The title of these pieces won’t ring much of a bell with any but the most avid Coates fans. Indeed none of them seems to have been recorded in the LP or CD era. So far as I can tell, four pieces (The Unknown Singer, Coquette, Idyll and The Green Land) are here recorded for the first time ever. But what delights there are! It goes without saying that Coates’s craftsmanship is in evidence from start to finish. Yet so often, one wonders just why a particular piece never quite made it in the way his most popular works did. Isn’t Summer Afternoon every bit as delightful as By the Sleepy Lagoon? And wouldn’t Salute the Soldier have served just as well as other marches as a radio signature tune? Most simply, aren’t Under the Stars, For Your Delight and others just simply such utter charmers?
If this collection leaves me in raptures, credit is due not only to Coates himself but also the BBC Concert Orchestra who play so beautifully, and to conductor John Wilson who, though no more than 24 years old, seems thoroughly imbued with the Coates style. The recorded sound is quite beautifully crisp and clean, too. Once more appreciation is due to producer Michael Ponder, who was previously responsible for two delightful collections of Coates songs (ASV, 3/87 and Marco Polo, 4/96). I really do hope that readers will sample the pleasures of this splendid collection.'