Phillips's music, like that of Sullivan, German and Coleridge-Taylor, was on the more serious side of 'light'. He had a thorough technical musical grounding at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was later professor of composition, and he was also a church organist and accompanist. These are emphatically not radio jingles but concert items of genuine symphonic status. If the sparkling Revelry Overture, with which the programme opens, evokes Eric Coates's Merrymakers Overture, much of the rest is Elgarian in its grandeur. The orchestration is bold and accomplished, with a use of brass that, as Lewis Foreman's expert notes indicate, sometimes suggests Phillips's Academy contemporary Bax.
The once widely popular dances from TheRebel Maid (a light opera whose entire score merits rediscovery) may recall German's dance sets in their concept, but they're made of sturdier stuff. The moving Moorland Idyll, the picturesque and varied Surrey Suite, the sparkling Titania and her Elvish Court and the charming Arabesque all constitute music to be treasured.
Phillips's voice, so eloquently served here by fine performances and recording, deserves to be heard not just as light music but in a wider British music context.