Alford: Colonel Bogey March

Britain’s Finest Hour – and six years of cataclysm, stoicism and heroism – are recalled by this richly varied collection of music associated with the Second World War.

From Forces’ Sweetheart Vera Lynn to the National Gallery’s pianist, Dame Myra Hess, and from the cinematic sweep of William Walton and Richard Addinsell to the dapper sophistication of Eric Coates and restrained sentiment of Noël Coward, this treasury of hits from the blitz salutes an era never to be forgotten.

This musical portrait of Britain at war takes off with the Spitfire and lands with the Lancasters of 617 Squadron – the Dam Busters. In between are many of the best-loved melodies that helped unite all ranks and classes in the conflict.

The collection’s still centre is the serene slow movement of Vaughan Williams’s Fifth Symphony, a work whose 1943 première was sensed as a harbinger of piece.

Either side are marches, popular film scores, light-music hits and – impossible without – Dame Vera Lynn.

The favourite marches include Colonel Bogey, the RAF March Past and (as well as the Dam Busters) Coates’s Knightsbridge.

The film scores lead with Walton’s First of the Few and take in his celebrated music for Olivier’s Henry V as well as the romantic mini-concertos for Dangerous Moonlight (‘Warsaw Concerto’) and Love Story.

Among the vintage recordings, Sir Noël Coward stirs our ‘London Pride’, the crooner Al Bowlly (killed in the Blitz) bids ‘Goodnight, Sweetheart’, and – just before the final flypast and busting of dams – Dame Myra Hess reminds us of the legendary National Gallery concerts with her own arrangement of ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’.

A selection of famous marches from Britain, America and the Continent performed by the UK’s leading military band, the Regimental Band of the Coldstream Guards.

A romp through the gamut of concert band marches – Sousa, Alford et al and some intriguing arrangements of marches from the core classical canon. The choice of RM Band is also intriguing – this particular band was merged with the other Marines bands in 1983, a victim of that year’s strategic defence review.

This collection of classic marches takes us around the world and across the centuries, from Elizabethan England to Romantic Russia. The pieces range from John Williams’ Superman March to Eric Coates’ Dam Busters March and Strauss’ Radetzky March.

A musical tour of London's sights, with an atmospheric piece of music for every one. A fine reminder of a great city, from band music for changing the guard to Lloyd Webber in theatre land, and from soaring church music to popular songs from the East End.