Mantovani – By Special Request Volume 2 : 1940 - 1951

FOLLOWING THE SUCCESS OF THE FIRST GUILD MANTOVANI CD, HERE IS A SECOND VOLUME OF RARE TRACKS SPECIALLY REQUESTED BY HIS ADMIRERS

Mantovani – By Special Request Volume 2 : 1940 - 1951
1 Castiliana (Reg H. Casson)
2 One Night Of Love (Gus Kahn, Victor Schertzinger)
3 Love Is A Song (Frank Churchill, Larry Morey)
4 Mexican Starlight (Pedro Manilla, alias Mantovani)
5 Nights Of Gladness (Charles W. Ancliffe)
6 Spanish Cocktail – Intro: Spanish Gipsy Dance (Pasqual Marquina), Adios
Conchita (Pedro Manilla alias Mantovani), A Girl Like You (trad.).
7 Our Waltz (David Rose)
8 Siesta – a Rumba Serenade (Ronald Binge)
9 "Song Of Norway" – selection (Edvard Grieg) Intro: Strange Music, Now, Midsummer Eve, Freddie And His Fiddle, I Love You.
10 Valse Septembre (Felix Godin)
11 Tango Bolero (Juan Llossas)
12 Tell Me You Love Me (Ruggiero Leoncavallo, adapted by Sammy Kaye)
13 Hejre Kati (Jeno Hubay)
14 Gipsy Trumpeter (Martin Vicente Darre)
15 In Waltz Time (Mantovani)
16 La Paloma (Sebastian de Yradier)
17 Oh Mama Mama (L. Conald)
18 One Magic Wish (On An Evening Star) (Richard Addinsell, Kay Twomey)
19 The Spirit Of The Matador (Reg H. Casson)
20 Tango De La Luna (Tango Of The Moon) (Pedro Manilla alias Mantovani)
21 The Choristers (Bernard Phelps) with wordless vocal chorus by Stella Roberta and Jack Plant
22 Concerto In Jazz (Donald Phillips) featuring Arthur Young, piano

All tracks played by Mantovani and his Orchestra, except for 7 Our Waltz and 22 Concerto In Jazz by Mantovani and his Concert Orchestra

GUILD LIGHT MUSIC GLCD5113

The first Guild Light Music CD featuring recordings by Mantovani (GLCD5110) was previewed in last December’s Journal Into Melody, where it was explained that several of the maestro’s most avid fans had asked for certain titles to be issued on CD. Until then, these had all previously been neglected in CD reissues, and the welcome accorded to this release made this second collection virtually obligatory.

Mantovani was a prolific recording artist, and his 78s from his ‘pre-Charmaine’ days are highly regarded by light music lovers. Other record companies have preferred to concentrate on the period when the ‘cascading strings’ devised by Ronald Binge catapulted Mantovani to worldwide fame in the early 1950s. So many CDs are now available (and a new 4-CD set from Jasmine is reviewed elsewhere in this issue), but the era covered in this new Guild release contains many gems, as the above list of contents will testify.

Many of the numbers and composers will be familiar, although there are some rarities – two examples being the rare sides that Mantovani recorded for Decca’s Music White You Work series (tracks 1 & 19).

Mantovani himself is represented as the composer of four titles in this collection, three of them under pseudonyms. Among several, he used the names ‘Pedro Manilla’, ‘Paul Remy’, ‘Roy Faye’, ‘Leonello Gandino’, ‘Paul Monty’ and ‘Tulio Trapani’. It is perhaps a pity that he did not reveal this aspect of his considerable talents more openly, because his own tuneful compositions number in excess of 100.

The final work in this collection is Concerto In Jazz by Donald Phillips (1913-1994). Although not quite as well known as his Skyscraper Fantasy, it was highly regarded when first published, with several other commercial recordings by leading orchestras including the Skyrockets Orchestra, Charles Shadwell, Sidney Torch and George Melachrino. The record label credits pianist Arthur Young as ‘Art’ Young, no doubt trying to give him status as a jazz performer! No matter, it’s a brilliant performance of a fascinating mini-concerto, and even though it may not be quite what people today expect from Mantovani, it deserves to be offered to a new audience in the 21^st century.

David Ades