“The orchestral sound is glitzy and glamorous, luminous and overflowing with Hollywood excess.” – The Scotsman

Rumour has it the elite of Britain’s orchestral players would sell their souls to play with the John Wilson Orchestra. Wilson has made an industry of his passion for the old Hollywood studio soundtracks, and his ability to take the partial remnants of lost scores such as “The Wizard of Oz”, painstakingly reconstruct them by ear, and have his extravangantly-populated orchestra perform them to capacity crowds in live tours around the country.

Now we have the first fruits of EMI’s decision to sign them up, and it’s a typically exhilarating musical rollercoaster ride through the MGM hits of “Easter Parade”, “Brigadoon”, “Meet me in St Louis” and many more. The orchestral sound is glitzy and glamorous, luminous and overflowing with Hollywood excess.

Singers include the idiomatically warm Kim Criswell, Curtis Stigers and Matthew Ford, with the sugar and spice backing of the Maida Vale Singers. There’s even a feature-laden DVD to transform your listening to the silver screen. Magic.