Rumon Gambos Archive

ALWYN :  Film Music Vol. 4 – BBC Philharmonic / Rumon Gamba; Chandos

by Audiophile Audition | Jun 8, 2017 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

ALWYN :  Film Music Vol 4 [contents below] – BBC Philharmonic / Rumon Gamba; Chandos 10930 reviewed as 24-96 flac download;  TT: 77:33 [Distr. by Naxos] ****: A fine collection of Alwyn film music portraying lots of stiff upper lip from the 1940s and 1950s. William Alwyn (1905-1985) has been very well served over the years by Chandos.  Included are a cycle of the symphonies with Richard Hickox at the helm of the London Symphony Orchestra, sundry orchestral music, concertos, chamber works including the string quartets,  and this, their fourth volume of music for the cinema. Alwyn contributed scores for around 70 films during his long career, though IMDB includes another 57 items written for documentaries, other shorts and television, and all between 1937 and 1963.  A substantial 46 works date from 1939-1945, written for wartime productions of one sort or another.  Some have survived in the public’s psyche; I guess the better-known ones include ‘The Winslow Boy’, ‘The Rocking-Horse Winner’, ‘Odd Man Out’, ‘The Fallen Idol’, ‘The History of Mr Polly’, and two included in this new release, ‘The Master of Ballantrae’ and ‘The Ship that Died of Shame’.  One of the last he composed was a score for […]