The Full Works Concert - Tuesday 2 July 2013: A Light Music Spectacular

Tonight, Jane Jones presents a toe-tapping selection of music in a Light Music Spectacular!

Tonight Jane Jones enters a bygone age and explores the scintillating world of light music - a form that is increasingly being rediscovered and championed by orchestras around the United Kingdom.

Among tonight's highlights is the London Landmarks Suite by Haydn Wood (1882-1959), a composer who was given his name because, at the time of his birth, his father had just attended a performance of Haydn’s Creation. The March from this suite was used for many decades as the signature tune to the radio show, Down your Way.

London was always an inspiration to the composer Eric Coates, pictured, best known for his Dambusters March. Whereas many British composers sought inspiration in the countryside it was usually the reverse for Coates. He was most happy working with the sounds and excitement of the capital. The years from 1926 to 1939 were the most prolific in Coates' career and it was during this period that he wrote The Three Men. This suite evokes three different types of man - the man from the country, the man about town, and the man from the sea. Listen out particularly for the tender romantic tune for the opening of ‘The man about town’.

Coates’s Cinderella is a masterpiece of light music - a tone poem relating the classic story with great verve and wit. Hesitant strings suggest the beauty and essential humility of Cinderella, grotesque sardonic material evokes the ugly sisters. Later, a series of waltzes recounts the progress of the story at the ball; 12 crashes signify both midnight and the end of Cinderella’s golden dream - until the prince comes by with a missing shoe.

Another highlight is Anthony Hedges' three movement Ayrshire Serenade. It was commissioned by the Craigie College of Education in Ayr and first performed by the Ayrshire Symphony Orchestra in May 1971. It's a brilliantly inventive piece, ranging from the beautiful and rustic to the humorous and effervescent.

Eric Coates: The Merrymakers – Overture
Iain Sutherland conducts the Iain Sutherland Concert Orchestra 

Eric Coates: The Three Men Suite
John Wilson conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 

Robert Farnon: Manhattan Playboy
Iain Sutherland conducts the Iain Sutherland Concert Orchestra

Leroy Anderson: Plink! Plank! Plunk!
Ronald Corp conducts the New London Orchestra 

Haydn Wood: London Landmarks
Gavin Sutherland conducts the Royal Ballet Sinfonia

Paul Lewis: Festival of London March
Paul Lewis conducts the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields 

Oscar Fretras: Moonlight on the Alster
Ronald Corp conducts the New London Orchestra 

Herman Finck: In the Shadows
Ronald Corp conducts the New London Orchestra

Anthony Hedges: An Ayrshire Serenade
Gavin Sutherland conducts the Royal Ballet Sinfonia 

Abe Holzman: Blaze Away!
Ronald Corp conducts the New London Orchestra

Eric Coates: Cinderella: A Phantasy
John Wilson conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Anthony Collins: Vanity Fair
Ronald Corp conducts the New London Orchestra

Charles Williams: A Quiet Stroll
Ronald Corp conducts the New London Orchestra  

Jerome Kern: Folks Who Live on the Hill
Iain Sutherland conducts the Iain Sutherland Concert Orchestra 

Leon Jessel: Parade of the Tin Soldiers
Ronald Corp conducts the New London Orchestra