Eric Coates - Orchestral Works, Volume 1

[FBerwald]

The start of what seems to be an interesting series... https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2020036

[MartinH]

Sign me up! I love this style of music - pop music at its best! The Naxos British Light Music series, Halcyon Days (Sanctuary Classics) and the few Hyperion disks are all wonderful - great tunes, beautiful harmonies and brilliant orchestration. Looking forward to this Coates series very much. I don't know where John Wilson came from, but he's terrific as a conductor.

[semloh]

John Wilson's quite spectacular conducting career has focused on 'light music', music from musicals and film music. He seems to excel in each, and he is completely at home in the music of Eric Coates. It is, as they say, 'a crowded market', especially as most of his orchestral works are readily available conducted by Coates himself. I still haven't heard better performances than those on the old double LP/CD Classics for Pleasure issue, but a comprehensive and complete recorded 'edition' of his music would be very welcome.

[TerraEpon]

It is, as they say, 'a crowded market', especially as most of his orchestral works are readily available conducted by Coates himself.

What a silly comment, comparing a modern digital recording with an old mono whatever.

While yes there's plenty of releases of his music it's hardly "crowded" especially which a decent amount being long OOP.

[semloh]

Well, I don't think it's silly, TerraEpon! I wasn't making any comparisons. I was simply saying that as a matter of fact it is a crowded market - there are plenty of recordings, old and new, available.

Coates' own recordings are still readily available on Naxos and Nimbus CDs, the CFP set is still available on CD, there are dedicated CDs/downloads on Chandos, Lyrita, EMI, Somm, Warner Classics, Avie, Dutton, Pearl... and so it goes on, all available new and used on Amazon. Then there are literally hundreds of compilations in which his music appears - the list is endless. I call that a crowded market, but you are are, of course, entitled to disagree!

[TerraEpon]

Sure but how many of them overlap in works outside the most popular of pieces? You wouldn't say that, for instance, Saint-Saens's symphonies are an overcrowded market, but his 3rd is.

Outside of The Merrymakers and London (especially Knightsbridge) how often have the pieces on this disc been recorded? That's more what I'm getting at. Sure if you're just looking for 'Eric Coates' in general you have a decent amount of choice.....but this specific music? Naw.