Love Story: Piano Themes From Cinema's Golden Age

Featuring

Gavin Sutherland
Valentina Lisitsa
Christopher Warren-Green
BBC Concert Orchestra
Richard Addinsell
Richard Rodney Bennett

Dmitri Shostakovich
Charles Williams
Nino Rota
Robert Farnon
Kenneth Leslie-Smith
Hubert Bath
Jack Beaver
Dave Grusin
Leighton Lucas
Leslie Bridgewater
Carl Davis

Did you know?

1/7

Historical Context

The 'Warsaw Concerto' was created after the film company decided not to pursue permission to use Rachmaninov's Second Concerto for the film Dangerous Moonlight (1941).

Composition History

The 'Warsaw Concerto' by Richard Addinsell, a prominent piece on this album, originated from a rumba he wrote as an Oxford undergraduate in the 1920s.

Composer Biography

Charles Williams, a stalwart of British film, worked on Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938) but was rarely credited on screen.

Cultural Impact

The 'Warsaw Concerto' from the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight became so popular that the film company, unprepared for its success, had not made a commercial recording available for sale.

Composition History

The 'Cornish Rhapsody' from the 1944 film Love Story was composed by Hubert Bath, who had also scored Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929), the first British all-talking picture.

Critical Reception

The 'Warsaw Concerto' has been recorded over a hundred times and sold more than three million copies, with its sheet music being among the highest sellers in its field.

Cultural Impact

Charles Williams's 'Jealous Lover', originally for the 1949 film The Romantic Age, achieved its greatest commercial success when adopted as the theme for Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960), though he remained uncredited.