CD REVIEW
– RICHARD
ADDINSELL
British Light Music - 1
Philip Martin, Roderick Elms,
Piano
BBC Concert Orchestra / Kenneth
Alwyn
Naxos 8.555229
[68:16]
'
It is good to have
this album back in the catalogue.
It was originally released on the
Marco Polo label in 1994 and
appears to be the first in a new
series from Naxos of 'British
Light Music', which is something
to be celebrated.
Richard Addinsell
(1904-77) was in his time one of
Britain's leading composers for
stage and screen, best known for
his finest work, Warsaw
Concerto, featured in the
wartime film "Dangerous
Moonlight".
The 13 pieces
here, comprising film scores and
incidental items, have lots of
very likeable melodies and nifty
orchestrations. The opening
number, the Theme from
"Goodbye Mr Chips"
– Addinsell's first
international film success –
has been reconstructed for
orchestra by Philip Lane, who has
also arranged the Overture
from "Tom Brown’s
Schooldays", and one
other, as well as being music
consultant and providing 4 1/3
pages of really informative and
very readable booklet notes.
Two of the works, Invitation
Waltz and Festival,
were written for stage plays; and
The Isle of Apples for a
cycle of seven radio plays.
Philip Martin is the soloist on The
Smokey Mountains, an
attractive piano concerto with a
jolly third movement. The theatre
organist, Felton Rapley, had a
hand in the initial arrangement
of a selection from "The
Prince and the Showgirl",
the Marilyn Monroe movie
co-starring and directed by
Laurence Olivier. Journey to
Romance was written for a
London recorded music library.
A favourite track
is the "Fire Over
England"- Suite (8:30)
with its Elizabethan echoes. One
of a duo of arrangements by
Douglas Gamley, "A Tale
of Two Cities"- Theme,
features the piano of Roderick
Elms (also heard on Tune in G).
The composer's hopes that it
might be another Warsaw
Concerto were unfortunately
not realised.
The BBC Concert
Orchestra, to whom this music is
meat and drink, are in customary
excellent form under the baton of
Kenneth Alwyn (born 1925), who
was lost to us last December
(2020). He was once described as
"one of the great British
musical directors" and is
remembered as conductor of the
LSO on Decca's first stereo
recording, Tchaikovsky's 1812
Overture.
There is no need
for a reviewer to try and
"sell" this good
sounding album – recorded in
Golders Green Hippodrome –
to our readers. With so few of
its kind being made these days,
if you missed it first time
around you will likely want to
snap it up now.
One wonders who or
what will be the subject of the
next release in this series.
Let's hope Naxos does not keep us
waiting too long.
© Peter
Burt 2021
Editor's note:- I
think it is relevant to point-out
that whilst the 'Warsaw Concerto'
is credited to Richard
Addinsell and, as Peter states,
is considered to be 'his finest
work', most of this piece [some
experts say all of it ]
was actually the work of Roy
Douglas, who acted as 'ghost
writer' for Addinsell. Douglas never
received appropriate recognition
– nor indeed commensurate
financial reward – for his
labours, notwithstanding that
Addinsell amassed very
considerable wealth – over
many years – from the
composition. It should also be
mentioned that in the case of
most of the other pieces
contained on this CD, Addinsell
required [frequently
considerable] assistance from
several composer / arrangers, in
order to bring his ideas to
performable fruition.
TC
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