Auber Archive

Sir Dan Godfrey: A Sesquicentennial Salute – Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra/ Sir Dan Godfrey – Pristine Classical 

by Audiophile Audition | Jul 25, 2018 | Classical Reissue Reviews

For Godfrey’s 150th anniversary, Mark Obert-Thorn supplies us a generous bounty of classic recordings, immaculate in their restored sound. Sir Dan Godfrey: A Sesquicentennial Salute = MOZART: Syphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 555 “Jupiter”; HANDEL: Largo from Xerxes; MEYERBEER: Coronation March from Le Prophete; WAGNER: Homage March; GERMAN: Three Dances from Henry VIII: SUPPE: Pique Dame – Overture; AUBER: The Bronze Horse – Overture; OFFENBACH: Orpheus in the Underworld – Overture; ALFORD The Two Imps – W.Byrne and W.W. Bennett, xylophone/ Symphony Orchestra/ Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra/ Sir Dan Godfrey – Pristine Classical PASC 534, 74:38[www.pristineclassical.com ****: Restoration Engineer and Producer Mark Obert-Thorn turns his gifted spotlight upon Sir Dan Godfrey (1868-1939), who ordinarily does not occupy a prominent place in my personal pantheon of “the greats,”  but whose 150th anniversary of his birth warrants artistic reconsideration. Obert-Thorn selects a number of significant works recorded 1927-1934 that reveal Godfrey—whom I had long associated with light music and a number of Gilbert & Sullivan moments—as a sensitive and authoritative musician quite capable of the virile showmanship we attribute at once to Arthur Fiedler and Malcolm Sargent. Obert-Thorn speculates that the “Symphony Orchestra” employed in the 4 February 1927 rendition of […]