He’s
marvelled at movies and musicals,
and pored over pop songs…
now TV music teacher Neil Brand
is talking television in a
three-part series.
Fans of Neil Brand
will know the magic he brings to
TV documentaries: sitting at the
piano and deconstructing songs
and themes. It’s like
lifting a curtain on something
you thought you knew well, only
to discover a whole new world of
meaning.
Brand now turns
his attention to television in
his fifth series which starts on
BBC Four at 9pm on Friday 4th
December.
A fifth
'Lockdown' video from
The Aspidistra Drawing Room
Orchestra
Yearning
(Just For You) by Joe Burke Performance by the
Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra
in lockdown. In this video, Mabel and
Fatty make guest appearances. It
is the first of their videos with
vocals.
The Aspidistra
Webpage now also features a blog. This allows you
to give feedback on any
Aspidistra activity or related
musical matters. If you feel
inclined to tell them something
in future, write it on the blog
page, and they can all see it.
Please spread the
word and sign up for thier
Newsletter.
November 2020
Another
'Lockdown' video from
The Aspidistra Drawing Room
Orchestra
Girls in
Grey by Charles Williams
arranged by Roy Bell
Performance by the Aspidistra
Drawing Room Orchestra in
lockdown.
Girls in Grey was
originally written for the
Women's Junior Air Corps during
World War II and later became
known as the BBC television
Newsreel theme.
November 2020
From Anthony
Wills:
To mark Remembrance Sunday
(8/11/20), BBC4 is screening a
repeat of Dame Vera
Lynn: We'll Meet Again at 8.10 pm
followed by one of those
compilation programmes they do so
well, Dame
Vera Lynn At The BBC (9.10 pm). Should
be good.
Both programmes
should be available on BBC
iPlayer for 30 days. Follow the
links above.
November 2020
Peter
Hope’s 90th birthday.
Peter Hope, noted
Light Music composer and
President of the Light Music
Society, celebrated his 90th
birthday on November 2nd 2020. A
friend and former colleague of
the late Ernest Tomlinson,
Peter's career began in the early
50's as a copyist and arranger.
He soon branched
out into composing and wrote a
great deal of library music,
principally for the publisher
Mozart Edition and frequently
under his pseudonym of William
Gardner. Arguably, his most
well-known opus is The Ring Of
Kerry Suite, which deservedly won
him an Ivor Novello award.
To mark this
auspicious occasion, a two-CD set
of many of his pieces has been
issued, and is reviewed here.
Radio Six
International devoted an
hour-long programme to the life
and work of Peter Hope and we are
pleased to reproduce it, with due
ackowledgement below:
November 2020
André
Rieu has a new CD + DVD Reported by Peter
Burt
ANDRÉ RIEU has a
new CD + DVD, 'JOLLY HOLIDAY' on
Decca 5488182. The CD is live and
is too much a singalong for my
liking. The video is an
interesting look behind the
scenes including the stage
building for his Christmas
concert. As with so many things
in this strange year it is
unlikely there will be his usual
best-selling studio produced
album.
October 2020
Classic
Musicals on the BBC
Information from
Anthony Wills:
Over the next few
weeks, the BBC are showing
classic musicals each week on
BBC2 and BBC4 TV.
On The
Town (Gene Kelly, Frank
Sinatra) (1949) Saturday 7th November,
2.40 pm on BBC 2,repeated
Thursday 12th November, 8 pm BBC4 Music by Leonard
Bernstein and Roger Edens, lyrics
by Adolph Green and Betty Comden https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00789db
Easter
Parade (Judy Garland,
Fred Astaire) (1948)
Saturday 14th November, 3.15 pm
on BBC 2, repeated Thursday 19th
November 8 pm BBC4
Music by Irving Berlin https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0078bmx
Warning: The above
films might only stay on iPlayer
for 30 days after transmission.
However.......
More can
be found on BBC iPlayer: -
A number of
classic movie musicals are still
available on BBC iPlayer to perk
up viewers as venues remain shut
and large-scale live performances
remain impossible.
