Bernard Chasan wrote:

>Pamela McElwain-Brown ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
>
>>Interesting point; the first few notes definitely qualify.  The WC theme
>>seems more to me like ersatz Rachy; yet as a child I was enchanted, and
>>even now, though I acknowledge the entire piece is over-written and showy
>>and that's probably why it has not endured in terms of public interest,
>>it still holds a special magic.:-)
>
>I still find myself welcoming it whenever it is played on the radio.  It
>is indeed showy- and yet it has a feeling of menace and danger about it
>as well, appropriate to a WW2 movie.  The title of the movie, either in
>England or the USA, was "Suicide Squadron", I seem to recall.  Can anybody
>confirm or debunk that claim?

I think that was the US title, the British, IIRC, was Dangerous Moonlight.

A couple of years ago I reviewed a concert by the Palm Court Orchestra
of Victoria - I believe the only such professional organistion outside
the UK and very good at what they do - of British film music, which
included the WC.

A week or so later I got a very strange letter from a man who (claimed
he) had been involved in the film business in the UK and had some
scurrilous - and frankly not terribly interesting - tales to relate about
the director of the movie and his sexual proclivities.

Odd business, music criticism...

Incidentally, anyone who enjoys (British) Light Music and finds themselves
in the Pacifc North West close to one of their scheduled concerts, should
check out the PCO.  (http://www.palmcourtorchestra.com/)

I was at one of their concerts last saturday and just before they played
Delius' La Calinda, the conductor Charles Job remarked that in 1969 he
played viola when Barbirolli and the Halle recorded it.  They have several
times brought in guest conductors and in (IIRC) 1997 and 1998 it was
Light Music legend Ernest Tomlinson, a wonderfully acomplished musician,
fine conductor and charming chap (I had the good fortune of interviewing
him), kept in line by his equally charming wife.

Deryk Barker