What I Got [CD-single]
Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Hit from their 1996 album 'Sublime'. It's backed with 'SawRed', 'Jailhouse' (Live) and 'What I Got' (Demo Version).Slimline jewel case. 1996 Gasoline Alley/ MCA release.
Average customer rating:
- Sinead C
- Sophomore anti-slump
- A real artist
- Truly one of the best Pop-Rock albums in history
- Fans can never be objective...
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I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
Sinéad O'Connor
Manufacturer: Capitol
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
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- The Lion and the Cobra
- Faith and Courage
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- Am I Not Your Girl?
ASIN: B000003JB7
Release Date: 1990-02-28 |
Tracks:
- Feel So Different
- I Am Stretched On Your Grave
- Three Babies
- The Emporer's New Clothes
- Black Boys On Mopeds
- Nothing Compares 2 U
- Jump In The River
- You Cause As Much Sorrow
- The Last Day Of Our Acquaintance
- I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
Amazon.com
Before Sinead O'Connor became conservative America's most reviled musician when she ripped up a picture of the Pope on TV and refused to perform live at a New Jersey venue following "The Star Spangled Banner," she vocally supported the IRA at home in Ireland and generally roused the rabble. Indeed, she's one female pop star who's truly earned her army boots. Though her once meteoric musical career has suffered due to her outspokenness, the powerful voice and presence found on her second album is beyond reproach. Best known as the source of O'Connor's breakthrough cover of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U," this is a moving, intensely passionate work full of dark beauty and longing, constructed with a fierce independence and a taste for the unique. This undeniably pop album (albeit with modern-rock and folk elements) has more than held up through the years. --Lorry Fleming
Customer Reviews:
Sinead C.......2007-07-25
I had the tape as a cassette, and re-purchased the CD. I very much like the song I am stretched on your grave".
Sophomore anti-slump.......2007-06-18
I vividly remember picking up "The Lion and the Cobra" on vinyl while I was visiting my grandparents as a college sophomore, 17 years ago. For most of that week, I was plunking it down on their ancient turntable and listening on headphones after everyone else had turned in. I adored it then and still do, and there was clearly no way that Ms. O'Connor was ever going to top it, except...
Oh. Wait. It gets better?
Yes, it does. From the moment she launches into the Serenity Prayer in the stunning orchestral opener, "Feel So Different," you get the sense that this might not be your typical pop album. You might even worry that it intends to bash you over the head. Fortunately, she's much smarter than that.
While O'Connor's big Pope controversy was yet to occur, you can hear it brewing in the form of "Black Boys on Mopeds," when she sings, "These are dangerous days / To say what you feel is to dig your own grave." She knew that her words were going to get her into trouble sooner or later, and they did, and it sent her spiraling off, as far as I can tell.
And then she recovered, and came back with more seriously wonderful music. But that's another story. This album crystallizes a moment in time: it's about a woman struggling to find her voice and doing a dangerously good job of it.
A real artist.......2007-05-03
What can I say about this record, it's one of the best in history. A real voice that has a lot to say.
Truly one of the best Pop-Rock albums in history.......2006-12-29
Forget everything you (or the media) seem to know about O'Connor. She didn't win a Grammy (Best Alternative Rock Performance) or Rolling Stone Artist of the Year for nothing in 1990. One of the amazing things about this album was that it was even better than her stunning, million-selling 1987 'Lion & Cobra' debut. THAT was the album that made her an alt-rock star....this one made her a mainstream, Madonna-sized superstar (lest we forget O'Connor's 1990-91 "Bald Ambition" tour?). Her Prince cover (Nothing Compares 2 U) remains truly immortal, but it was the collection of 9 other, BETTER songs that made the mainstream realize that this woman was something else. Brilliantly self-written, arranged, and sung, the album is a song cycle of loss and redemption that is as good as anything Dylan or Morrison ever created. Every song is a masterpiece. Every one. In fact, 'Nothing Compares' is the most "out of place" track here--and the obvious reason the whole set "snuck" into such mass-market consciousness. Yet, it is songs like "Three Babies," "Emperor's New Clothes," "Black Boys on Mopeds," and "Last Day of Our Acquaintance" that generated for O'Connor a lasting fan-base that would allow her to keep selling millions of records around the world long after she rebelled against mega-stardom with the political posturing so unbecoming of what the post-modern world "desires" in its mega-stars.
Moreover, this album begs to differ with the crass VH1 classification of O'Connor as some "one-hit wonder" -- "Emperor's New Clothes" wound-up as the No. 1 Billboard Modern Rock hit of 1990, reminding us that this vibrant, tortured, influential artist has really always been an alt-rock artist with a string of notable hits in her true genre. "Nothing Compares" was simply a 'crossover' hit on an undeniably classic modern rock masterpiece-of-an-album.
