CD REVIEW
– FAVOURITE
ORCHESTRAL CLASSICS
Philharmonic Concert Orchestra /
Iain Sutherland
SOMM ARIADNE 5012
[78’25”]
'
My review of the
last album by these artistes*
finished with "… let us
hope that Iain might have some
more similar tapes in his
archive", and here we are:
19 tracks recorded in Munich
(June 1988) and Hanover (December
1992). Few conductors are as
accomplished as the veteran Scot
in the lighter orchestral music
on this release.
The opening number
from the 17th century
Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Prelude
('Te Deum'), the original
Eurovision signature tune. Then
there is the tragically
short-lived black English
composer Samuel Coleridge
Taylor's La Caprice de
Nanette from his 'Petite
Suite de Concert', and
popular pieces like Mascagni's Intermezzo
('Cavalleria rusticana'), J
S Bach's Sheep May Safely
Graze in Sir William
Walton's arrangement, de Falla's Ritual
Fire Dance ('El amor brujo'),
Copland's Hoe-Down ('Rodeo'),
Grieg's Norwegian Rustic
Dance ('Lyric Suite') and,
my much-liked, Wedding Day at
Troldhaugen, and
Khachaturian's Galop
('Masquerade Suite') and Sabre
Dance ('Gayane'). En
Bateau ('Petite Suite') by
Debussy also pops up again.
Delius supplies the two longest
tracks (music and titles): On
Hearing the First Cuckoo in
Spring and The Walk in
the Paradise Garden ('A Village
Romeo and Juliet'). Other
tracks come from Prokoviev,
Bizet, Mendelssohn, Stravinsky,
Puccini and Tchaikovsky.
Mention must again
be made of the high-quality
transfer and mastering achieved
by Paul Arden-Taylor. There are
also seven pages of Robert
Matthew-Walker's readable booklet
notes, as well as a couple on the
Maestro, all very clearly
printed. It is a pity there is an
absence of any information about
the first-rate orchestra.
Hats off once more
to SOMM Recordings with the
continued hope it may still have
more of our kind of music up its
sleeves.
*Great Classic Film
Music, Volume II (Ariadne 5009),
2020
© Peter
Burt 2021
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