Eric Coates
Eric Coates wrote English light music of strong melody and colourful orchestration: suites and marches with foot-tapping rhythm, waltzes such as By the Sleepy Lagoon, and ballads that still appear in song recitals.
His early pieces lean toward Sullivan and German; later scores take in dance-band syncopation, chromatic counter-melodies and muted brass. Orchestral music is the centre of the catalogue: the London Suite and its Knightsbridge March, story phantasies, stand-alone waltzes, and film marches including The Dam Busters. He wrote so every desk has something alive to play, a habit formed from years as a professional violist in theatre pits and symphony sections. Songs once matched that output in reach, from Shakespeare settings and Weatherly ballads to later numbers with a broad vocal line over carefully coloured piano.
Compositions by Eric Coates appear on
I Heard You Singing: Songs My Father Taught Me
Baritone Jonathan Morton's first solo album is a personal programme of English art song, drawn from cycles and favourites his father once sang around the family piano.
Silver: Celebrating 25 Years
Pot-Pourri marks twenty-five years with Silver, a seventh album that mixes contemporary classics, Broadway, and opera into one sparkling programme.