The films come
predominantly from the Golden Age
of Hollywood
Top Hat
(1935)
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
are the go-to for musical movies
and Top Hat, featuring music and
lyrics by Irving Berlin, may be
one of their finest. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074r4k/top-hat
Carefree
(1938)
The perfect pairing of Astaire
and Rogers continues with this
comedy, which also features the
work of Berlin. The film
controversially (at the time)
featured a "long on-screen
kiss", which shocked
audiences in their droves. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0078lxg/carefree
The Gay
Divorcee (1934)
Based on Dwight Taylor's 1932
musical of the same name (but
controversially leaving out a lot
of Cole Porter's original tunes)
this was another of the ten
movies Astaire and Rogers did
together. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074r43/the-gay-divorce
Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra - A new
piece of British Light Music
On 30 September,
in their first Spotlight Series
concert, musicians from the RPO
brass and percussion sections
performed Jim Parker's 'A
Londoner in New York' to a
socially distanced audience at
Cadogan Hall.
Experience the
hustle and bustle of the Big
Apple through this live recording
in association with ILC Music
Degrees (West Suffolk College)
and enjoy an extract from a
conversation with Jim Parker and
trombonist Matthew Knight as the
introduction. You can listen to
the full interview with the
composer here.
Find out more
about the Spotlight Series of
concerts here.
September 2020
BBC
Instrumental Sessions
As part of the BBC
Instrumental Sessions, the
bassoons of the BBC orchestras
perform Eric Coates’s
Calling All Workers, arranged by
Steve Magee.
More information
about these sessions can be found
HERE
August 2020
Did you
hear Brian Reynolds on Serenade
Radio?
CALLING
ALL WORKERS
Remember 'Music
While You Work' on the BBC? The
programme began 80 years ago this
year.
Announced in the
Radio Times as a “half
hour’s music meant specially
for factory workers to listen to
as they work”, it soon
proved a favourite with all
listeners, as its familiar
signature tune by Eric Coates
rang out.
On August Bank
Holiday Monday, Serenade's Brian
Savin traced the programme's
fascinating history along with
Brian Reynolds.
You can
listen to the programme again via
our Streaming Audio page HERE
August 2020
'Lockdown'
videos from The Aspidistra
Drawing Room Orchestra
'Heather on the
Pampas' by Sydney del Monte,
arranged by Anastasia Arnold
La Morenita by
Mátyás Seiber arranged by Roy
Bell
The Donkey
Serenade by Rudolf Friml arranged
by Adam Bakker
August 2020
Light
music featured as background
music for TV shows
You might like to
know that light music is often
used as background music in the
BBC TV programme 'Antiques
Road Trip'.
A recent episode
in the series was particularly
productive with the following
items spread over two programmes:
On a Spring
Note
Coronation Scot
Runaway Rocking Horse also Swedish Rhapsody,Tick
Tock Tango and Fun Fair
(these three items were played by
Ray Martin and his Orchestra, the
latter two being adjacent items
on a CD.
Not all of the
programmes feature as many items
of light music as the example
above but there is quite often
something to delight us. Also 'Car
SOS' uses light music in
some episodes.
If you feel so
inclined you might still be able
to view these programmes on
'catch-up' TV.
16/11/2020
SOMMERNACHTS KONZERT 2020
SUMMER NIGHT CONCERT
Valery Gergiev / Jonas Kaufmann
Wiener Philharmoniker
10/11/2020
ALED JONES
Blessings
10/11/2020
CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS
The Kanneh-Masons
Michael Morpurgo / Olivia Colman
2/11/2020
AVE REX ANGELORUM
The Choir of Keble College,
Oxford / Matthew Martin
1/11/2020
THROUGH THE CRYSTAL A 90th
Birthday Celebration
09/10/2020
DELIBES : BALLET SUITES
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
/ Neeme Järvi
The London
Light Music Meetings Group was
formed in 2014 to continue to hold the
meetings which were formerly organised by
the Robert Farnon Society.
Each of these takes the
form of a Sunday afternoon event during
which recorded musical items are
presented and discussed; they are held in
May and October of each year.
The range of music genres
is broadly as before embracing Light
Orchestral, Film, TV and Theatre -
related, Big Band and similar material.
The previous successful
format is retained with a central
feature/guest speaker and includes live
performances from time to time.
We
have now expanded this website to include
news items, details of other musical
events, CD and book reviews, and
obituaries.
We
welcome contributions in respect of any
of the above, also comments and articles.
