Last spring (2006) David Ades was approached by the British company Jasmine Records to discuss the possibility of a 2CD collection of Robert Farnon recordings. Rather than repeat the repertoire which has already appeared on other labels, the early discussions centred on recordings that were new to CD. However, at the same time Jasmine naturally wanted to include some of Robert Farnon’s best known works, so that the collection would have a general appeal – especially in North America where Jasmine is a strong seller. Jasmine is gradually building up an impressive catalogue of light music releases, with recent issues featuring Mantovani, Gordon Jenkins and Hugo Winterhalter.
David suggested that the inclusion of some of Robert Farnon’s soundtracks from the 1940s would certainly appeal to his admirers, especially as they have never before been available on commercial recordings. It was also agreed that many of his Decca 78s accompanying popular singers deserved to be restored to the catalogue, and gradually the concept for this new release began to take shape.
David recommended that Alan Bunting should handle the digital sound restoration, and work on the project began in earnest last autumn. Rather than mix the vocals and instrumentals, it was decided that the first CD would concentrate on Bob’s famous numbers, with four longer extracts from film soundtracks. The second CD concentrates on the Decca singles he conducted – many of them featuring his own brilliant arrangements. The result is a collection that provides a snapshot of his formative years in Britain, with plenty of tracks being reissued for the first time in over half a century – thereby making the release of great interest to existing Farnon fans, as well as those who will be discovering his genius for the first time.
CD 1 Orchestral and Film Music
1 Portrait Of A Flirt (Robert Farnon)
KINGSWAY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
2 Gateway To The West (Robert Farnon)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
3 Westminster Waltz (Robert Farnon)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
4 All Sports March (Robert Farnon)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
5 "JUST WILLIAM’S LUCK" (1947) film soundtrack excerpts (Robert Farnon)
Orchestra Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
6 Peanut Polka (Robert Farnon)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
7 How Beautiful Is Night (Robert Farnon)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
8 Melody Fair (Robert Farnon)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
"SPRING IN PARK LANE" (1948) film soundtrack excerpts
NEW SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA and Chorus
Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
9 Opening titles music: Early One Morning (traditional)
10 The Moment I Saw You (Manning Sherwin, Harold Purcell); closing titles music
11 Proud Canvas (Robert Farnon)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
12 Manhattan Playboy (Robert Farnon)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
13 "WILLIAM COMES TO TOWN" (1948) film soundtrack excerpts (Robert Farnon)
NEW SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
14 State Occasion (Robert Farnon)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
15 Pictures In The Fire (Robert Farnon)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
16 Jumping Bean (Robert Farnon)
KINGSWAY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
17 A Star Is Born (Robert Farnon)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
"MAYTIME IN MAYFAIR" (1949) film soundtrack excerpts
NEW SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA and Chorus
Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
18 Opening titles music: Maytime In Mayfair (Harry Parr-Davies)
19 Journey Into Melody (Robert Farnon)
20 Maytime In Mayfair ballet (Robert Farnon)
21 Dream Dance; closing titles music (Robert Farnon)
CD 2 Robert Farnon and his Orchestra accompanying singers on UK
1 The Fleet’s In (Victor Schertzinger, Johnny Mercer) THE JOHNSTON SINGERS
2 You’d Be Hard To Replace (from "The Barkleys of Broadway") (George Gershwin, Harry Warren)
VERA LYNN
3 Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba (My Bambino Go To Sleep) (Mack David, Al Hoffman, Jerry Livingston)