Fans can never be objective..........2006-04-21
From the OBJECTIVE point of view...forget her hit song "Nothing Compares 2 U" written by Prince, with songs like "You Cause As Much Sorrow" (a masterpiece), "Last Day of Our Aquaintence" and "Three Babies" this is nothing short of perfect.
Average customer rating:
- Great to Hear All those great Voices from the Past
- A Good One!
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Greatest Hits: Broadway
Manufacturer: Sony
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- The Best Of Broadway (Cast Recording Anthology)
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ASIN: B0000029PM
Release Date: 1996-10-29 |
Tracks:
- Oklahoma!: Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin' - John Raitt/Franz Allers
- On The Town: New York, New York - Michael Kermoyan/Adolph Green/John Reardon/Cris Alexander & Chorus/Leonard Bernstein
- Annie Get Your Gun: I Got The Sun In The Morning - Doris Day/Franz Allers
- Fiddler On The Roof: If I Were A Rich Man - Topol/Gareth Davies
- West Side Story: Tonight - Larry Kert/Carol Lawrence/Max Goberman
- The Sound Of Music: The Sound Of Music - Mary Martin/Frederick Dvonch
- My Fair Lady: On The Street Where You Live - Jerry Lanning/Theodore Saidenberg
- Annie: Tomorrow - Andrea McArdle/Peter Howard
- The Music Man: Seventy-Six Trombones - The Boston Pops Orchestra/John Williams
- Anything Goes: You're The Top - Eileen Rodgers/Hal Linden/Julian Stein
- Bye Bye Birdie: Put On A Happy Face - Dick Van Dyke/Elliot Lawrence
- Mame: Open A New Window - Angela Lansbury & Cast/Don Pippin
- Strike Up The Band: Strike Up The Band - The Chestnut Brass Co.
- Sweet Charity: Hey, Big Spender - Helen Gallagher/Thelma Oliver/Fan-Dango Girls/Fred Werner
- Bells Are Ringing: Just In Time - Judy Holliday/Sydney Chaplin/Milton Rosenstock
- Gypst: Together, Wherever We Go - Ethel Merman/Jack Klugman/Sandra Church/Milton Rosenstock
- Cabaret: Cabaret - Jill Haworth/Harold Hastings
- Phantom Of The Opera: The Music Of The Night - The Boston Pops Orchestra/John Williams
- Show Boat: Ol' Man River - William Warfield/Franz Allers
- A Chorus Line: What I Did For Love - Priscilla Lopez & Cast/Don Pippin
- A Little Night Music: Send In The Clowns - Glynis Johns/Harold Hastings
Customer Reviews:
Great to Hear All those great Voices from the Past.......2007-07-05
I just wanted to confirm what the first reviewer had to say about this CD. To hear Ethyl Merman, Mary Martin, Andrea McCardle etc. singing their trademark songs brought a lot of memories from the mid-centry musical theater back again. The last song by Glynis Johns is especially poignant.
You certainly can't beat the price!
A Good One!.......2006-11-10
This is a very good CD, mostly because it's the original artists. I've had some that were re-recorded by no name artists that were ghastly. This one is a really good one--including the sound quality. If I had one wish, I would wish it were longer!
Average customer rating:
- Absolutely peerless
- once-in-a-lifetime greatness
- We love this album
- Simply great
- Porgy and Bess
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Porgy & Bess
Ella Fitzgerald , and Louis Armstrong
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
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Similar Items:
- Porgy and Bess
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ASIN: B0000046Z5
Release Date: 1990-10-25 |
Tracks:
- Overture
- Summertime
- I Wants To Stay Here
- My Man's Gone Now
- I Got Plenty O'Nuttin'
- Buzzard Song
- Bess, You Is My Woman Now
- It Ain't Necessarily So
- What You Want Wild Bess?
