Composer: Eric Coates
Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: John Wilson
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Catalogue: CHAN20292
Release: 2024
Size: 1.09 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Music Everywhere ‘Rediffusion March’
02. Footlights (Concert Valse)
03. I Sing to You (Souvenir)
The Three Bears (Phantasy)
04. I. WHO’S BEEN SITTING IN MY CHAIR?’
05. II. Goldilocks gets out of bed and dresses
06. III. Clock strikes five
07. IV. Goldilocks knocks at the Bears’ door
08. V. Goldilocks falls asleep in the small Bear’s Bed
09. VI. Enter the Three Bears
10. VII. The Three Bears rush upstairs
11. VIII. She runs away, followed by the Three Bears
12. IX. The Three Bears make the best of it and return home, in the best of humour
13. X. Goldilocks continues on her way home
14. XI. As for the Three Bears – They put up a notice: ‘BEWARE! THREE HUNGRY BEARS LIVE HERE!’
From Meadow to Mayfair (Suite for Orchestra)
15. I. In the Country (Rustic Dance)
16. II. A Song by the Way (Romance)
17. III. Evening in Town (Waltz)
18. Under the Stars
Four Centuries Suite
19. I. Prelude and Hornpipe
20. II. Pavane and Tambourin
21. III. Valse
22. IV. Rhythm
John Wilson’s fourth volume devoted to music by Eric Coates opens with Music Everywhere, a rousing march that was commissioned by Britain’s first independent TV and radio service, Rediffusion, for use as its signature tune. The concert waltz Footlights is a life-affirming evocation of the glamour of the inter-war West End, created just weeks before the start of the Second World War. In wartime, as it turned out, the demand for refreshing, morale-boosting music would be higher than ever. Coates’s ‘Souvenir’ I Sing to You was premièred on 14 March 1940 – the week in which wartime meat rationing was introduced in the UK. Composed for his young son Austin, The Three Bears Phantasy transports the Goldilocks fairytale firmly into the 1920s. From Meadow to Mayfair reflects Coates’s own journey from rural Nottinghamshire to life in London. Under the Stars, composed in 1928, marks the first inclusion by Coates of an alto saxophone in his orchestration. The Four Centuries Suite is one of Coates’s most substantial compositions – not only in length, but also in the size of the orchestra. Its four movements evoke the musical styles of the sevent eenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Dedicated to his wife, Phyllis, the work is also a celebration of the couple’s lifelong love of dancing.