Though Brian Kay’s name and portrait are used to promote this splendid collection, I suspect the driving force may have been its producer and annotator, Philip Lane, who has done such a lot for British light music on CD. With so much of Malcolm Arnold’s music available, it is astonishing that his typically ebullient and tuneful overture The Roots of Heaven is here receiving its first recording. The same goes for William Alwyn’s attractive set of Scottish dances, which are largely based on traditional tunes. Gordon Jacob’s witty take-off of Rossini’s best-known overture is for me the best-known piece here, but all the rest are very well worth getting to know. Richard Rodney Bennett’s utterly charming Little Suite includes a waltz in best Murder on the Orient Express style, and the ebullient overture by David Lyon is as good as anything on the new Marco Polo CD devoted to him (see above). I had never thought of Sir Malcolm Sargent as a composer, but his contribution proves as rewarding as any, being a most attractive tone-poem with some appropriately breezy melodies. Then there is Clifton Parker’s dainty overture to the musical play The Glass Slipper, plus three tone-poems by sometime BBC producers – Alan Langford contrasting the old world and the new, and Maurice Johnstone and James Langley elegantly depicting some of England’s loveliest countryside.
This really is a most enterprising and enjoyable addition to the repertory of British light music on CD, with stylish playing from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.'