NOËL COWARD Recitation (Unaccompanied) Volume 3: “Mad About the Boy” Original Recordings 1932-1943 (HMV B 9336, Mx OEA 10019-2) Recorded 2Nd July, 1943 2:35 20

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The Naxos Historical labels aim to make available the greatest recordings of the history of recorded music, in the best and truest sound that contemporary technology can provide. To achieve this aim, Naxos has engaged a number of respected restorers who have the dedication, skill and experience to produce restorations that have set new standards in the field of historical recordings.

David Lennick As a producer of CD reissues, David Lennick’s work in this field grew directly from his own needs as a broadcaster specializing in vintage material and the need to make it listenable while being transmitted through equalizers, compressors and the inherent limitations of A.M. radio. Equally at home in classical, pop, jazz and nostalgia, Lennick describes himself as exercising as much control as possible on the final product, in conjunction with CEDAR noise reduction applied by Graham Newton in Toronto. As both broadcaster and re-issue producer, he relies on his own extensive collection as well as those made available to him by private collectors, the University of Toronto, Syracuse University and others.

Also available in the Naxos Nostalgia series

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19. THE WELCOMING LAND (Clemence Dane) NOËL COWARD Recitation (unaccompanied) Volume 3: “Mad About The Boy” Original Recordings 1932-1943 (HMV B 9336, mx OEA 10019-2) Recorded 2nd July, 1943 2:35 20. I'M OLD FASHIONED (Jerome Kern–Johnny Mercer) A rare breed of thespian polymath, the multi-faceted Noël Coward was a kind of 20th With Robb Stewart, piano century ‘Renascence Man’ of the theatre – variously playwright, singing-actor of stage (HMV B 9337, mx OEA 10024-1) Recorded 6th July, 1943 2:34 and revue, film-actor, composer, writer, critic and general theatrical entrepreneur. Born 21. YOU'D BE SO NICE TO COME HOME TO (Cole Porter) Noël Peirce Coward in Teddington into a comfortable, middle-class family and raised in With Robb Stewart, piano Surbiton, Surrey, he received no formal musical training, albeit several of his (HMV B 9337, mx OEA 10025-2) Recorded 6th July, 1943 2:00 antecedents were practising musicians. From the first his inclination veered unerringly towards the theatre and, at Daly’s and the Gaiety, he was nurtured on a diet of All selections recorded in London Edwardian musical comedy and the lighter drama classics until, in 1911, he made his own first stage appearance in The Goldfish, at the London Little Theatre. Transfers & Production: David Lennick From an early age, the self-taught Coward also dabbled in song-writing (his earliest Digital Noise Reduction: Graham Newton surviving song dates from 1915) and, under the tutelage of Charles Hawtrey, he made a Special thanks to Alan Farley for Mad About The Boy few other juvenile appearances as an actor prior to a brief stint in the British Army during WWI (in 1918). During that year he also made his first film appearance, in D.W. Producer's Note Griffith’s Hearts Of The World (a British film, made on location in Worcestershire, Just as Volume 2 of this series was being pressed, a note was received from San starring Dorothy and Lillian Gish). In 1920 he starred in his first, unsuccessful, play I’ll Francisco collector and broadcaster Alan Farley, offering Naxos the unissued 1932 Leave It To You and, less than a year later and again unsuccessfully, made his New York recording of Mad About The Boy, which chronologically should have been included in stage début. Back in London, in February 1923, he made less impression in his next play that compilation. Better late than not at all, here it is, taken from one of the only known The Young Idea than in the André Charlot revue London Calling. In this he danced test pressings. Other rare Coward items were also made available, and these will be with his co-star Gertrude Lawrence (1898-1952) and collaborated with writer Ronald included in Volume 4. Jeans. Of the show’s twelve Coward numbers, the wistful Parisian Pierrot has endured best. Coward’s parallel career as a playwright blossomed simultaneously and his straight plays The Vortex (1923), Fallen Angels and Hay Fever (both 1925) won him some early recognition. However, it was in his contributions to revues, first for Charlot in 1924 and Photo of Noël Coward, c.1935 (b/w original Hulton/Archive)

