Percy Grainger; Eric Coates - Country Gardens and Other Favorites (Frederick Fennell)

Information

Composer: Percy Grainger; Eric Coates

1. Granger - Country Gardens
2. Granger - Sheperd's Hey!
3. Granger - Colonial Song
4. Granger - Children's March ("Over the Hills and Far Away")
5. Granger - The Immovable Do
6. Granger - Mock Morris
7. Granger - Handel in the Strand
8. Granger - Danny Boy (trad. Irish, arr. Grainger)
9. Granger - Spoon River
10. Granger - My Robin is to the Greenwood Gone
11. Granger - Molly on the Shore
12. Coates - The Three Elizabeths: 1. Halcyon Days
13. Coates - The Three Elizabeths: 2. Springtime in Angus
14. Coates - The Three Elizabeths: 3. Youth of Britain

Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra (1-11)
London "Pops" Orchestra (12-14)
Frederick Fennell, conductor

Date: 1959 (1-11), 1965 (9-12)
Label: Mercury

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Review

Certainly no complaints about the orchestral playing on this immensely enjoyable Grainger programme. Fennell coaxes some typically beefy, big-hearted sounds from his enthusiastic Eastman-Rochester forces, and his fresh-faced conducting betokens a genuine affection for this repertoire. About the Mercury recording I'm less sure, though: the internal clarity and range on these 1959 tapes remain remarkable (even if balance is, in truth, closer than ideal), but violin timbre is distinctly wiry and a certain lack of ambient glow does prove somewhat tiring on the ear after a while.

The lively Coates coupling, set down some six years later within Watford Town Hall, sounds rather more congenial. This, too, is accorded delightful treatment, with a memorable oboe solo in ''Springtime in Angus'' (one of Coates's most indelible tunes—which is certainly saying something!). Ignore my technical protestations: what we have here is yet another winner from the vintage Mercury stable.

-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.amazon.com/Fennell-Conducts-Grainger-Coates-Favorites/dp/B0000057M2

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Percy Grainger (8 July 1882 – 20 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career, he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many adaptations of other composers' works. Despite his conservatory training, Grainger rebelled against the disciplines of the central European tradition, largely rejecting conventional forms such as symphony, sonata, concerto and opera. The piece with which he is most generally associated is his piano arrangement of the folk-dance tune "Country Gardens".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Grainger

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Eric Coates (27 August 1886 – 21 December 1957) was an English composer of light music and a viola player. He was principal violist of the Queen's Hall Orchestra under Henry J. Wood for 7 years. Coates's music, with its simple and memorable melodies, proved particularly effective for theme music. Several of his compositions was used by BBC to introduce its programs. Coates is also well known for his contribution to the film score for The Dam Busters (1955). Coates made a number of 78 rpm recordings of his music for The British Columbia label and Decca Records. Some of these were later issued on LP and CD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Coates

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Frederick Fennell (July 2, 1914 – December 7, 2004) was an internationally recognized conductor, and one of the primary figures in promoting the wind ensemble as a performing group. He was also influential as a band pedagogue, and greatly affected the field of music education in the USA and abroad. Conducting the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and various other groups, Fennell recorded many of the standards of the wind band repertoire and was one of America's most-recorded conductors. Nearly all of Fennell's Mercury recordings were reissued on compact disc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Fennell

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