Donald MacKenzie (Odeon, Leicester Square)
Eric Coates and Friends – A Celebration in Music
Knightsbridge March: Eric Coates
Dance of an Ostracised Imp: Frederic Curzon
Simonetta – Serenade: Frederic Curzon
‘Bitter Sweet’ Potpourri: Noel Coward
Funny Peculiar: Billy Mayerl
Parade of the Sunbeams: Quentin Maclean
‘The Arcadians’ Potpourri: Lionel Monckton
Interval
Music Everywhere: Eric Coates
Springtime Suite: Eric Coates
Wood Nymphs: Eric Coates
Bird Songs at Eventide: Eric Coates
The Three Elizabeths Suite: Eric Coates
Donald MacKenzie makes a welcome return from the Odeon Leicester Square for our “Popular” recital. And this year he pays particular homage to our local hero Eric Coates with a range of popular marches and other attractive examples of his light music, all of it showing a wonderful range of invention: he was rightly praised by Dame Ethel Smyth as “the man who writes tunes” and he inspired Sir Edward Elgar, no less, to compose his own fifth Pomp and Circumstance march.
Two other cinema organists are recalled: Quentin Maclean, who fled the cloistered calm of Westminster Cathedral for the Shepherds Bush Pavilion, and Frederic Curzon, whose Dance of an Ostracised Imp is as quirky as it sounds. There is Edwardian delight from Lionel Monckton, inter-war charm from Billy Mayerl, and finally, The Master: Noel Coward making a belated debut here.