CD reviews
Retired Pianist of the Max Jaffa Trio
on 'Too Beautiful for Words'
Having heard 'Too Beautiful for Words', I am full of admiration for your playing and selection of items. All were carried out with verve, a feeling for the style and great musicianship - an absolute delight!
May you go from strength to strength. I shall recommend you to the council in Harrogate with a view to a live concert performance at their International Concert once a year.
Yours sincerely,
Geoffrey Heald-Smith
(Former pianist for Max Jaffa Trio and musical director for summer concerts in Whitby, Hull, Scarborough and Bridlington)
Casino Dances
Two reviews published in the Newsletter of the Light Music Society, Summer 2007
… The seven-piece Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra, comprising two violins, viola, cello, flute, oboe and piano, has previously issued CDs in 1998 and 2003.
This third essay is equally acceptable in its re-creation of the sound of the salon orchestra, once so popular, and offers a novelty in the shape of three vocal numbers most attractively sung by soprano Elizabeth Menezes, one of the violinists in the orchestra and with considerable singing experience in operetta, musicals and opera.
Generally speaking Aspidistra’s repertoire gets away from the often (perhaps too often) recorded light music favourites. Of the seventeen tracks here only Donkey Serenade, Londonderry Air (but in a less familiar setting) and maybe the little waltz Casino Dances fall within that category. The rest, maybe less familiar, are a catchy lot.
Neil Moret’s Hiawatha and the vocal By the Waters of Minnetonka shed light on Longfellow’s legend; Offenbach’s Musette, Air de Ballet has the cello prominent (appropriately as Offenbach was once a cellist); and how good to hear Jacob Gade’s tango Monna Vanna as a change from Jealousy. This nicely recorded disc is warmly recommended.
Philip Scowcroft
Those of you who have heard The Best of Palm Court and the recently reviewed Too Beautiful for Words will know that the Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra plays real music with real energy.
I have seldom heard a small ensemble so perfectly in balance with itself; all the players are genuine admirers of this ‘very fun’ kind of light music, and they are first-rate advocates of it.
This disc forms a perfect programme playable from start to finish with plenty of contrast and a generous helping of less familiar music.
Have you ever despaired at a CD recording so clinically perfect that it seems to loose all sense of life and purpose? The playing here is not immaculate; if it was then I think something more valuable would be lost.
These are real performances complete with the human elements that make good music worth listening to.
Peter Edwards
Doug Meyer - Library Senior Specialist
Music Listening Room - Lovejoy Library, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
This is an embarrassingly belated note to thank you for the CDs! They arrived safely and promptly…. much more promptly than this reply.
Such beautiful playing and what terrific arrangements, at once light-hearted and lyrical -- nostalgic, but never maudlin. As I write this sentence, I’m enjoying your “Londonderry Air,” transported to a meadow in Ireland rather than sitting at my desk in a contemporary-industrial-design office. Ah, yes…. Thank you!
Sadly, I don’t know that we have many similar ensembles here, and we should have. In this area, music of this type seems to be most often played by large “Pops” orchestras that simply cannot capture the intimacy of a smaller ensemble such as yours.
Moreover, they rarely if ever play with the finesse or contagious enthusiasm that characterizes your music, perhaps because these pops orchestras are generally offshoots of symphony orchestras, and as such, the style is for the most part an avocation for the players.
Thanks so much for the music --
It really is great fun!
CD review December 2005
Robert Farnon Society
TWO CDs BY THE ASPIDISTRA DRAWING ROOM ORCHESTRA
Two splendid discs from one of the few remaining ‘Palm Court’ ensembles, including a selection of light-classical and lighter music in finely balanced chamber arrangements.
The orchestra consists of piano, three violins, viola, cello, flute and oboe/cor anglais, producing an ambience perfect for the atmosphere of Imperial tea-time elegance.
Personally I miss a little brass, percussion and a bass (the piano struggles on its own), and yet this is part of the ensemble’s unobtrusive quality. The playing is sensitive and the melodies beautiful.
I think this kind of music should be experienced live and in context rather than on disc.
Peter Edwards http://www.rfsoc.org.uk/jim4_2005.shtml
'The Best of Palm Court' and 'Too Beautiful for Words'
CD review by Philip Scowcroft for the Light Music society News-letter Spring 2004, and for Journal into Melody.
The Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra is one of, hopefully, a growing number of ensembles now specialising in Palm Court repertoire.
It has now made two CDs, the first in 1998, the other in 2003. I have heard them both and enjoy the ADRO's stylish playing.
The earlier disc has three tracks by Charles Ancliffe (Nights of Gladness is given with great spirit, less well known are the charming Fragrance and El Saludo) Also particularly delightful are Montague Ewing's Woodland Shadows and Manuel Bilton's Spanish serenade Anita and it is good to hear Melodie d'Amour by Jan Hurst, who directed so many of the resort orchestras.
The latest CD includes popular items like Ketèlbey's In a Persian Market, Fletcher's Bal Masqué and possibly Rendezvous (Aletter: this could ideally have been lighter in touch), W.H. Myddleton's Down South and Joe Rixner's Ragamuffin.
But what about the irresistible two-step Billy Possum's Frolic by Martin Leonard, a real foot-tapper, Alfred Grünfeld's shapely Romanze and the delectable Valley of Poppies (Ancliffe again).
Most of the other titles are also new to me; the Quartet from Rigoletto is arranged by the ADRO's flautist Roy Bell. Playing time at 45-50 minutes is not over generous but I am happy to give a warm welcome to these discs.