Aucassin & Nicolette ballet music / Saxophone Concerto

Dutton Epoch's pioneering Holbrooke series reaches its third volume, which couples Amy Dickson in the Saxophone Concerto - the first British concerto for the instrument - with the extended ballet Aucassin and Nicolette, the latter forgotten since its run at Golders Green Hippodrome before the War. In both these sunny scores we forget the grim, operatic Holbrooke evoking dark Celtic legends and revel in this tuneful music reminding us that Holbrooke enjoyed considerable success as a composer of light music. Anton Dolin recalled that Holbrooke's ballet long-remained one of the most popular items in the repertoire of the Markova-Dolin Company: "It was a simple love story, delicately expressed and enchantingly staged." Here we have a score brimming with tuneful light-hearted numbers, critics at the time referring to "one of the pleasantest things he has done" and "music of great melodic charm." Holbrooke's music is coupled with Richard Rodney Bennett's delightful Seven Country Dances, setting tunes from Playford's Dancing Master of 1651. Originally written for oboe and strings, in Richard Rodney Bennett's previously unrecorded saxophone version soloist Amy Dickson catches to perfection both aspects of the score: the boisterous and the achingly melancholic. As conductor George Vass remarks: "Playford's tunes are merely starting points round which Bennett weaves ardent rhapsodies full of beautiful harmonies and rich textures - immaculately crafted light music."