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Appreciation by David Fisher

Neil Crutchley has been a member of the Leicester Music Society (formerly the Leicester Gramophone Society and the Leicester Recorded Music Society) for 51 years and this wonderful presentation was enthusiastically acknowledged as the 50th anniversary of his first talk. An astonishing feat, but one which sets Neil apart from many other music experts in that his topics are so varied. There appears to be no subject which he can’t expound upon and that is reinforced by his occasional brilliant and edifying detours from his topics. This talk was no exception as he evocatively transported his audience back to the refined and elegant world of the many famous orchestras, composers and conductors who ruled supreme in seaside resorts and spa towns in the 1920s and 30s and in some cases beyond the Second World War.

Neil always speaks with erudition, lucidity, wit, passion and an astonishing depth of knowledge and here he was accompanied by telling photographs of some of the orchestras and their conductors. We heard an impressive array of early and modern recordings to illustrate just how skilled and popular these performers were. The pieces he chose to play were uniformly of high artistic merit: some written by well-known composers and others by those who made their names and fortunes in this genre. The quality of the orchestrations was outstanding and it was quite clear to Neil's audience from his own comments and the feedback he received that many of these pieces deserve resurrecting in concert halls today. They reflect a charming and sophisticated time when tunes mattered and the composers were the best in their field.

A few of the pieces played were by well-known composers such as Sullivan and Quilter, but time and again the other musicians he named had us googling enthusiastically afterwards. Names such as Alick McLean, Clarice Dunnigton, Frank Gomez, Eldridge Newman and Lionel Johns proved excellent exponents of the genre and heading the many composers he featured were Haydn Wood with his "London Landmarks Suite" and "Roses of Picardy" and, of course, Eric Coates with his "Calling all workers" march and the "Three Bears Phantasy".

For me, of the many superb photos the one which stood out was of a group of musicians including Edward Elgar, Edward German, Dan Godfrey, Alexander Mackenzie, Charles Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford. It served to introduce us to Dan Godfrey (later knighted), who had founded the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra (later the BSO) in 1893, and who, with his other connections, proved to be an influential figure at the start of radio and with resort orchestras. This was only one of the informative gems delivered in Neil’s warmly received talk that will surely encourage us to explore the genre in more depth.