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91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra Celebrating 60

Ken Bruce salutes the 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra on their 60th anniversary - featuring an archive concert celebrating the 30th anniversary of Friday Night is Music Night in 1983.

Celebrating 60 - Ken Bruce salutes the 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra on their 60th anniversary. This week's featured archive concert dates from September 1983 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Radio 2's weekly live music show - Friday Night is Music Night.

1953 was a very busy music year in the 91¸£ÀûÉç. The previous year saw the formation of the "new" 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra - "an orchestra capable to putting over the finest light music to great effect". The following summer the 91¸£ÀûÉç broadcast a series of light music concerts from the Royal Festival Hall - entitled 91¸£ÀûÉç International Festival of Light Music. Then that September a new programme was commissioned specifically to show off the talents of the 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra. Its brief was "to create a Friday-night show which would help people relax after the week's hard work and put them in the right mood for a happy weekend". It was called Friday Night Is Music Night and 59 years later it remains one of Radio 2's longest running programmes.

The 30th anniversary concert took place on 23rd September 1983 at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon - the orchestra is conducted by Kenneth Alwyn with guests Rosemary Ashe; Cynthia Glover, John Lawrenson, Robert Docker(piano) and the Band of the Grenadier Guards. The presenter is Robin Boyle and the programme includes music from the Legend of the Glass Mountain(Miklos Rozsa); Robert and Elizabeth(Ron Grainer); Oklahoma(Rodgers and Hammerstein) and songs from a what was a new show in 1983 - yet to be staged in London - Follies by Stephen Sondheim.

In this 11-part series, Ken Bruce is trawling the 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra archives for some classic performances from their first 60 years.

A feast for light music fans - each week the series will broadcast a show from the orchestra archives. The series will feature archive performances from the likes of light music legends Sidney Torch; Vilem Tausky; Robert Farnon; Eric Coates; Willi Boskovsky; Stanley Black; and Ron Goodwin. Plus concert performances from Matt Monro and Dudley Moore as well as more recent collaborations with Michael Bublé; Lionel Richie and Peter Gabriel.

1 hour, 57 minutes

Music Played

  • 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra CB Kenneth Alwyn

    High Adventure

    (Williams)

    • 91¸£ÀûÉç.
  • 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra

    Fighter Command March

    (Kenneth Alwyn )

    • RCA.
  • 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra

    Tabarinage

    (Docker)

    • 91¸£ÀûÉç Records.
  • 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra

    High Adventure

    (Williams)

    • 91¸£ÀûÉç.
  • The Band of the Grenadier Guards

    Semper Fidelis

    (Sousa)

    • NA.
  • 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra

    Vergnugungszug

    (Strauss)

    • N/A.
  • Cynthia Glover, John Lawrenson

    Song Of Songs

    (Moya) (Ft. 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • Cynthia Glover, John Lawrenson

    Legend Of Glass Mountain

    (Nino Roto) (Ft. 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • Rosemary Ashe

    Stage Struck

    (Previn, Mercer) (Ft. 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • Rosemary Ashe

    Woman And Man

    (Millar, Grainer) (Ft. 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • The Band of the Grenadier Guards

    Bavarian Bugle Boy

    (Simms)

  • Cynthia Glover

    The Nightingale and The Rose

    (Rimsky-Korsakov) (Ft. 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • John Lawrenson

    Ladies Have Such Variations

    (Mozart) (Ft. 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • The Band of the Grenadier Guards

    Ride Of The Valkyries

    (Wagner) (Ft. 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra

    Gopak

    (Tchaikovsky) (Conducted by Kenneth Alwyn)

  • Cynthia Glover

    Il Bacio

    (Arditi) (Ft. 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • Cynthia Glover

    When I Grow Too Old to Dream

    (Hammerstein/Romberg) (Ft. 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • John Lawrenson

    John Lawrenson - Sunshine Of Your Smile

    (Lillian Ray) (Ft. 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • The Band of the Grenadier Guards

    Rossini's Birthday Party

    (Henk Van Lijnschooten)

  • Rosemary Ashe

    Losing My Mind

    (Sondheim) (Ft. 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • Rosemary Ashe

    The Boy From…

    (Sondheim/Rogers) (Ft. 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra/Kenneth Alwyn)

  • 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra CB: /Kenneth Alwyn

    Dreaming

    (Joyce) (Arr Torch)

  • The Band of the Grenadier Guards

    Procession Of The Nobles

    (Rimsky Korsakov)

  • Cynthia Glover, Rosemary Ashe, John Lawrenson

    Oklahoma

    (Rodgers and Hammerstein) (Ft. The John McCarthy Singers)

  • 91¸£ÀûÉç Concert Orchestra

    High Adventure

    (Williams)

    • 91¸£ÀûÉç.

Broadcast

  • Fri 16 Mar 2012 20:00