DENNY DENNIS with THE SONG PEDLARS
4 You Keep Coming Back Like A Song (from "Blue Skies") (Irving Berlin)
BERYL DAVIS
5 Hallelujah (Vincent Youmans, Leo Robin, Clifford Grey)
THE GEORGE MITCHELL CHOIR
6 Maybe You’ll Be There (Rube Bloom, Sammy Gallop)
PAUL CARPENTER
7 Cherry Stones (John Jerome)
LEE LAWRENCE and VERA LYNN
8 Every Time I Meet You (from "The Beautiful Blonde from Bashville Bend") (Josef Myrow, Mack Gordon)
DENNY DENNIS
9 I Am Loved (from "Out of this World") (Cole Porter)
VERA LYNN and THE MITCHELL MEN
10 The Stars Will Remember (Don Pelosi, LeoTowers)
SCOTTY McHARG
11 Goodnight You Little Rascal You (Noel)
ANNE SHELTON
12 Great Day (Vincent Youmans, Billy Rose, Edward Eliscu)
THE GEORGE MITCHELL CHOIR
13 Penthouse Serenade (When We’re Alone) (Will Jason, Val Burton)
VERA LYNN
14 When You Make Love To Me (Jascha Heifetz, Marjorie Goetschius)
PAUL CARPENTER
15 My Resistance Is Low (Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Adamson)
THE JOHNSTON SINGERS
16 Once Upon A Winter Time (Johnny Brandon, Ray Martin)
VERA LYNN
17 If You Ever Need A Friend (Jimmy Harper, Larry Miller)
DENNY DENNIS
18 Kiss The Boys Goodbye (Victor Schertzinger, Frank Loesser)
THE JOHNSTON SINGERS
19 The Way That The Wind Blows (Whitney, Kramer)
BERYL DAVIS
20 In Between The Showers (You’ll Find A Little Sunshine) (McGhee, Walsh, Silberman)DENNY DENNIS
21 I’ll Make Up For Everything (Ross Parker)
VERA LYNN
22 Lovely Lady Let The Roses See You Today (Hardy)
JOHN CAMERON
23 When You’re In Love (O’Connor, Fields, John)
RONNIE RONALDE, whistling
24 A La Claire Fontaine (Traditional, arr. Robert Farnon)
JACQUES LABRECQUE and THE MITCHELL CHORUS
25 "Cinderella" – Walt Disney Film Selection (Mack David, Jerry Livingston, Al Hoffman)
GRACIE FIELDS with THE GEORGE MITCHELL CHOIR
Jasmine JASCD 661
25
May
Review of John Wilson and BBC Concert Orchestra’s performance of Farnon works
Written by Super User
A North American Review of John Wilson and the BBC Concert Orchestra’s superb performance of important Farnon works
FARNON "Captain Horatio Hornblower RN": Suite; Symphony No. 2 in B; The Frontiersmen: Overture; Goodwood Galop; Alcan Highway; Three Impressions: High Street, In a Calm, Manhattan Playboy; Seventh Heaven; Playtime; Symphony No. 1 in D - Scherzo. John Wilson conducting BBC Concert Orchestra • DUTTON Epoch CDLX 7173 (76:43)
Among devotees of light music, Robert Farnon (1917—2005), born and trained in Canada, is practically a deity - and with good reason. No other Englishman since the era of Eric Coates has left such a deep mark, with his utterly distinctive and widely influential idiom, on the whole field of light music. In addition to his conspicuous role in this area, however, in jazz and popular music Farnon was an arranger whose talents were sought out by many famous stars of the day - Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett, George Shearing, J. J. Johnson, Singers Unlimited, even Eileen Farrell. Beyond this, Farnon also made occasional forays into film music, as the first item on this long-awaited dazzler of a disc triumphantly illustrates - the concert suite drawn from his most famous score for the Gregory Peck 1950s costume drama "Captain Horatio Hornblower RN".
This is the third and by far the most impressive recording of this splendiferous music. Its towering main theme is the quintessence of swashbuckling adventure, and the exquisite "Lady Barbara" love theme is one of Farnon’s most enrapturing inspirations. Perhaps some of the action sequences sometimes sound a little too forced or generic, but Farnon’s absolutely brilliant command of orchestral colours sweeps away all reservations.
Like Montague Phillips of an earlier generation, Farnon, although he was already lead trumpeter in a radio orchestra led by Percy Faith, began his precocious career while still in his early twenties as a composer of large-scale concert music with two symphonies premiered to considerable acclaim under conductors Sir Ernest MacMillan and Eugene Ormandy. In point of fact, Farnon never totally turned his back on the "classical" world; among his later more extended works are a gorgeous Rhapsody for violin and orchestra, Prelude and Dance for harmonica and orchestra, Tripartita for saxophone and orchestra, and a piano concertante piece entitled Cascades to the Sea.
