
PRESIDENT: SIR ANDREW DAVIS CBE
Music for Stage and Screen
Archive recordings from the film and theatre worlds
Ralph Vaughan Williams’s great theme for the wartime film 49th Parallel (which opens and closes the album) has reappeared in many guises, but is still popular in its original form.
Muir Mathieson, who recorded the soundtrack, made this early recording in 1948. A composer himself, Mathieson conducted music for many films and commissioned film scores from others, including several on this recording.
At the heart of this release is Sir Thomas Beecham’s memorable performance of Falla’s El Amor Brujo taken from the soundtrack to the film Honeymoon (1962). Beecham knew Manuel de Falla and brings remarkable authority to the music along with his trademark rhythmic elan and lyrical expressiveness. Beecham did not record El Amor Brujo commercially which adds to the special appeal of the new recording.
Gustav Holst’s ballet The Perfect Fool was first performed in 1923, but the recording presented here is Sir Adrian Boult’s first recording, from 1954.
Lorna’s Song from the film Lorna Doone is the only film music composed by Rutland Boughton; this brings back to circulation a delightful recording not heard since the days of 78s, and sung by the star of the film, Victoria Hopper, who is featured on the cover image. The excerpts from the first performances of Hassan by Delius were recorded live in 1923 and have not previously been issued in a digital audio format. The album also includes evocative music by Alwyn, Bliss, Clifton Parker and Walton.

CRITICAL REVIEWS
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Postage is fixed at £3 per order – to anywhere in the world – irrespective of the number of CDs in the order.
- Ralph Vaughan Williams
Prelude to 49th Parallel
Muir Mathieson/London Symphony Orchestra, 1949 - Gustav Holst
Ballet Music from The Perfect Fool
Sir Adrian Boult/London Philharmonic Orchestra, 1954 - Sir William Walton Excerpts from Henry V
Death of Falstaff’ - ‘Touch her Soft Lips and Part’
Sir William Walton/Philharmonia String Orchestra,1945 - William Alwyn
Main Theme from The Cure for Love
Muir Mathieson/London Symphony Orchestra, 1949 - William Alwyn
‘Calypso Music’ from The Rake’s Progress
Muir Mathieson/London Symphony Orchestra, 1946 - Clifton Parker
‘Seascape’ from Western Approaches
Muir Mathieson/London Symphony Orchestra.01946 - Rutland Boughton
‘Lorna’s Song’ from Lorna Doone
Victoria Hopper (soprano) with Orchestra, 1934 - Sir Arthur Bliss
March from Things to Come
Sir Arthur Bliss/London Symphony Orchestra, 1936 - Frederick Delius
Excerpts from Hassan
H. Farrar (tenor) with Percy Fletcher/His Majesty’s Theatre Chorus & Orchestra, 1923
Manuel de Falla El Amor Brujo (abridged) from Honeymoon - Introduction and Scene: With the Gypsies, Song of the Broken Heart
- The Apparition/Dance of Terror, The Magic Circle, At Midnight
- Ritual Fire Dance, Song of the Will-o’-the-Wisp
- Pantomime
- Dance of the Game of Love, Finale
Sir Thomas Beecham/Studio Orchestra (Rome Radio Orchestra) 1958 - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Epilogue from 49th Parallel
Muir Mathieson/London Symphony Orchestra, 1946
Total CD length: 65’53.
ALBCD041 – Music for Stage and Screen
5060158190416
Release date: 25 September 2020
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