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Mon, 29 Aug 2005

Mantovani

various, The Golden Age of Light Music
Mantovani - By Special Request - Vol 2
compiled by David Ades
restored by Alan Bunting
LP, Guild distributed in the UK by Priory

This is music from Mantovani from between 1940 and 1951. Mantovani was an orchestra leader who created soft, syrupy, versions of whatever took his fancy. He was almost a precursor of musac or elevator music. As such he was roundly disliked by all those who had academic leanings in their music or those who wanted things to be "real".

Listening to this sort of thing now, it has a certain kitsch charm. It is music to talk over or eat to or just set a background scene of pleasant, slightly old-fashioned, optimism. Optimism itself seems quaintly old-fashioned at this very moment so anything that boosts it seems quite a good thing. There is also a Volume 1 of this. (Count K)

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