Light Fantastic

Hello, and welcome to the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank

for what promises to be a fabulous and wonderfully nostalgic programme

of British light music.

2011 marks the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain

the party that was centred here on the South Bank of the Thames,

in 1951, and was designed to cheer up austere post-war Britain.

Light music was in its heyday,

and in this concert the BBC Symphony Orchestra will play

a selection of music from the full range of its history

back to Sir Arthur Sullivan, and up to the golden age in the 1950s.

So what is light music?

Think Mantovani, think Music While You Work, Palm Court Orchestras,

Friday Night Is Music Night.

We have a real feast of it for you today.

Conducting, a man who, I think, can really take the credit

for reigniting interest in light music, John Wilson.

It's very difficult to come up with a comprehensive definition

of what light music is,

because it's such an enormous field, but my personal favourite definition

belongs to Andrew Gold, a one-time BBC radio producer.

He said, "Light music is where the tune is more important than

"what you do with it."

It puts that melodic element of the music to the forefront,

and the fact that at the heart of all great light music

are these smashing tunes, tunes with a capital T.

Here to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra is John Wilson.

We start with the Overture di Ballo by Sir Arthur Sullivan.

Famous for the operettas he wrote with WS Gilbert.

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The Overture di Ballo from 1870 by Sir Arthur Sullivan,

played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of John Wilson.

In the last years of his life, Sir Arthur Sullivan said,

"There's only one man to follow me who has genius,

"and that is Edward German."

German was best known for his hit 1902 operetta Merry England,

but also wrote lots of incidental music for the theatre,

in particular for productions of Shakespeare's plays.

Next, we're going to hear some of his music for Romeo & Juliet.

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The incidental music for Romeo & Juliet by Sir Edward German,

conducted by John Wilson, long a great champion of his music.

Probably the most famous and certainly most successful

composer of light music was Eric Coates.

He was born in Nottinghamshire and came to London to make his fortune,

where he played viola for Sir Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orchestra.

Then he gave up his instrument, took up composing full-time, and never looked back.

Coates became a household name.

We're going to continue with a work that was hugely popular

during the Second World War - the Three Elizabeths by Eric Coates.

The Elizabeths in question were Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother,

and the then Princess Elizabeth,

who was 15 when the work was written in 1941.

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The Three Elizabeths by Eric Coates,

culminating in a portrait of our own Queen Elizabeth as a young girl.

It was played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra,

conducted by John Wilson, in this celebration of British light music.

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In the 1940s and the 1950s, BBC radio was central in spreading

interest in light music to all corners of the United Kingdom.

The BBC was based here in London, so many composers made the capital their home,

and were ultimately inspired to write about the city's charms.

The next piece was commissioned by the BBC for its children's' overseas programme,

London Calling, by Eric Coates.

It's followed by a suite by Hayden Wood called London Cameos.

It's the royal associations of London that Hayden Wood portrays.

The city, St James's Park, and Buckingham Palace.

So here's John Wilson with the BBC Symphony Orchestra

and London Calling.

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London Calling by Eric Coates.

Next, it's those London Cameos by Hayden Wood.

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London Cameos by Hayden Wood.

Portraits of the city of London, St James's Park in the spring,

with beautiful birdsong represented by flautist Daniel Pailthorpe,

and lastly, a state ball at Buckingham Palace, complete with quirky waltz.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Wilson.

It was the universal reach of BBC Radio in the first half

of the 20th century that gave light music its universal popularity.

Radio programmes needed distinctive theme tunes,

variety shows of every kind cried out for original music.

After the Second World War, the BBC gave light music lovers their own

dedicated radio channel - the Light Programme - and the opportunities

for a new generation of musicians and composers became enormous.

In the next part of our concert,

we're going to focus on some of the most popular tunes of the 1950s.

The BBC had eight bands and orchestras in the '40s and '50s.

The influence of the American dance band sound generated huge enthusiasm,

and the recording industry was booming.

British light music was in the finest health,

and so long as a composer could write a catchy tune that would fit

on one side of a 78RPM record, success was sure to come.

In the next part of the concert, we'll hear some of those pop hits of their day.

We'll be hearing the frenzied Scrub Brother Scrub, and follow that

with a depiction of the fastest train on the West Coast line, the Coronation Scot.

But we start with Jumping Bean, by Canadian Robert Farnon.

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Coronation Scot by Vivian Ellis,

expressing the excitement of high-speed steam travel.

In a moment, Angela Morley pays a very personal tribute

to Farnon in her Canadian In Mayfair.

Then a charming dance by the great Ernest Tomlinson,

guardian of British light music.

His Waltz For A Princess.

First we create a gentler mood with music by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs.

The slow waltz Dusk.

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Dusk by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, A Canadian In Mayfair

by Angela Morley, and Waltz For A Princess by Ernest Tomlinson.

If our concert today hasn't given you a taste for all those

gems of British light music, then I'm not quite sure what will.

We're going to finish with a wonderful piece by Eric Coates

that beautifully evokes a particular area of this great capital city,

his Knightsbridge March, for years,

used as the theme tune for the BBC radio series In Town Tonight.

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Knightsbridge March by Eric Coates,

played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Wilson.

That was the piece that launched Coates to fame and fortune

after being used as the theme to the radio programme In Town Tonight.

Coates's London home was beseiged after the first broadcasts.

The police had to guard his front door.

BBC Symphony Orchestra, led by Andrew Haveron,

and conducted with great passion and panache by John Wilson,

surely the cheerleader of British light music.

Ladies and gentlemen, the name John Malcolm won't mean much

to many of you, and the title Non-Stop will mean even less.

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But most of you will know this piece.

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Non-Stop by composer John Malcolm, which you may recognise

as the theme music to ITN's news bulletins in the '60s and '70s.

Ending this concert of light music from the Royal Festival Hall

in what is the 60th anniversary year of the Festival of Britain.

I hope you've enjoyed either reminiscing or maybe hearing

this music for the very first time.

From me, Petroc Trelawny, for now, goodbye.

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Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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