The British conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent (1895-1967) was best -known the world over for his conductorship of the BBC Henry Wood Proms for very many years. He took the lion's share of the wide-ranging repertoire and a glance at the many programmes he conducted reveals a man whose breadth of musical understanding was wholly exceptional. Today, the Proms is the largest classical music festival in the world, and it is timely to be reminded of Sargent's genius in a wide range of repertoire in this new collection of some of his legendary performances, recorded in the late 1950s and mostly with the BBC Symphony Orchestra of which he was chief conductor in succession to Sir Adrian Boult. This is a superb collection of well-known classical music, very well played and recorded - a fine tribute to a masterly conductor who reached many millions through his devotion to music.

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