This premiere recording of the Second Symphony, subtitled "Ottawa," together with the Scherzo movement from the First (both products of the early 1940s, before he emigrated to England as conductor of a war time army orchestra), will delight all of those who have waited decades to hear these prime examples of the Farnon style in gestation.
At nearly half-an-hour in length, the Second Symphony is quite ambitious, and its three movements (Larghetto con maesta; Allegro moderato; Largo ma non troppo) show that Farnon was not content to abide by traditional rules of tempo and mood, of which there is considerable freedom and contrast here, even within individual movements. Though perhaps a little weak in the strategies of formal development, the proceedings are dominated by Farnon’s innate melodic gift as well as his instinctive feeling for rich orchestral textures. Already his characteristic modes of soaring expansiveness and celebratory affirmation are clearly evident. In fact, the composer would now and then return to these then-withdrawn scores to mine them for ideas for later works, such as the opening of the finale, which became the spellbinding Ottawa Heights of his "Canadian Impressions". The First Symphony Scherzo—meaningfully marked Moderato con licenza - sports a disarmingly memorable tune which could be a harbinger of light classics like Jumping Bean.
The remainder of this program offers a diversified cross section of the kind of orchestral miniatures for which Farnon discovered in the post-war years there was a strong demand in England. This was a field that made best use of his particular talents, and most were originally published by Chappell as utilitarian "production" music, but many eventually became popular outside of this specialized context. Both Alcan Highway and High Street were later incorporated into "Canadian Impressions", while Manhattan Playboy typifies the breezy metropolitan dash of Portrait of a Flirt, and Seventh Heaven the glamorous and rhapsodic ambiance of Journey into Melody and A Star Is Born. Incidentally, In a Calm is one of the most serene and luminous pieces of quiet music ever devised. In works like these, as well as The Frontiersmen, Goodwood Galop, and Playtime, Farnon can immediately evoke a specific mood or activity in just a few short pregnant measures filled with striking and often cleverly unpredictable melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic outlines that stay in the memory in part due to their masterly orchestral embodiments.
John Wilson, the enormously talented young conductor whose interests straddle both the popular and classical fields, conducts absolutely impeccable and idiomatic performances from an ensemble with more than a passing acquaintance with this kind of fare. And Dutton’s sonics leave nothing to be desired.
It is high time the artificial boundaries between pop and classic are breached, and it is this kind of release that moves the process forward. The music of Robert Famon is an excellent place to start. Quality is quality, no matter what the context.
Paul A. Snook
Reproduced from the American magazine "Fanfare" by kind permission of the reviewer.
Vocalion CDLK4100 From The Highlands / From The Emerald Isle
These two LPs feature some beautiful arrangements of traditional airs. "From the Emerald Isle" was Robert Farnon’s first LP in stereo.
"From the Highlands": Blue Bells of Scotland/Wi’ a Hundred Pipers/Charlie is My Darling/My Ain Folk; The Campbells are Coming/A Highland Lad My Love Was Born/Annie Laurie; Bonnie Dundee/Barbara Allen; Blue Bonnets Over the Border/Skye Boat Song; Comin’ Thru the Rye/My Love is Like a Red Red Rose; Highland Laddie/Loch Lomond/Green Grow the Rushes; Robin Adair/Ye Banks and Braes; Keel Row/Whistle and I’ll Come to You/My Love She’s But a Lassie/Blue Bells of Scotland. "From the Emerald Isle": Killarney; St Patrick’s Day/The Gentle Maiden; Kerry Dance/How Are Things in Glocca Morra; The Girl I Left Behind Me/Cockles and Mussels; Londonderry Air; The Minstrel Boy; The Irish Washerwoman; I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen/The Rakes of Mallow; An Irish Lullaby/The Wearing of the Green; The Mountains of Mourne/Kathleen Mavourneen; Haste to the Wedding/Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms.
Vocalion CDLK4102 Out Of My Dreams
A collection of stereo recordings from the 1970s, originally released in Britain on the small Rediffusion label.
Out of my Dreams, Send in the Clowns, Dream a Little Dream of Me, Michelle, Theme from 'Godfather 2', *Latin Dreamer, Romantic Hour, Street of Dreams, The Way we Were, *In a Dream World, You Stepped out of a Dream, The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, Liebestraum, Dream, All Alone, I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair, Dream Memory, Emmaline, I Had the Craziest Dream, Jo-Anne, My Little Friend, When I Grow too old to Dream, Daybreak, Alice Blue Gown. (*Robert Farnon compositions)
Vocalion CDLK4104 Melody Fair / Canadian Impressions
Two superb LPs of Robert Farnon compositions.
