Universally known for the Warsaw Concerto from the wartime film Dangerous Moonlight, Richard Addinsell composed a good deal else for British films and radio. From my own film-going days of the 1950s and 1960s I well remember the strong impression created by his attractive music for The Greengage Summer and The Waltz of the Toreadors, and much the same happy impression is made by the music here. The film scores represented range chronologically from Fire over England (1937), through Goodbye Mr Chips (1939), Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951) and The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) to A Tale of Two Cities (1958), and all present music of the same undemanding, sensitive, relaxing and highly melodic nature. The high-spirited selection from The Prince and the Showgirl is especially cheering. Besides four individual numbers not connected with films, there is also the Smokey Mountains Concerto, with three curiously contrasted movements that are each effective in their very different ways.
Addinsell himself composed only for piano, being celebrated also as accompanist and arranger for Joyce Grenfell. The original orchestrations of his music were done by the likes of Leonard Isaacs and Douglas Gamley, and much of the orchestral material for this recording has been prepared by Philip Lane, who also provides the informative notes. Instead of the usual Slovak orchestra, this time we have a native British orchestra, conductor and piano soloists to whom music such as this is meat and drink. The benefits are readily apparent making yet another attractive release in this highly enterprising series.'