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10. JUST LET ME LOOK AT YOU (Jerome Kern–Dorothy Fields) 1925, then, more significantly, for C.B. Cochran (1872-1951), that his greater talent for With Carroll Gibbons, piano musical comedy first manifested itself. In 1925 the first of these, On With The Dance (a (HMV B 8772, mx OEA 6430-2) Recorded 24th March, 1938 3:13 star-studded show for which Coward wrote all twelve numbers and in which the 11. POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL (Noël Coward, from On With The Dance) wistfully catchy Poor Little Rich Girl was premiered by Parisian singing actress Alice With Carroll Gibbons, piano Delysia) made him his name in the genre, paving the way to the even bigger success, (HMV B 8772, mx OEA 6431-1) Recorded 24th March, 1938 3:11 again for Cochran, in 1928, of This Year Of Grace. For this show (a virtual triumph with a 316-performance London run complemented by 157 in a concurrent Broadway 12. LONDON PRIDE (Noël Coward) production which netted him £1000 per week in royalties and established his American With orchestra conducted by Carroll Gibbons reputation), Coward wrote all lyrics and songs, many in the syncopated jazz idiom, (HMV B 9198, mx OEA 9331-1) Recorded 3rd July, 1941 3:17 notably “Dance, Little Lady” and “A Room With A View.” 13. THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS (Jerome Kern–Oscar Hammerstein II) With orchestra conducted by Carroll Gibbons In 1929, inspired – he claimed – by Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Coward decided (HMV B 9198, mx OEA 9332-1) Recorded 3rd July, 1941 3:09 to try his hand at the Viennese-style with the ‘operette’ Bitter-Sweet. His stars of the 14. COULD YOU PLEASE OBLIGE US WITH A BREN GUN? (Noël Coward) original London production (697 performances), the American soprano Peggy Wood With orchestra conducted by Carroll Gibbons and Rumanian high-baritone Georges Metaxa, regaled audiences with “Dear Little Café” (HMV B 9204, mx OEA 9389-1) Recorded 28th July, 1941 3:27 and the immortal I’ll See You Again. The show also ran for 159 performances on Broadway and was the first Coward musical to be filmed (in England, in 1933). In 1930, 15. THERE HAVE BEEN SONGS IN ENGLAND (Noël Coward) in London, in the “comedy with music” Private Lives, Coward next reaffirmed his stage With orchestra conducted by Carroll Gibbons partnership with Gertrude Lawrence (its Broadway production the following year was (HMV B 9204, mx OEA 9390-1) Recorded 28th July, 1941 2:49 also a significant hit) and in another successful London revue, Cavalcade, for Cochran. 16. IMAGINE THE DUCHESS'S FEELINGS! (Noël Coward) This monumental paean to Edwardian life, two years later, would land its author a With Carroll Gibbons, piano $1million contract for an Oscar-winning Fox films production. (HMV B 9210, mx OEA 9391-1) Recorded 28th July, 1941 2:24 Meanwhile, in London in 1932, Words And Music, an archetypally Cowardian mixture 17. IT'S ONLY YOU (Carroll Gibbons) of world-weariness and froth, ran at the Adelphi for 164 performances. Produced for With Carroll Gibbons, piano Cochran and featuring Ivy St. Helier, Effie Atherton and a very young John Mills, this (HMV B 9210, mx OEA 9392-1) Recorded 28th July, 1941 2:21 contained eighteen Coward numbers, most notably “Mad Dogs And Englishmen” and 18. DON'T LET'S BE BEASTLY TO THE GERMANS (Noël Coward) Mad About The Boy. After the further successes of the non-musical Design For Living With Robb Stewart, piano (1933) and the 1934 musical Conversation Piece, in 1936 Coward married his talent for (HMV B 9336, mx OEA 10018-3) Recorded 2nd July, 1943 3:11 satire and musical comedy in Tonight At 8.30, a series of nine one-acters of which three

