For the second volume of the orchestral music of Eric Coates, John Wilson and the BBC Philharmonic have built a program around three contrasting works. The Summer Days Suite was premiered in October 1919 and became an immediate hit, receiving rave reviews and many more performances. The Selfish Giant, from 1925, based on Oscar Wilde’s story, was the first in a series of highly successful musical retellings of fairy tales. The Enchanted Garden originated in a commission from the Swedish Broadcasting Company. Of the other, shorter pieces on the album, Calling All Workers is arguably Coates’s best-known work. The march was adopted by the BBC as the signature tune for their daily radio show “Music While You Work,” and was heard twice daily for 27 years – clocking up more than 16,000 broadcast performances.
Eric Coates: Orchestral Works, Volume 2
