Marching Music

Everything on this CD is receiving its first commercial recording. Armstrong Gibbs's most famous piece is the once very popular little orchestral movement called 'Dusk', which was recorded on our first 'British Light Music Classics' CD. Looking for suitable repertoire to introduce Guildhall Strings into the Hyperion catalogue we asked their programmer, Ben Buckton, to investigate Gibbs's other music. The composer's granddaughter, Anne Rust, told Ben that, for safekeeping, she had sent some scores many years ago to the Britten-Pears Music Library in Aldeburgh where they have remained untouched ever since. Ben's request for 'anything for strings' by Gibbs resulted in the production of a stack of dusty folders containing the handwritten manuscripts. The work on the top of the pile was the Threnody for Walter de la Mare, and it immediately became clear that the journey to Suffolk was going to lead to more than anyone had expected. This is attractive, well-written music in a lighter vein, dating from the first half of the century.

The Music of Erika Svanoe (University of New Hampshire Wind Symphony) is the first full album of music by one of the band worlds most impressive new composers. The recording features some of Svanoes best known works, such as Steampunk Suite and The Haunted Carousel, alongside brand new and equally delightful pieces, like Tutued Toucan Can-Can, First Suite Fanfare, and Mary Shelley Meets Frankenstein. Svanoes inventive approach is apparent throughout the album, which also features another of her iPad works (Category 4) and two interactive musical adventure pieces (Band of Heroes and A Journey in Time), presented here using a narrator to tell each story. The whole package is rounded out by Svanoes masterful settings of Four Grainger Songs for soprano and chamber winds.

The wildest star among the first wave of rock & rollers – not for nothing was he nicknamed "The Killer" – Jerry Lee Lewis defied the odds and outlived all of his peers, a fate he seemed determined to outrun for a good portion of his long career. He came on like a supernova in the late 1950s, scoring three successive Top Ten singles that crystallized the ferocious excitement of rock & roll.

Fats Domino Sept mois après la mort de Chuck Berry, un autre père fondateur du rock s’éclipse à 89 ans : Antoine Domino Jr., Fats pour les intimes, a définitivement refermé son piano le 24 octobre 2017. Et cette fois-ci pour de bon. Après le passage de l’ouragan Katerina en 2005, certains médias américains avaient en effet enterré ce génial chanteur et pianiste de rhythm’n’blues né le 26 février 1928 à New Orleans. Un père fondateur du rock’n’roll, certes, voire même son roi.