Newspaper Article

Views, Reviews, Previews: CD Reviews; Light (Marco Polo) and Heavy (CPO)

Abbott, John

1999

Overview

British light music is most often associated with BBC radio programs from the 1930s onwards, and [Eric Coates] (1886-1957) contributed more than most. His marches and serenades were frequently used as BBC signature tunes, most famously for Desert Island Discs, which still uses its original tune today, after 50 years (and is unthinkable without it). That piece, \"Sleepy Lagoon,\" is included on this disk along with two of Coates' suites of short orchestral pieces,: \"The Four Ways Suite\" (1927) and the \"Springtime Suite\" (1937). Also on the disk are two marches in the same vein as Coates' famous \"Dambusters March\" (not included here), and two concert dances. And there is the \"Saxo Rhapsody,\" a ten-minute concerto in one movement, which Michael Ponder in the notes claims as \"one of the major saxophone pieces from the earlier part of this century,\" alongside Debussy's Rhapsody.

• Publisher: Alameda Publishing Corp
• Subject: Classical music / Coates, Eric / Entertainment / Music / Searle, Humphrey