That Ernest Tomlinson earns a second volume in this Marco Polo series before 
we have had even a first volume of such masters of British light music as, say, 
Charles Ancliffe or Percy Fletcher doubtless owes as much to Tomlinson's role as 
a driving force behind the whole series as to the fact that he is happily still 
with us to conduct the music himself. Hilary Ashton's detailed accompanying 
notes remind us that it was as an arranger of traditional tunes that Tomlinson 
first made his mark in broadcasting, and the most familiar music here will 
surely be the delightful First Suite of English Folk-Dances which was recorded 
back in 1971 by Sir Vivian Dunn and the Orchestra of the Light Music Society. 
''Dick's Maggot'' will be the most familiar single number from the suite, but 
''Hunt the Squirrel'' is hardly less delightful. The whole suite deserves to 
rank as a classic of the British orchestral repertory.

Of the original compositions in the second collection, the most obviously 
attractive must be the three movements from Tomlinson's Light Music 
Suite - especially the piquant ''Pizzicato Humoresque'' and the swirling ''Waltz 
for a Princess''. Beyond that, it's good to have on CD the Rhapsody and Rondo 
for horn and orchestra, written for Dennis Brain and with some formidable 
challenges well met here by Richard Watkins.

In truth, though, Ernest Tomlinson as an original composer is scarcely in the 
same class as, say, Frederic Curzon or Ronald Binge. It's the First Suite of 
English Folk-Dances that stands out as Tomlinson's masterpiece, and the 
composer's presence here ensures that it and the remainder of the programme 
receive definitive performances from the Bratislava players.

  --Andrew Lamb