Search - Granville Bantock, Billy Mayerl, Norman O'Neill :: British Composers Conduct & Other Rarities

British Composers Conduct & Other Rarities
Granville Bantock, Billy Mayerl, Norman O'Neill
British Composers Conduct & Other Rarities
Genres: Special Interest, Classical
 
  •  Track Listings (22) - Disc #1

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CD Reviews

Fascinating musical curios
Mark Conlan | San Diego, California | 04/13/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)

"A collection of fascinating musical curios by little-known British composers (Sir William Walton is the closest to a major "name" here) in recordings from the 1920's to the 1950's, expertly rehabilitated by Michael Dutton. Ironically, the best tracks are inspired by the plays of Sir James M. Barrie -- Walton's "The Boy David" cues (judging from the numbers on the records -- 21, 22A and 29 -- he wrote a lot more for this play and it's a pity the rest of it is lost!) and Norman O'Neill's "Mary Rose," a fascinating piece of music that, as Alfred Hitchcock (who in the 1960's co-wrote a film script based on the play) said, sounds like Debussy's haunting nocturne "Sirènes." Also especially noteworthy are the ballet music from Eugene Goossens' opera "Judith" and Billy Mayerl's "Sennen Cove," which sounds a good deal like the light-classical pieces Ferde Grofé wrote for Paul Whiteman. If this CD has a flaw, it's that too many of the pieces sound similar even though nine different composers are represented; they tend to fall into the quiet, pastoral mode so beloved of British composers of the period. But much of this music is worth hearing."