In his time Pierné was hugely successful as composer, conductor and organist—a sort of latter-day Saint-Saëns, and indeed his music is very reminiscent of that composer. The earliest three works on this CD were all written between 1885 and 1890 and could easily be mistaken for the older composer, the piano concerto even follows the unusual layout of Saint-Saëns' 2nd piano concerto in having a scherzo but no slow movement. The Poëme symphonique of 1903 is harmonically more daring and reminiscent of Franck. This work is a true orchestral symphonic poem with the piano fully integrated into the musical argument, it is also perhaps the most impressive work on this disc and its obscurity is inexplicable.

The pairing of Francis Poulenc and Reynaldo Hahn on this album may seem contrived merely because of biographical parallels between the two men, for their musical approaches and styles are quite different, if not at odds. Poulenc's neo-Classical, self-conscious parodies in the Sinfonietta and the dry, sarcastic wit of the Aubade are a world away from Hahn's pretty, even precious, Romanticism, which is unabashedly on display in La bal de Béatrice d'Este. However, the discerning listener may find in Poulenc streaks of Hahn's pensiveness and languor, which his comic antics never completely conceal; there is in Hahn a buoyant, diatonic tunefulness that is readily found in Poulenc. (Interestingly, some of Poulenc's adaptations of Renaissance music bear a remarkable similarity to Hahn's antique pastiches in this ballet.) Furthermore, their fondness for unusual chamber combinations is striking, and the transition from the Aubade to La bal de Béatrice d'Este is not at all jarring because they both share the charm and ambience of the salon orchestra.

Another collection of favourites from an earlier generation—indeed from three earlier generations. Again the titles may not be familiar but in most cases the melodies will be. In Party Mood, for instance, may furrow a few brows until it starts to play, when it's safe to say that everybody in Britain over a certain age will immediately recognise it as the signature tune of the BBC's long-running 'Housewives Choice'. Alpine Pastures (1955) will be scarcely less familiar through its use as signature tune of another long-running radio series, 'My Word'.

British Light Music Classics 1 (CDA66868) was one of the best-selling CDs of 1996 and put lots of smiles on people's faces. In fact it is still—late January—in the charts. Its success has inspired this second disc which contains another 20 well-known favourites spanning the century, the earliest being Bucalossi's Grasshopper's Dance from 1905 and Herman Finck's In the Shadows from 1910. Once again many of the pieces will be familiar as radio and TV signature tunes—to 'Down Your Way', 'Dr Finlay's Casebook', 'TV Newsreel', 'The Archers' and, from the 1940s, 'In Town Tonight', the first broadcast of which brought tens of thousands of requests to the BBC for the name of the introductory music, Eric Coates's march Knightsbridge.

Britain has a fine tradition in the creation of quality light music of the sort that plumbs no intellectual or emotional stimulation, but lifts the spirits with ingratiating melodies decked out with consummate craftsmanship. In this collection are gathered some of the classics that the genre has produced over a period from Victorian times to the second Elizabethan age.

Among the most adaptive and flexible – some might say eclectic and facile – of composers, Darius Milhaud was well-equipped to provide stage and ballet music that could set any scene and change moods at a moment's notice. His vivid scores, however, are most often heard today in concert, and without scenarios in hand, some imagination is required to understand how effective these works may have been for the stage. Taken at face value, Le carnaval d'Aix seems like an episodic piano concerto, L'apothéose de Molière a mediocre neo-Baroque pastiche, and Le carnaval de Londres a modern music hall rehash of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera.