Nigel Hess has worked primarily in the field of television, theatre and film, contributing 20 scores for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He knows how to orchestrate, and he has a genuine melodic facility. This is shown readily in The TV Detectives, which brings together five of the composer's TV themes of some memorability, including Dangerfield, Wycliffe and Hetty Wainthrop Investigates. All the concert music here was commissioned, mostly for expert youthful groups of wind instrumentalists, and easily the most impressive piece is the exhilarating To the Stars, which gets a real lift-off by the enthusiastic contribution from the children of Daubney Middle School. They obviously enjoy themselves hugely and their spontaneous surges of vocal energy take the listener with them. However, Thames Journey, although it opens with trickling woodwind at its source like Smetana's 'Vltava', and then introduces a Wiltshire folk melody on the horn as its principal idea, is little more than a lively pot-pourri, including Greensleeves and later The Lass of Richmond Hill.
The three East Coast Pictures are of the Eastern seaboard of the USA and are curiously without any strong American inflexions. Stephenson's Rocket is robust and jolly, but I expected a better train imitation. The Winds of Power is more evocative, but to my ears rather loosely constructed. More succinct is Scramble! which celebrates the Battle of Britain vividly enough, but its invention is not especially memorable. Yet all these works have plenty of vitality and must be grateful to play, so serve their main purpose well enough. They are brilliantly presented here and given excellent Chandos sound.'