Light music certainly belongs here because it is an endangered species! Not that long ago, things like Danse Macabre, the Carmen suites, Peer Gynt, Espana, Hungarian Rhapsodies, Les Preludes and the like were played often. But now, they're a rarity. Concert have gotten too serious and the lighter bon-bons have disappeared. And it's really a shame. Even so-called pops concerts now are more oriented towards pop music, broadway, jazz and such. Two seasons back during the Leroy Anderson centennial year I played a glorious all-Leroy concert. All the faves and some lesser known ones. 90 minutes of it. I was delighted to see the response of the younger players many of whom had never even heard, much less played, that music. In the US, Anderson's music used to be heard on TV late night as theme music for movies and such. But in the cable era, that's gone. And much light music was familiar to many of us from the Warner Bros. cartoons. But those are not so well known anymore, so another generation of kids doesn't know the lighter classics.
The Marco Polo series of British music, and the ASV and Hyperion disks were a revelation. This is superior light music. Dated, sometimes hokey, and often sickingly sweet, much of it is delightful, inventive, and I'm glad it's been recorded. I discovered that I love Ketelby. That guy could sure write tunes! Corny some of it surely is. But I can't think of a better encore for a concert that 'Appy Hampstead (Bank Holiday).
And who out there, besides the Naxos stable, does this music anymore? When they were alive Karajan, Beecham, Ormandy, Fiedler, to name a few played this music. Are there any big names out there today who do it?
