Anthony Collins

Collins arranged and composed works in many genres, but it is the lighter pieces that are still known today. Most notable of these is Vanity Fair (1952), composed in mock Regency style after the novel of the same name by William Thackeray. Various miniatures, suites and film music extracts by Collins have been recorded. Of the film music, there is a five movement suite taken from his first score, Victoria the Great (1937). Having established himself in Hollywood during the war, he returned to the UK and scored a series of high profile British films, many of them starring Anna Neagle, such as Piccadilly Incident (1946), The Courtneys of Curzon Street (1947) and Odette (1950). Four one-act operas - Perseus and Andromeda, Catherine Parr, The Blue Harlequin and Kanawa - were composed in the early 1930s for the Royal College of Music. Eire (1938) is a suite of Irish folksong arrangements. Louis XV Silhouettes (1939) is a suite of pastiche 18th-century dance movements. His 1942 Elegy in Memory of Edward Elgar, is based on a theme from the slow movement of Elgar's third symphony. Collins also compiled the Threnody for a Soldier Killed in Action (1944) from sketches left by Michael Heming, a young composer killed in World War II. There are also chamber works and songs. Many of his more ambitious works have been lost. These include the last two of the four string symphonies, two violin concertos (the first only surviving in the version published for violin and piano), Romney Marsh for viola and orchestra (1944) and the cantata The Lay of Rosabelle. Others, such as the tone poem Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, only exist as historical recordings.

• Victoria the Great, 1937 • The Rat, 1937 • A Royal Divorce, 1938 • Sixty Glorious Years, 1938 • Marigold, 1938 • Nurse Edith Cavell, 1939 • Allegheny Uprising, 1939 • Swiss Family Robinson, 1940 • Tom Brown's School Days, 1940 • Irene, 1940 • Sunny, 1941 • Unexpected Uncle, 1941 • The Nazis Strike, 1943 • Appointment in Berlin, 1943 • Destroyer, 1943 • Forever and a Day • I Live in Grosvenor Square, 1945 • Piccadilly Incident, 1946 • The Courtneys of Curzon Street, 1947 • The Fabulous Texan, 1947 • Odette, 1950 • Thunder in God's Country, 1951 • The Lady with a Lamp, 1951 • Macao, 1952 • Derby Day, 1952 • Trent's Last Case, 1952 • Laughing Anne, 1953 • Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1954

Collins conducted a series of recordings, notably of music of Elgar and Sibelius, for Decca Records and EMI. His Decca Kingsway Hall recordings made between 1952 and 1955 of the seven Sibelius symphonies (the second complete cycle with a single orchestra and conductor) and some of the tone poems were very highly regarded. He recorded with Decca from May 1945 to December 1956.

• Year — Award — Category — Work — Result • 1940 — Academy Awards — Best Original Score — Nurse Edith Cavell • 1941 — Irene • 1942 — Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture — Sunny