Notes and Editorial Reviews
A subtle balance of well-crafted music, lost innocence, joyfulness and happiness and imagination.
The liner-notes give a very good description of what this CD is all about: it is worth quoting: ‘The word ‘confetti’ describes small pieces of paper, of various shapes and colours, often thrown by guests at weddings. In musical terms it can equally apply to an assortment of pieces in different styles, conveying a variety of moods and emotions. In other words, almost a haphazard collection of tunes with no particular theme, except perhaps that they are all a little different.’
One of the delights of the
Golden Age of Light Music series is the fact that the compilers have endeavoured to ‘theme’ each
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successive release. Inevitably, they came across many pieces of music that did not quite ‘fit’ with the chosen topics. Yet it would have been a pity to have ignored these numbers, so
Confetti, like
Kaleidoscope before it, aims to ‘sweep up’ some of these ‘lost’ works. It is a job well done.
This is not music that needs to be analysed: its raison d’être is simply to be enjoyed. However there is an interesting balance between composers who are well-known to the average listener and those that are only celebrated by the light music specialist or enthusiast. One surprise is
Market Day by Wilfred Josephs, a composer who is perhaps better known for his concert, film and television scores. Yet this jolly piece from the late fifties, is both enjoyable and well-wrought: it certainly succeeds in providing a good mental image of its subject.
Other big names include Robert Farnon’s imaginative
Manhattan Playboy – who would not like to be associated with this glamorous character? Frederic Curzon’s
Mischief is exactly that: a little piece that is slightly naughty but not wicked.
How does one listen to this CD? I guess that it is like a finger buffet: a little nibble here and there. It would be a pity to just through-play this disc with no reference to the track listing. Some of the joys of light music are the titles and the moods that they can evoke in an imaginative mind. Who will not be impressed by romantic notions such as
Violins in Velvet,
Musik Klingt Durch Die Nacht (Music sounds through the night) and
Confetti? Or there are the topographical images of
Via Amalfi,
Utopia Road,
Champs Elysées Café with romantic tune accordion and car horns, and the previously mentioned
Market Day? Then there are the novelty numbers such as
Who Killed Cock Robin?
Bees a Buzzin’,
Bluebell Polka and
Treble Chance. And finally
Joey’s Song pushes gently towards a soft Rock and Roll complete with electric guitar.
And then the musicals are not ignored on this CD: Rodgers and Hammerstein contribute
Getting to Know You, Cole Porter is represented with
I Concentrate on You and the music for the show
Dear Miss Phoebe is by Harry Parr-Davies.
A number of delightful dance numbers include Camerata’s
Pizzicato Rumba, Joseph Kuhn’s
Montevideo Bolero and F. Stanley’s
Bluebell Polka. There are many other pieces that make up this smorgasbord of delights
Yet it is the overall ambience of virtually all of this music that will appeal to most listeners. It is a subtle balance between well-crafted music, a feeling of lost innocence, a mood of joyfulness and happiness and an appeal to the imagination that characterises this music. On all these accounts this is a highly successful and enjoyable disc.
-- John France, MusicWeb International
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Works on This Recording
1.
Confetti, for pops orchestra by Bronislaw Kaper
Conductor:
Johnny Green
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 22 Secs.
2.
Champs Elysées Café, for pops orchestra by Joseph Kuhn
Period: Modern
Length: 3 Minutes 34 Secs.
3.
Impressions (3) for Orchestra: no 3, Manhattan playboy by Robert Farnon
Conductor:
Leslie Jones
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1948; England
Length: 2 Minutes 32 Secs.
4.
Musik klingt durch die Nacht, song by Härtel
Conductor:
Hans-Georg Arlt
Period: Modern
Length: 3 Minutes 7 Secs.
5.
In My Memoirs, song by Jimmy McHugh
Conductor:
Robert Farnon
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 23 Secs.
6.
Lina, song by Francis Lopez
Performer:
Mitch Miller (Oboe)
Conductor:
Percy Faith
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 52 Secs.
7.
Broadway Melody of 1940: I concentrate on you by Cole Porter
Conductor:
Buddy Bergman
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1940; USA
Length: 2 Minutes 45 Secs.
8.
Pizzicato Rhumba, for pops orchestra by Salvatore '. Camarata
Conductor:
Salvatore '. Camarata
Period: Modern
Length: 3 Minutes 24 Secs.
9.
Nota per nota, for pops orchestra by Guido Viezzoli
Conductor:
George Melachrino
Period: Modern
Length: 3 Minutes 1 Secs.
10.
Via Amalfi, for pops orchestra by Joseph Kuhn
Conductor:
Roberto Rossani
Period: Modern
Length: 3 Minutes 7 Secs.
11.
Montevideo Bolero, for pops orchestra by Joseph Kuhn
Performer:
Dolores Ventura (Piano)
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 43 Secs.
12.
Joey's Song by Joe Reisman
Conductor:
Joe Reisman
Length: 2 Minutes 13 Secs.
13.
Twice Around the Island, for pops orchestra by Joseph J. Leahy
Conductor:
David Carroll
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 5 Secs.
14.
Bees-a-Buzzin', for pops orchestra by Edrich Siebert
Conductor:
Dolf van der Linden
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 12 Secs.
15.
Mischief, for pops orchestra by Frederic Curzon
Conductor:
Sidney Torch
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 23 Secs.
16.
Gadabout, for pops orchestra by Cyril Watters
Conductor:
Dolf van der Linden
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 21 Secs.
17.
Violins in Velvet, for pops orchestra by Leslie Begueley
Conductor:
Louis Voss
Period: Modern
Length: 3 Minutes 3 Secs.
18.
Market Day, for pops orchestra by Wilfred Josephs
Conductor:
Cedric Dumont
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 58 Secs.
19.
Treble Chance, for pops orchestra by Peter Dennis
Conductor:
Dolf van der Linden
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 50 Secs.
20.
Parade of the Champions, for pops orchestra by George French
Conductor:
Dolf van der Linden
Period: Modern
Length: 3 Minutes 4 Secs.
21.
Florella, song by L.E. Defrancesco
Period: Modern
Length: 1 Minutes 51 Secs.
22.
Who killed cock Robin? by Traditional
Conductor:
Kurt Rehfeld
Length: 3 Minutes 17 Secs.
23.
Dear Miss Phoebe: Selection by Harry Parr-Davies
Conductor:
Tom Jenkins
Length: 6 Minutes 49 Secs.
24.
Utopia Road, for pops orchestra by Dolf van der Linden
Conductor:
Dolf van der Linden
Period: Modern
Length: 2 Minutes 28 Secs.
25.
The King and I: Getting to Know You by Richard Rodgers
Conductor:
William Hill-Bowen
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1951; USA
Length: 2 Minutes 47 Secs.
26.
Bluebell Polka by Fred Stanley
Conductor:
Ron Goodwin
Length: 2 Minutes 23 Secs.
27.
Hora staccato (after Grigoras Dinicu) by Jascha Heifetz
Conductor:
Morton Gould
Period: Modern
Length: 3 Minutes 13 Secs.
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