Gordon Langford is one of the most famous and well-known composers of British light music. During the 1960s he worked for the BBC on programmes such as Friday Night Is Music Night, At the Piano, The Radio Orchestra Show and Music in the Air. The recipient of an Ivor Novello Award, the composer has worked as orchestrator for West End shows and many American movies including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Superman II.

This CD consists almost entirely of premiere recordings and represents some of Gordon’s finest concert works. This CD was recorded at the instigation of Gordon’s wife, Elaine, on the occasion of Gordon’s 70th birthday.

Rumon Gamba has received tremendous critical acclaim on Chandos, especially for his film music series.

The BBC Concert Orchestra is the world’s best orchestra for this repertoire and has a huge Radio 2 following.


"The Concertino for Trumpet and Orchestra is in three short movements played without a break. It is scored for conventional symphony orchestra but without the orchestral trumpets in order to highlight the solo part.

A Song for All Seasons, a fantasie for piano and orchestra, was commissioned in 1997 and first performed in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, with the composer as soloist.

The Spirit of London Overture is an affectionate tribute to the city and includes references to Bow Bells, Westminster Chimes, street cries plus echoes of street traders.

The First Suite of Dances comprises four contrasting movements. The first is neither a round dance nor a square dance but a ‘Rectangular Dance’. The listener is invited to imagine what steps are required to perform it! The second movement is a Waltz, wistful, almost elegiac in character. With its gentle, lazy melody, the Tango which follows is far removed from the rather aggressive, four-square, jerky tangos which became so popular with ballroom and sequence dancers. This is music for a sultry summer evening.The suite ends with a jolly and energetic Gigue.

Greenways refers to the name given to the many railway lines, closed mainly in the 1960s, which, it was hoped, would become sites for walkers. As the composer is a rail enthusiast, the work is, in many ways, a lament. The Hippodrome at Golders Green, North London, is the theatre nearest to where the composer was born and lived as a child. The venue became even more significant in later years with its association with the BBC Concert Orchestra, for which The Hippodrome Waltz was specially composed.
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Light music at its finest, from a conductor and orchestra fully at home in this idiom.
He [Rumon Gamba] has already given us the best Eric Coates CD in the catalogue [CHAN 9869] and this one, also from Chandos, shows how superb recording (and enough strings in the orchestra) brings this music glowingly to life. Recommended.
'He [Rumon Gamba] has already given us the best Eric Coates CD in the catalogue [CHAN 9869] and this one, also from Chandos, shows how superb recording (and enough strings in the orchestra) brings this music glowingly to life. Recommended.'
These very sympathetic performances, in excellent sound, preserve a piece of Old England – something to be treasured.
'Ernest Tomlinson rates this CD of his old friend very highly indeed and that alone should be enough for the rest of us mere mortals… How wonderful to know that such serious tuneful music is there for everyone to enjoy and isn't it about time the BBC sat up and took notice?'
Ernest Tomlinson rates this CD of his old friend very highly indeed and that alone should be enough for the rest of us mere mortals… How wonderful to know that such serious tuneful music is there for everyone to enjoy and isnt it about time the BBC sat up and took notice?
…Rumon Gamba is in fine form… a sterling performance.
Rumon Gambas performances are excellent.
Rumon Gamba secures exemplary results from his assembled performances…

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