CD REVIEWS – FILM MUSIC CLASSICS Vaughan Williams
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Naxos 8.573659

Orchestra conducted by Andrew Penny. 49th Parallel; The Story of a Flemish Farm suite; Coastal Command suite; Three portraits from the England of Elizabeth. This welcome release of a former Marco Polo CD with updated notes is to be welcomed by all lovers of light music, especially the film genre.

Unmistakably VW in content those familiar with his nine symphonies will recognise snatches of a later more serious output. The first three films were patriotic wartime offerings while the fourth was a 1955 documentary voiced over by Martin Clunes’s father, Alec, marking the second Elizabethan era by looking back at the first. Excellent stirring music.

Edmund Whitehouse
July 2016

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