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Track(s) taken from CDA67400

Rhythm on rails

composer
1956; signature tune for BBC Morning Music

New London Orchestra, Ronald Corp (conductor)
Recording details: April 2002
St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: September 2002
Total duration: 2 minutes 47 seconds

Cover artwork: Green Park. Robert Buhler (1916-1989)
Royal Academy of Arts, London
 

Reviews

‘Ronald Corp has few rivals in conveying one prerequisite element of this repertoire—charm’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Respectfully and meticulously played … this impeccably produced program—like its three predecessors—remains a precedent-setting endeavour that is sure to elicit grateful appreciation from many quarters’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘The playing struck me as even finer than in the past and the sound … first class, as before’ (Hi-Fi News)

‘The playing is exuberant, the recording ripe’ (The Evening Standard)

‘This fourth compilation, in Hyperion’s hugely successful British light music is another winner … some eighty minutes of sheer delight’ (MusicWeb International)

‘Infectious stuff, delivered with corresponding relish’ (Yorkshire Post)

«Le travail entrepris par Corp et Hyperion est remarquable, sans concession à la qualité instrumentale ou sonore» (Répertoire, France)
The clear melodic lines that typify British light music are no less apparent in the music of east-London-born Charles Williams (1893–1978). Yet he was born Isaac Cozerbreit, of central European Jewish parents. His father had used the name ‘Charles Williams’ for his own career as a concert singer, and the son formally adopted that name during World War I. He studied violin at The Royal Academy of Music and composition with Norman O’Neill, and during the 1920s played under various leading conductors as a freelance violinist. His subsequent experience as musical director in cinemas led to involvement with film scores for Gaumont–British at Lime Grove Studios. He worked on over a hundred British films, meanwhile being selected by the publisher Chappell to build its library of recorded ‘mood music’. We hear two pieces whose titles admirably sum up their nature. A Quiet Stroll (1952) and the ingenious Rhythm on Rails (1956) were both used as BBC signature tunes—the former for Farming, the latter for Morning Music.

from notes by Andrew Lamb © 2002

Other albums featuring this work

British Light Music Classics
CDS44261/44CDs Boxed set (at a special price) — Download only
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