R2OK!

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 1707 Location: Northumberland

Heard the first 45 minutes or so in the car yesterday evening.

A little clanger at the start. The first piece was both front and back-credited as Eric Coates' Merrymakers Overture and this is apparently confirmed on the Music Played list on the BBC website. But what they actually played was the not dissimilar Covent Garden from Coates' London Suite.

But I'll forgive anything when they also include the Litolff Scherzo and Hoffnung's peerless Bricklayer letter.

Ian.

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 2071 Location: Warwickshire, UK

Tut, tut, what a clanger. I haven't listened to Titch for a long time. Sounds like he does a proper mix of music still.

I think the Litolff Scherzo is quite corny. We never hear the complete work. I have it on CD somewhere.

I took a recording of Hoffnung's Bricklayer Letter from Des Carrington's show some time ago and I use it in a business training course, a humorous start to getting the message to directors of construction companies that they should provide training and appropriate equipment to prevent accidents and to comply with construction regulations (CDM 2007) Smile

John

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 1707 Location: Northumberland

Peter Donohue, whose recording was used last night, has recorded the concerti nos 2 to 5. The score of No 1 has been lost. The renowned scherzo comes from no 4.

Ian.

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 2071 Location: Warwickshire, UK

Yes it is Peter Donohue's recording I have, he recorded it/them for Hyperion but I seem to have recorded it from a Classic FM evening programme couple of years ago Razz

becky sharp · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 98

I'm loving this programme tonight......the music is delightful...it's just right for winding down to.....if like me you have been in the company of a busy little girl who always has lots to do......and wants her Nana to join in......all the time..... Very Happy

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 2823 Location: Cheshire

Hi Becky,

I'm just thinking the same, it's bringing back so many memories for me. Magic Moments, "the time the floor fell out when I put the clutch down", we used to sing it on the way back from the coast in the back of the car!

Blue Danube, a trip on it in Vienna, as a teenager.

Peter Skellern, he was he cabaret in a dinner we were at in a Manchester hotel about 15 years age that I'd forgotten about.

That's just the first hour! It's my clearing away music after our late dinner.

H
_________________
88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 11/3/2005

becky sharp · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 98

Hi Helen,

I love lots of Peter Skellern songs.....beautiful arrangements.....did he just accompany himself when you saw him?...i'm wondering what he sounded like live as he surely couldn't haul a brass band with himself everywhere.. Shocked

I hadn't heard O maiden,my maiden, before....lovely ..and Jake Thackray!!... Laughing

.and now the racing song from My Fair Lady....that is stunning to watch....

Much to enjoy!

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 2823 Location: Cheshire

Becky,

From memory I think there were 2 or 3 other musicians accompanying him and he sounded wonderful and was very funny. Our table was quite close to the stage which made it even better.

It's absolutely ages since I've heard anything by Jake Thackeray, you don't realise just how much we don't hear on R2 these days.

I do wish they had left the show running for 2 hours though.

H
_________________
88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 11/3/2005

becky sharp · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 98

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 4810

A fantastic selection, to judge by the playlist (I never get to listen at that hour). I think the choice of music is lighter than it was when Alan started in that slot.

Peter Skellern also did shows, and a couple of albums, as a double act with the much-maligned but very clever Richard Stilgoe. Nothing on youtube, though, to illustrate.
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Ron

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PYcqg9p--4

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 2823 Location: Cheshire

Just checked out the playlist and there are a few errors on it Ron. Peter Skellern's track was You're A Lady to start with.

The playlist information was much better before they mucked around with the website IMHO.

I read elsewhere that the iPlayer had some upgrades last week and it seems that it works better from the webpage now rather than having to go to the iPlayer home page.

The sound is lower if and when you come to record anything though.

H
_________________
88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 11/3/2005

becky sharp · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 98

Love Walked In is not at the top of the list when I think about Gershwin songs....but sometimes you hear a song and you see/hear Smile

it in a different light ...tonight a young man of seventeen performed a lovely version of it on Alan's programme,and did just that, for me...
.
Hearing Danny Kaye's Inchworm is always a joy..... what a gorgeous song that is

And Vilja,again, just a few weeks after hearing it on Desmond Carrington's show .....wonder if Helen May was listening and singing along to it?... Smile

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 2823 Location: Cheshire

I was Becky LOL! I remember singing Inchworm at school as well.

Good one tonight I thought.

H

PS did you hear Skellern and Stillgoe's 'Joyce The Librarian' last week?
_________________
88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 11/3/2005

becky sharp · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 98

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 2071 Location: Warwickshire, UK

becky sharp · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 98

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 2071 Location: Warwickshire, UK

Yes that's the same George Melachrino who had a large light orchestra and made it huge in USA as well as Europe in the 1950s/60s.

In the 1930's he could play just about any instrument but was employed mainly for saxophone and violin, and he sang quite a few records for Carroll Gibbons, a fine voice I think. He also wrote many of the music arrangements for the Gibbons' records, probably Love Walked In is one.

I have one of his Music For Pleasure LPs from 1965, in fact it was his last album. It has great new (at the time) maybe a bit 'lush' arrangements of Stardust, Blue Room, Begin The Beguine etc. That year he unfortunately fell asleep in his bath and drowned, it's one of those biographical details I wish I hadn't read Confused

but you always want to know what happened to someone.

becky sharp · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 98

What an awful death.... Sad

It struck me to ask you a question,John...hope you don't mind

I have asked it many times without success anywhere.....

When I was little my dad used to sing songs to us all the time....lots were (now I think of it )sort of like music hall songs..there is one I remember but none of my sisters remember it...which is beginning to make me think I was the only one around when he sang it .... Confused

Anyhow it had the following words in it ... not in order I might add

"Oh I'm Solly always jolly

And I said to the waiter bring me fish and tata..(as in potatoes) cos I'm Solly from Petticoat Lane"

Not a lot to go on....does it ring any bells with you?

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 1707 Location: Northumberland

During the war George Melachrino was apparently nicknamed the Sentimental Sergeant-Major.

One or two of his compositions, like Winter Sunshine and Les Jeux, are still knocking about in the catalogues.

Ian.

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 4810

That Melachrino LP was one of the first to be issued on EMI's Music For Pleasure label, then a new concept - the budget-price album. My mum still has her copy, almost as new - and you're right, the arrangements are very lush (very like Mantovani).
_________________
Ron

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PYcqg9p--4

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 2071 Location: Warwickshire, UK

becky,

I don't know your music hall song and a google didn't find Solly from Petticoat Lane.

Some may have heard of Melachrino cigars and cigarettes, old tins can be found on ebay. That was George's family's old business which they sold to Tobacco Products Corporation maybe early 1900s, which sort of grew into what is now Phillip Morris 'Marlboro', and Philip Morris did market a 'Melachrino' cigar up until the 1950s.

Another tragedy in George's life was while he was touring Europe, with the orchestra in WWII, his wife and children were killed in a London air raid. I don't know what other family he might have had. After his death in 1965 his orchestra was taken on by Robert Mandell.

Melachrino's success in USA was largely through his series of albums of 'mood' music, I don't know if there was any original music in those, maybe just lush smooth arrangements of standards, but the albums were titled like Music for Faith and Inner Calm, Music to Help You Sleep, Music for Two People Alone, Music for Daydreaming, stuff like that which the Americans loved Smile

John

becky sharp · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 98