Four 1950s Decca records of popular English music, newly remastered and issued complete for the first time on CD. Better than anyone else, Eric Coates and Sir Noël Coward captured the moods of middle-class, mid-century England at its most optimistic – and in other ways most nostalgic, comforting their audiences and distracting them from their […]

Certain rhythms seem to flow naturally for certain people. Shakespeare could probably have held a conversation in iambic pentameters and, when it comes to music, you can find many national preferences: the tango for Argentinians, the samba for Brazilians, the polka for Czechs, the mazurka for Poles, the czárdás for Hungarians, and so on. The […]

Re-released to mark the centenary of Noel Coward’s birth, this has for long been a ‘cult’ Coward album the world over. Its special significance to Australia, besides the obvious participation of Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, is its inclusion of other Australian singers in some of the ensemble pieces, among them Margreta Elkins and Morag […]