How bewildering the ways of fashion! A few years back a collection such as this would, if it had appeared at all, have sold a few copies and disappeared. Now, thanks to the enterprise of Marco Polo and Hyperion, British Light Music seems all the rage. The recordings made in February 1963 under the baton of George Weldon provided a treasure-chest of this sort of music and have long been the touchstone for those who have always delighted in the genre. Weldon could certainly have made up an entire CD, and I can only hope that the fact that he shares this collection with other conductors means that EMI have a second volume in mind. As it is, this compendium can surely only delight all who try it, mixing sparkling performances of classic, brilliantly tuneful pieces by Coates, Wood, Curzon, Binge, Farnon and others with rarer pieces such as Frederic Bayco’s Elizabethan masque, Alan Langford’s Waltz for strings and Leslie Osborne’s Lullaby for Penelope. The three rare Coates recordings under the conductor himself may obviously be termed definitive; but each of the other conductors represented here knew equally well how to get the very best out of these slight but superbly crafted pieces.
For all that the recording dates range over a period of 15 years, they are blended together well. The music, of course, is sheer delight. Let’s hope for that second volume!'