Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra Celebrating 60

Ken Bruce salutes the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra on their 60th anniversary - featuring an archive concert celebrating the 30th anniversary of Friday Night is Music Night in 1983.

Celebrating 60 - Ken Bruce salutes the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra on their 60th anniversary. This week's featured archive concert dates from September 1983 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Radio 2's weekly live music show - Friday Night is Music Night.

1953 was a very busy music year in the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ. The previous year saw the formation of the "new" ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra - "an orchestra capable to putting over the finest light music to great effect". The following summer the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ broadcast a series of light music concerts from the Royal Festival Hall - entitled ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ International Festival of Light Music. Then that September a new programme was commissioned specifically to show off the talents of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra. Its brief was "to create a Friday-night show which would help people relax after the week's hard work and put them in the right mood for a happy weekend". It was called Friday Night Is Music Night and 59 years later it remains one of Radio 2's longest running programmes.

The 30th anniversary concert took place on 23rd September 1983 at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon - the orchestra is conducted by Kenneth Alwyn with guests Rosemary Ashe; Cynthia Glover, John Lawrenson, Robert Docker(piano) and the Band of the Grenadier Guards. The presenter is Robin Boyle and the programme includes music from the Legend of the Glass Mountain(Miklos Rozsa); Robert and Elizabeth(Ron Grainer); Oklahoma(Rodgers and Hammerstein) and songs from a what was a new show in 1983 - yet to be staged in London - Follies by Stephen Sondheim.

In this 11-part series, Ken Bruce is trawling the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra archives for some classic performances from their first 60 years.

A feast for light music fans - each week the series will broadcast a show from the orchestra archives. The series will feature archive performances from the likes of light music legends Sidney Torch; Vilem Tausky; Robert Farnon; Eric Coates; Willi Boskovsky; Stanley Black; and Ron Goodwin. Plus concert performances from Matt Monro and Dudley Moore as well as more recent collaborations with Michael Bublé; Lionel Richie and Peter Gabriel.

1 hour, 57 minutes

Music Played

  • ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra CB Kenneth Alwyn

    High Adventure

    (Williams)

    • ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ.
  • ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra

    Fighter Command March

    (Kenneth Alwyn )

    • RCA.
  • ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra

    Tabarinage

    (Docker)

    • ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Records.
  • ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra

    High Adventure

    (Williams)

    • ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ.
  • The Band of the Grenadier Guards

    Semper Fidelis

    (Sousa)

    • NA.
  • ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra

    Vergnugungszug

    (Strauss)

    • N/A.
  • Cynthia Glover, John Lawrenson

    Song Of Songs

    (Moya) (Ft. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • Cynthia Glover, John Lawrenson

    Legend Of Glass Mountain

    (Nino Roto) (Ft. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • Rosemary Ashe

    Stage Struck

    (Previn, Mercer) (Ft. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • Rosemary Ashe

    Woman And Man

    (Millar, Grainer) (Ft. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • The Band of the Grenadier Guards

    Bavarian Bugle Boy

    (Simms)

  • Cynthia Glover

    The Nightingale and The Rose

    (Rimsky-Korsakov) (Ft. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • John Lawrenson

    Ladies Have Such Variations

    (Mozart) (Ft. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • The Band of the Grenadier Guards

    Ride Of The Valkyries

    (Wagner) (Ft. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra

    Gopak

    (Tchaikovsky) (Conducted by Kenneth Alwyn)

  • Cynthia Glover

    Il Bacio

    (Arditi) (Ft. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • Cynthia Glover

    When I Grow Too Old to Dream

    (Hammerstein/Romberg) (Ft. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • John Lawrenson

    John Lawrenson - Sunshine Of Your Smile

    (Lillian Ray) (Ft. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • The Band of the Grenadier Guards

    Rossini's Birthday Party

    (Henk Van Lijnschooten)

  • Rosemary Ashe

    Losing My Mind

    (Sondheim) (Ft. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • Rosemary Ashe

    The Boy From…

    (Sondheim/Rogers) (Ft. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra CB: /Kenneth Alwyn

    Dreaming

    (Joyce) (Arr Torch)

  • The Band of the Grenadier Guards

    Procession Of The Nobles

    (Rimsky Korsakov)

  • Cynthia Glover, Rosemary Ashe, John Lawrenson

    Oklahoma

    (Rodgers and Hammerstein) (Ft. The John McCarthy Singers)

  • ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Concert Orchestra

    High Adventure

    (Williams)

    • ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ.

Broadcast

  • Fri 16 Mar 2012 20:00