Robert Docker: Three Contrasts

Robert Docker: Three Contrasts

8.574322 (Naxos, CD)

REISSUE (13 May 2022)
Tracks: 15
Booklet pages: 6
℗ 2020 Naxos Rights US Inc
© 2022 Naxos Rights US Inc
Main country of recording: Ireland
Country of manufacture: Germany
Reviewer: Gerald Fenech
Review of Robert Docker: Three Contrasts published on 15 May 2022

William Davies, piano (tracks 1 and 15)
David Presley, flute (tracks 3-5)
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Barry Knight, conductor

Robert Docker (1918-1992):

1 Legend (first recording)

2 Scène du bal

Three Contrasts
3 Alla marcia
4 Romanza
5 Rondolet

6 Tabarinage ('Buffoonery')

Scènes de ballet
7 Prelude
8 Allegretto
9 Adage
10 Finale

Air and Jig
11 Air

12 The Spirit of Cambria

13 Fairy Dance Reel

14 Blue Ribbons (first recording)

15 Pastiche Variations (first recording)

British Light Music, Vol 7.

Previously released on Marco Polo 8.223837.

Robert Docker was one of the giants of light music - a composer and arranger whose works graced stage, screen, radio and television. Two of his best pieces were written for piano and orchestra: Legend, which can rank alongside Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto (Naxos 8.554323); and the brilliantly witty inventions of the Pastiche Variations. Not only was Docker a distinguished orchestrator, he was also a rich melodist as his classic Scène du bal illustrates, while the composer's impish humour can be savoured in Tabarinage. Docker's early training as a classical violist fully equipped him to explore the British pastoral tradition in the languid and beautiful Air.