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contained musical interludes. First presented at the Phoenix (157 performances) and co- 1. MAD ABOUT THE BOY (Noël Coward; from Words and Music) starring Coward and Lawrence, these also ran on Broadway (118 performances). We With piano accompaniment Were Dancing was one of its most nostalgic highlights. (HMV rejected, mx OB 4211-1) Recorded 20th September, 1932 3:18 With a (His Majesty’s Theatre, London) run of only 113 showings and no Broadway 2. PARISIAN PIERROT (Noël Coward; from London Calling) follow-up, Operette (1938) was a comparative failure for its author, despite some very Orchestra conducted by Clifford Greenwood plaintive tunes in the best Coward tradition (Dearest Love and Where Are The Songs (HMV B 8414, mx OEA 2686-2) Recorded 13th February, 1936 3:45 We Sung? and the monumental drollery of The Stately Homes Of England). It was to 3. WE WERE DANCING (Noël Coward; from Tonight at 8:30) be his last British pre-war musical. The outbreak of the Second World War, however, Orchestra conducted by Clifford Greenwood found Coward making good use of his “talent to amuse”, trying to do his bit for the war- (HMV B 8414, mx OEA 2673-2) Recorded 13th February, 1936 2:50 effort. Indeed, during this time many of his finest miscellaneous songs made their first 4. DEAREST LOVE (Noël Coward; from Operette) appearance, including Don’t Let’s Be Beastly To The Germans (wrongly interpreted With His Majesty's Theatre Orchestra conducted by Francis M. Collinson as ambiguously pro-Nazi, this was for a time banned from BBC air-waves) and the (HMV B 8721, mx OEA 5189-1) Recorded 3rd February, 1938 3:13 sardonic Could You Please Oblige Us With A Bren Gun? (A sort of Cowardian sequel 5. THE STATELY HOMES OF ENGLAND (Noël Coward; from Operette) to “The Washing On The Siegfried Line”) and morale-boosters, like There Have Been With His Majesty's Theatre Orchestra conducted by Francis M. Collinson Songs In England and the rather more timeless London Pride, delivered in that same (HMV B 8722, mx OEA 5191-1) Recorded 3rd February, 1938 3:16 genuine, un-jingoistic spirit of patriotism which informs The Welcoming Land, a recitation written by Coward’s friend ‘Clemence Dane’ (aka playwright-novelist 6. WHERE ARE THE SONGS WE SUNG? (Noël Coward; from Operette) Winifred Ashton, 1888-1965). With His Majesty's Theatre Orchestra conducted by Francis M. Collinson (HMV B 8722, mx OEA 5190-2) Recorded 3rd February, 1938 3:07 Peter Dempsey, 2002 7. GIPSY MELODY (Noël Coward; from Operette) With His Majesty's Theatre Orchestra conducted by Francis M. Collinson (HMV B 8721, mx OEA 5192-1) Recorded 3rd February, 1938 3:20 8. DEAREST LOVE (Noël Coward; from Operette) With Carroll Gibbons, piano (HMV B 8740, mx OEA 6428-1) Recorded 24th March, 1938 3:01 9. I'LL SEE YOU AGAIN (Noël Coward; from Bitter Sweet) With Carroll Gibbons, piano (HMV B 8740, mx OEA 6429-2) Recorded 24th March, 1938 3:15

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Also available in the Naxos Nostalgia series

8.120559 8.120560 8.120600* * Not Available in the U.S. NOËL COWARD Mad About The Boy 8.120623 h www. NOTES ANDFULLRECORDING DETAILS INCLUDED Graham Newton NoiseReduction: Digital DavidLennick Transfers andProduction: Vol.3 The CompleteRecordings ”Mad AboutTheBoy” NOËLCOWARD & g 02HHItrainlLd Dsg:RonHoares Ltd• Design: 2002 HNHInternational naxos.com 1932-1943 MADE INCANADA 14. Could You Gun? Please ObligeUsWith ABren 18. 21. 15. Don’t Let’sBeBeastlyTo TheGermans You’d BeSoNiceTo ComeHomeTo 16. There HaveBeenSongsInEngland There 6. 5. Imagine TheDuchess’sFeelings Where Are TheSongsWe Are Where Sung? The StatelyHomesOfEngland 8.120623 13. ADD 10. The LastTime ISawParis 19. Just LetMeLookAtYou 11. 20. 1. The Welcoming Land Poor LittleRichGirl 3. 9. Mad AboutTheBoy I’m OldFashioned 2. We Were Dancing I’ll SeeYou Again 12. 17. 7. Parisian Pierrot Parisian Pierrot 8. 4. London Pride Gipsy Melody K&A Timings K&A Timings KH PB PD DL AA It’s OnlyYou Dearest Love Dearest Love Dearest Total Time:64:31

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NOËL COWARD NOËL Mad About The Boy The About Mad 8.120623