I've been following the series of programmes on Radio 3 in the BBC's "Light Fantastic" music festival over the past week, since I enjoy this type of music, at least when it is well done.
An article by Stephen Hough in the Telegraph on line praises light music and has some links to several classics.
On the Sunday however I went to the concert put on by the Cory Band at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and, although I stood it all through to the end, found it extremely disagreeable simply because of the sheer loudness. Their only interpretation of forte was as fortissisimo. Maybe on a bandstand in the open air the sound dissipates, but at the back of the hall it was unpleasant.
Some pieces I've not heard for years, and have not so far heard on the programmes are "Parade of the Tin Soldiers" by Leon Jessel and "Do Not Forsake Me" (from the film "High Noon") by Dmitri Tiomkin; but I suppose these don't count as British Light Music. Another is the Oxford Street march by Eric Coates, although I have a CD with an old recording of this; I found the tune running through my head earlier today, and had to check that's what it was.
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