Mantovani

Mantovani stood among the era’s foremost conductors, composers, violinists, and pianists, achieving extraordinary commercial reach and productivity within easy listening. His signature “cascading strings,” also termed “tumbling strings,” produced an immediately identifiable sonic signature, while his consistent emphasis on the string section shaped the structural approach for much of the light orchestral repertoire that emerged afterward. Although he created some original pieces, his catalog centered primarily on richly arranged versions of well-known material—television and film themes, Broadway selections, middle-of-the-road pop successes, classical excerpts, and similar sources. Active from the 1920s onward, he operated almost exclusively within the studio environment rather than on the concert stage, becoming one of the earliest artists to treat the long-playing record as the central format for his work instead of 78 rpm singles, one of the first popular musicians to adopt stereo recording techniques, and probably the first to surpass a million units sold in stereo. Deeply engaged with the technical side of record-making, he continually tested microphone placement and other sonic details across an enormous body of work—more than fifty albums issued from the early 1950s until his passing in 1980, apart from the many 78 rpm discs he had already cut beginning in the late 1920s.

Annunzio Paolo Mantovani entered the world on November 15, 1905, in Venice, Italy. His father, a skilled violinist who appeared at Milan’s celebrated La Scala under Arturo Toscanini, guided his son’s early piano and music-theory studies. In 1912 the family relocated to England, where the elder Mantovani assumed leadership of the Covent Garden Orchestra. At fourteen Mantovani abandoned piano for violin, though he retained his keyboard proficiency specifically for composition. Two years later he made his professional debut performing Anton Bruch’s “Violin Concerto No. 1.” He soon joined a touring ensemble, rose quickly to featured soloist, and by age twenty directed the resident orchestra at the Hotel Metropole, recording several sides with the group in 1928. High-profile recitals followed in 1930 and 1931, the latter featuring Saint-Saëns’ “Violin Concerto in B Minor,” and his reputation steadily grew. Around this period he assembled the Tipica Orchestra and inaugurated a series of regular broadcasts from London’s prominent Monseigneur restaurant.

Mantovani and the Tipica Orchestra enjoyed widespread success across England and recorded for Sterno, Regal Zonophone, and Columbia between 1932 and 1936. Two of those releases, “Red Sails in the Sunset” and “Serenade to the Night,” registered American hits in 1935 and 1936. Columbia altered the label credit to Mantovani & His Orchestra in 1937, and in 1940 he transferred to Decca. By the outbreak of World War II he ranked among England’s leading orchestra directors; during the 1940s he also expanded into theater, serving as musical director for several productions, among them multiple works by Noël Coward. After the war Mantovani concentrated almost entirely on recording and gradually abandoned live appearances. Through a succession of popular 78 rpm discs for Decca he explored various approaches until he developed his hallmark sound in collaboration with arranger Ronald Binge, a former accordionist in the Tipica Orchestra. Binge is credited with creating the dramatic “cascading strings” device, first heard on the 1951 single “Charmaine,” a melody originally composed twenty-five years earlier. The track became a major success, selling more than a million copies and firmly establishing Mantovani’s presence in the United States.

A consistent sequence of hit singles appeared in the early 1950s: “Wyoming” (1951), “Greensleeves” (1952), the U.K. number one “Song from Moulin Rouge” (1953), “Swedish Rhapsody” (1953), “The Lonely Ballerina” (1954), “Toy Shop Ballet” (1956; which contributed to his receipt of the U.K.’s Ivor Novello Award), and “Around the World” (1957). In addition, he arranged, co-wrote, and accompanied David Whitfield on the U.K. chart-topping (and U.S. Top Ten) “Cara Mia” in 1954. Beginning in 1953 he produced a steady flow of LPs for Decca and its London subsidiary. Although rock & roll curtailed his singles-chart activity, his albums continued to sell briskly in America. Between 1955 and 1972 more than forty Mantovani albums appeared on the U.S. pop charts; twenty-seven reached the Top 40 and eleven reached the Top Ten. Among the strongest sellers were Christmas Carols (1953; which re-entered the charts repeatedly), Song Hits from Theatreland (1955), Film Encores (1957; his sole number-one album), Mantovani Stereo Showcase (1960), and the blockbuster Mantovani Plays Music from “Exodus” and Other Great Themes (1961), a number-two album that sold over a million copies and remained on the charts for nearly a year. His recording of the “Exodus” theme joined other successful versions by Ferrante & Teicher and jazzman Eddie Harris.

As the 1960s progressed, Mantovani’s light orchestral style moved further from prevailing pop tastes, and his chart positions gradually declined; his final entry was 1972’s Annunzio Paolo Mantovani. He nevertheless remained faithful to his established aesthetic, incorporating only those contemporary elements he could adapt to his own approach. Recording activity diminished after Decca was absorbed into MCA in 1973, though he continued composing for several years. He died at his country residence in Tunbridge Wells, England, on March 29, 1980.