None of the modern versions of the WarsawConcerto seems to have the freshness, urgency and lack of self-indulgence of this very fine version.
That's a pointer to the high level of playing and interpretation to be found throughout this ever fascinating and altogether quite delightful selection of Addinsell's film music.
Though Rachmaninov comes so immediately and vividly to mind in the most celebrated of Addinsell's creations, that was strictly for the purposes of its film context. Elsewhere you're more likely to be reminded of Vaughan Williams, Ravel or Eric Coates. Pastiche was an inevitable part of a film composer's armoury, but the very real inventive gifts displayed in the Warsaw Concerto are also evident throughout this collection. About half the music has already been recorded in other Addinsell collections, but not with the chorus that's especially effective here in the 'School Song' from Goodbye MrChips. Of the new items the sumptuously lyrical finale to the music for The Black Rose is particularly fine (expertly reconstructed, like much else here, by Philip Lane), as are the dances from the 1957 film The Admirable Crichton.
It's by no means just nostalgia that makes Addinsell's film music well worth exploring, and this generously filled CD is undoubtedly the best single-CD selection available.