‘Naxos continues to unearth a host of modest but very attractive works – mostly pastoral in mood – by skilled practitioners of the “light music” genre, which the English, Lord love ’em, might as well have patented. Why are British composers so good at writing music that seeks to evoke an optimistic, or at its heaviest a wistfully nostalgic mood, simply to entertain the widest possible audience? It may be a matter of supply and demand. The BBC has always been a steady market for fresh scores requiring small-to-medium-sized ensembles; so has the native cinema; so, to a diminishing extent, has the theatre. And major UK orchestras have unapologetically programmed the better specimens of “light” music, often as a way to clear the audiences’ palates before a concert’s heavyweight symphonic fare. All of these factors used to obtain in the US, but all are now close to extinction (when was the last time you heard a Strauss waltz or a Suppé overture in a “serious” concert?).