BBC Philharmonic Orchestra & John Wilson - Coates: Orchestral Works, Vol. 3 (2023) [Hi-Res]

John Wilson’s third volume devoted to music by Eric Coates combines some of the composer’s larger-scale works with miniatures and two marches. The Cinderella Phantasy frames the well-known fairy-tale from Cinderella’s perspective, glossing over the more brutal elements of the original, with some notably descriptive writing for the dream sequences, the ball, and of course the happy ending. The Three Men is to some extent autobiographical, as Coates explores his love of his native Nottinghamshire countryside, his love for London, and his love of the sea. The Three Elizabeths is a suite of portraits of three great figures in English History – Queen Elizabeth I, Elizabeth of Glamis (then the Queen Consort, now remembered as the Queen Mother), and Princess Elizabeth (who of course would become Queen Elizabeth II). Last Love is a wistful Romance written in 1939, while the much later Sweet Seventeen, a beautiful waltz, was inspired by the love of dancing harboured by both Eric and his wife, Phyllis. In fact, the title refers to his first date with ‘Phyl’, at the Blenheim Restaurant, the day before her seventeenth birthday. Two marches complete the programme: Television March was commissioned by the BBC (just three weeks before the date of broadcast!) for the resumption of television broadcasting in 1946, while The Dam Busters was used as the main title for Michael Anderson’s 1955 film and is arguably the composer’s most widely known work.