Mantovani Biography

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Mantovani
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Soaring string arrangements of popular songs, frequently from movie scores, were the trademark of Mantovani, whose orchestral work was keyed mostly to recordings, although he did put an orchestra on the road occasionally over the space of a long career. Annunzio Paolo Mantovani was born in Venice, Italy in 1905, the son of the principal violinist at La Scala in Milan, then under the conductorship of Arturo Toscanini. His father was an in-demand violinist and after several other tours with conductors (including Saint-Saens) the father took the family to London in 1912. Beginning his musical training on piano, the young Mantovani eventually learned violin, too, and by sixteen had made his professional debut playing a violin concerto. At twenty, he had his own orchestra at London’s Hotel Metropole and soon was into airing his music on the new wonder: radio. During the 1930’s, he continued orchestral work in England, including radio broadcasts from a restaurant in Piccadilly and turned to recording. During 1935-36, his work became known in the United States as he put together a pair of big-selling singles, "Red Sails In the Sunset" and "Serenade In the Night." Still in London, however, he took up stage work by serving as music director for West End shows, including Noel Coward’s "Pacific 1860" and "Ace of Clubs." Among the stars he conducted in those days were Mary Martin, Pat Kirkwood, Lupino Lane and Leslie Henson, among others. Now recording for Decca in the UK, Mantovani was having success but was anxious to make the move to the bigger U.S. audience. He began experimenting with arrangements featuring stringed instruments, the notion eventually being called "cascading strings," an effect that is said to have been originated by arranger Ronnie Binge and that became Mantovani’s orchestral trademark. Beginning in 1951, this type of arrangement was first used on "Charmaine," a song originally written to promote a 1926 silent film called "What Price Glory," the first of a number of million-sellers. He was also putting his own compositional skills to use as he rolled out the hits in both countries. One of his songs, "Cara Mia," was also recorded with Mantovani on piano, unusual in that the piano was not a major instrument in his orchestra and was rarely used. As an album artist, Mantovani excelled, even though he sold plenty of singles. But with the advent of the stereo system, he became a big seller of stereo recordings, due, it is said, to the Decca label’s superb recording quality. Between 1955-66, he had 28 albums in the Top 30. His orchestra had also become a factor in world tours that included Russia. He had two Top 40 single hits on the Billboard chart, one in 1957 (No. 12 "Around the World In 80 Days") and 1961 (No. 31 ("Theme From ‘Exodus’"). Mantovani is said to have been so popular with U.S. audiences that during one U.S. tour when he became ill and had to cancel, patrons refused to ask for refunds, choosing to retain tickets for the following year’s tour. He continued to tour and record into the ‘70s, compiling 51 hit albums in the U.S. before he died in 1980.

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