CDEA 6080

This release celebrates the wonderful music written for British films during the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s by composers better-known for their works in the classical realm and for the concert hall. Vaughan Williams’s rousing music from the films ‘The Loves of Joanna Godden’ and ‘49th Parallel’ is heard, as is William Walton’s famous Spitfire Fugue from ‘The First of the Few’. Gordon Jacob is represented with his theme and an underscore from ‘Esther Waters’, while John Ireland’s incidental music from ‘The Overlanders’ is on offer, as is some of William Alwyn’s music from ‘The Rake’s Progress’ and ‘Cure for Love’. In some cases these composers’ music was better than the films it was written for, and much of the material heard here is making its first appearance on CD. Orchestras/conductors heard performing these scores include the London Symphony and Royal Philharmonic orchestras conducted by Muir Mathieson, and the Hallé conducted by William Walton.

CDEA 6146

"Kismet, a stage and film success of the mid-'50s, became a hot property again when Alfred Drake, who had starred in the Broadway and West End productions, undertook a U.S. tour in 1962. The original Broadway cast album was on Columbia Records, with the original soundtrack album on MGM. Soon, other labels wanted a recording in their catalogs, and Mantovani obliged Decca Records ( London Records in the U.S.) with this version. ( Capitol Records followed with one featuring Gordon MacRae and Dorothy Kirsten later in 1964; in 1965, RCA Victor recorded Drake when he brought his touring revival to Broadway.) Normally, an album such as this, on which individual singers are cast in specific roles, is categorized as a studio-cast recording; but any album on which Mantovani appears is a Mantovani album as far as the record industry is concerned, and accordingly the conductor receives top billing. In fact, the major presence on the disc is Robert Merrill, who plays the starring role of Hajj the street poet and, with his dramatic baritone, makes much of songs like 'Rhymes Have I', 'Fate', and 'Gesticulate'. But Adele Leigh, portraying Hajj 's daughter Marsinah, also makes a good showing with 'Baubles, Bangles and Beads', and, accompanied by Kenneth McKellar 's Caliph, 'Stranger in Paradise'. McKellar is effective in 'Night of My Nights', and Ian Wallace, as the Wazir, has lots of fun with 'Was I Wazir?' George Forrest and Robert Wright 's score, based on the works of Alexander Borodin, is well suited to Mantovani 's heavily orchestrated approach, and the result is a superior rendition of a much-recorded Broadway favorite."
William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

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