Melody Fair, Jumping Bean, Joanne, A Star is Born, Journey Into Melody, How Beautiful is Night, Peanul Polka, Malaga, Portrait of a Flirt, In a Calm, Poodle Parade, Manhattan Playboy. "Canadian Impressions" – Gateway to the West, Main Street, A La Claire Fontaine, Pow Wow, Prairie Sunset, Alcan Highway, Ottawa Heights, Lake of the Woods, Mountain Grandeur, Canadian Caravan.
Vocalion CDLK4108 Something To Remember You By / Together (US title: Sunny Side Up)
"Something to Remember You By": Louisiana Hay Ride, Something To Remember You By, Alone Together, Maria, If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You, Got a Bran' New Suit, I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan, Then I'll Be Tired Of You, Dancing In The Dark, I See Your Face Before Me, You And The Night And The Music, A Shine On Your Shoes. "Together": Sunny Side Up, Just a Memory, The Best Things In Life Are Free, Button Up Your Overcoat, I'm A Dreamer, The Black Bottom, Birth Of The Blues, Just Imagine, You're The Cream In My Coffee, Together, If I Had a Talking Picture Of You, The Varsity Drag.
Vocalion CDLK4112 Two Cigarettes In The Dark / Pictures In The Fire
"Two Cigarettes In The Dark": Title tune, Cocktails For Two, The Touch Of Your Lips, Where Or When, By Candlelight, The Very Thought Of You, Isn’t It Romantic, I’m In The Mood For Love, The Way You Look Tonight, Moonlight Becomes You, A Door Will Open, Love Walked In, Come Dance With Me. "Pictures in the Fire": *Title tune, Love Is A Many-Splendoured Thing, *To A Young Lady, Hey There, Secret Love, *Lazy Day, Friendly Persuasion, *Sophistication Waltz, When I Fall In Love, *A Summer Love, The Story Of Tina, The Nearness Of You.(*Robert Farnon compositions)
Vocalion CDLK4118 Presenting Robert Farnon / Flirtation Walk
"Presenting Robert Farnon": Yes! We Have No Bananas, Always, Blue Skies, In The Blue Of The Evening, When I Grow Too Old To Dream, Don’t Blame Me, To A Wild Rose, Dawn To Dusk, Laura. "Flirtation Walk": Would You Like To Take A Walk, Reflections In The Water, It’s Always You, Two Little Girls In Blue, Sweet And Lovely, So Do I, Flirtation Walk, By A Waterfall, Can I Forget You, It’s Easy To Remember, Flirtation Waltz, Down By The River, My Foolish Heart, I Love A Lassie.
25
May
Victor Schertzinger Suite / Hoagy Carmichael Suite / Music Of Vincent Youmans
Written by Super UserVocalion CDLK4137 Victor Schertzinger Suite / Hoagy Carmichael Suite / Music Of Vincent Youmans
"Victor Schertzinger Suite": The Fleet’s In, Dream Lover, Sand In My Shoes, Marcheta, One Night Of Love, Kiss The Boys Goodbye – bonus tracks: Love Passes By, Tangerine. "Hoagy Carmichael Suite": My Resistance Is Low, Stardust, Little Old Lady, Georgia On My Mind, One Morning In May, Lazy Bones. "Music Of Vincent Youmans": Hallelujah, Tea For Two, Sometimes I’m Happy, Without A Song, Great Day, Orchids In The Moonlight, More Than You Know, Time On My Hands – bonus track: The Carioca.
Vocalion CDLK4146 The Wide World Of Robert Farnon
Stereo recordings licensed from Parry Music featuring Robert Farnon compositions
The Wide World, Olympian March, Rhapsody For Violin And Orchestra, Scenic Wonders, I Saw My Lady Weep, Swallow Flight, Lake Louise, The Magic Island, Cascades To The Sea, How Beautiful Is Night, Cruise World, Hollywood Stars, Sports Arena, Hockey Night.
