative sound world known as British Light Classics, a form of pops classics, I suppose. The disk under discussion here is in fact subtitled British Light Classics and consists of short, lively orchestral compositions which can be enjoyed anywhere,anytime. On this highly appealing recording, veteran conductor Ian Sutherland leads a program of 20 snazzy, snappy pieces- pops classics par excellence. Included are offerings by well-known British composers such as Eric Coates, Sir Arthur Bliss, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold. Additionally, one will find and enjoy high quality selections by unfamiliar British composers, and the opportunity to sample their work offers another valuable dimension to this recording. I am sure you will find this a refreshing change of pace from more serious music, just as I did. Recommended for a very different and satisfying approach to British concert music."
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