CD REVIEW – EUROPEAN LIGHT MUSIC CLASSICS
New London Orchestra / Ronald Corp Helios CDH55477 (74’27)

This is a most welcome re-issue on their budget label of a best-selling Hyperion album from 1998. There are 15 tracks that probably can be identified by light music buffs but only be familiar to other folk without being able to put a name to them.

These include Parade of the Tin Soldiers (Jessel), March of the Little Lead Soldiers (Pierné), Glow Worm Idyll (Lincke), Funeral March of a Marionette (Gounod), Polka from Schwanda the Bagpiper (Weinberger), El Relicario (Padilla), The Entry of the Boyars (Halvorsen) and, my favourite, Jonny Heykens Serenade. The earliest piece here is Johann Strauss II’s Tritsch-Tratsch Polka from 1858. Other pieces are by Alfvén, Becucci, Fetrás, Hellmesberger, Lehár, and Waldteufel. 

All are delivered with flair and warmth by Corp – a Church of England priest as well as a man about music – and his orchestra, which he founded in 1988. The recording is Hyperion excellent.

Peter Burt © January 2016

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