CD REVIEW – A COCKTAIL OF HAPPINESS
THE MUSIC OF FRED HARTLEY
with the Royal Air Force Salon Orchestra

Many people who read this will be aware of my lifetime passion for light music, to which I listened in the 1950s and 1960s on the BBC Light Programme. Sadly this organisation have now abandoned the genre and one has to turn to recorded music to remind oneself of it's qualities.

Having heard the Royal Air Force Salon Orchestra in concert on several occasions, I was delighted to learn that they had recorded a CD of the music of Fred Hartley, one of my favourite composers.

Many of those reading this will be unfamiliar with Fred's name, after all his last BBC broadcast at the piano, which I heard, was in 1964! His fame, in Britain anyway, was largely between the 1920s and the early 1950s. For several years after World War Two Fred was Head of Light Music for the BBC but much of his later life was spent in Australia.

Fred was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1905 so it is not surprising that a number of his compositions have a Scottish 'feel'. Fred usually led combinations of six to eight players, specialising in a closely—knit string sound, so perfectly recreated by the seven musicians of the RAF Salon Orchestra.

The orchestra opens with the title tune of this recording, Cocktail of Happiness, a delightful piece by Wynford Reynolds. He had two orchestras 'on the air', and for four years during the War was Organiser for the BBC programme 'Music While You Work', to which Fred sometimes contributed.

The orchestra continues with the traditional tune Annie Laurie arranged by Fred, as are all of the items on this recording. Eight of them, however, are original compositions by the maestro, such as this next one, The Ball at Aberfeldy. This is followed by a piece which beautifully captures the close-knit string harmony so cherished by Hartley, My Love Is Like a Red,Red Rose.

Two Hartley originals follow, firstly the beautiful Dreamy Afternoon, a great favourite with pianists, written under the pseudonym of Iris Taylor. It is followed by the often broadcast Whisky Galore, a tribute to Compton Mackenzie's 1947 novel of the same name.

Next, a well-known composition by Amy Woodforde-Finden, Pale Hands I Loved, possibly better known as The Kashmiri Song. Fred wrote a number of arrangements beginning with the words Five Minutes with ..., usually followed by the name of a composer but this one, Five Minutes in Old Vienna, is my favourite.

Following Fred's arrangement of the traditional tune Greensleeves, sometimes attributed to King Henry VIII, the orchestra play the maestro's Scottish Fantasy, followed by his original composition In a Dream. Next, it's back to Scotland for Fred's exhilarating arrangement of The Flowers of Edinburgh and then to Ireland for what might be termed a drawing-room ballad from 1910, Macushla by Dermot Macmurrough.

After Fred's arrangement of The Sailor's Hornpipe, we hear what is perhaps the maestro's most famous composition, Life is Nothing Without Music. It became the signature tune of his ensembles and later that of the BBC Midland Light Orchestra.

An exhilarating tango comes next, Summer Evening in Santa Cruz, a José Payan composition, although my research suggests that it was co-written with Fred Hartley. This is followed by Fred's transcription of the traditional tune Loch Lomond.

A popular 'standard' follows, Jack Strachey's These Foolish Things, but given the Hartley treatment it comes up as fresh as a daisy. Two more transcriptions follow, The Irish Washerwoman and The Rose of Tralee.

The penultimate track of this CD is another José Payan composition, Tango of the Night, arranged of course by Fred Hartley. The RAF Salon Orchestra conclude this recording with a beautiful, tranquil composition by the maestro, At the Whispering Pool.

To say that I enjoyed this CD would be an understatement. It is one of the most delightful recordings that I have ever heard, immaculately played by seven of the Royal Air Force's most skilful musicians.

Fred Hartley, who died in 1980, would have been so proud of this tribute to him. He composed and arranged a considerable number of pieces and I hope that the RAF Salon Orchestra have enough of them in their library to produce another CD dedicated to this master craftsman. To everyone who has read this review and enjoys light orchestral music I urge you to buy this gem. You won't regret it.

© Brian Reynolds, November 2023

This CD can be obtained from your usual supplier or direct from the producer, Mike Purton, at his website: www.mikepurtonrecording.com/shop or by post to: Mike Purton, Thistles, Whetsted Road, Five Oak Green, TONBRIDGE TN12 6RR. Cost is £12.99 plus £2 postage and packaging to the UK and £5 abroad.

This review first appeared in the International Military Music Society's UK Journal, a quarterly members' magazine for those with an interest in military music and musicians (details on the UK Branch website at www.imms-uk.org.uk/)