- A Woman Is A Sometime Thing
- Oh, Doctor Jesus
- Medley: Here Come De Honey Man/Crab Man/Oh, Deh's So Fresh And Fine (Strawberry Woman)
- There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York
- Bess, Oh Where's My Bess
- Oh Lawd, I'm On My Way
Amazon.com
Getting the two most personable voices in jazz to sing an hour's worth of George Gershwin's opera Porgy & Bess (Ella doing all the female parts, Satchmo all the male) was a good idea, but not quite as great as it sounded. Armstrong savors the down-and-dirty Charlestonisms that inspired the cadences of the music and lyrics, and they fit his happy rasp like an old shoe; Fitzgerald, conversely, sounds almost prissy every time she has to sing the word "ain't," though her melodic genius gets Gershwin's bold, supple tunes over. The arrangements are full-throttle Broadway, with a few leaps into Dixieland (including some fine Armstrong trumpet solos), but the disc works best when the vocalists break character and let their jazz side out. --Douglas Wolk
Customer Reviews:
Absolutely peerless.......2006-11-17
"Porgy and Bess" has just opened (with some controversy) in London's West End, though as a musical and not as an opera as it was originally conceived. Reviews have been promising and I aim to go down and see it soon. I decided to listen to this CD to put myself in the mood. I hadn't listened to it for years and I'd completely forgotten how good it actually is. Ella's voice blends with Louis' perfectly and Russell Garcia's orchestration gives them a dreamy landscape to perform against. I have one or two other CDs by Louis and Ella but this one is by far my favourite. The CD opens with "Overture" and its orchestral performance of classics like "Summertime", "I Wants To Stay Here", "I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'" and "It Ain't Neccessarily So" set the tone nicely, leaving one ever so keen for the vocal versions. Louis Armstong has a very rough tone to his voice but the emotion he packs with it is moving, most especially on the mournful "Bess, Oh Where's My Bess?" And we get all this and Louis' wonderful trumpet playing too?
Gershwin and Gershwin must be among the top composers of the last century and this opera showcases their talents more than anything I've heard. Ella and Louis are peerless as a vocal duo and though I doubt the West End performance will capture the magic in the same way they did, I still remain very keen to go see it. Is it opera or is it a jazz performance? I don't really know. I just know that I love it. And strongly recommend it.
once-in-a-lifetime greatness.......2006-10-06
Two thousand five hundred musicians have recorded "Summertime" --- it's a classic. (I bet most Americans can name Janis Joplin and no other singer.) As for "Porgy and Bess," the folk opera from which "Summertime" springs, it's such a classic that it's hard to believe anyone ever had a harsh word to say about it.
But after its premiere in 1935, no less than Duke Ellington said, "It has grand music and a swell play, but the two didn't go together. It does not use the Negro musical idiom --- the times are here to debunk Gershwin's lampblack Negroisms."
A quarter of a century later, the producers of the film version had trouble assembling a cast. Harry Belafonte rejected their offer to play Porgy. Sidney Poitier took the part --- and wished he hadn't. Poitier later wrote that the movie insulted black people; when he chose clips of his best performances for his tribute at the American Film Institute, he picked nothing from "Porgy and Bess."
And in 1985, when Grace Bumbry was a sensation as Bess in a Metropolitan Opera production, she slammed the opera: "I thought it beneath me, I felt I had worked far too hard, that we had come far too far to have to retrogress to 1935."
All that may be. All I know is that I have, in a long life, rarely been confronted with more genius than in the Fitzgerald/Armstrong recording of "Porgy & Bess." Set aside the achievement of George and Ira Gershwin in transforming DuBose Heyward's novel into a folk opera. Let's just focus on Armstrong and Fitzgerald, who were at the peak of their popularity when this record was made in 1957.
"Summertime" --- the first song --- sets the tone. A baleful horn figure, then violins. And then Armstrong's trumpet: slow, steady, dignified. But wait --- here comes a slurred note. And a cool little improvisation. Just enough of each. Very tasty.
Fitzgerald sings a verse. She is cool and formal. A lady. Not to be taken lightly. Now it's Armstrong's turn. Tender, but let's not kid ourselves --- this is not singing as others define it. This is melodic speech: rough, gutteral. And thus he is ideally cast: His Porgy may have his charms, but he'll have to stretch to keep Bess.
And so it goes throughout the CD. Trumpet mastery --- Armstrong has dazzling control. His tone is bright, but never shrill; there's a warmth in his playing no one else could produce. And Fitzgerald is just a study in inevitability; to hear her is to wonder how anyone could sing these songs any other way.
"I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'." "Bess, You Is My Woman Now." "A Woman Is a Sometime Thing." "There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New York." "Bess, Oh Where's My Bess?" "Oh Lawd, I'm on My Way."
All brilliantly conceived, orchestrated and recorded.
The greatest trumpet player in this history of jazz.
The father of scat singing.
The queen of the jazz vocal.
There are no-brainers, and then there is this Ella Fitzgerald-Louis Armstrong collaboration --- music that imprints on your soul.
We love this album.......2006-08-22
We hope they will someday bring this beautiful story back to the stage
Simply great.......2006-03-04
The fusion between the great two voices and the orchestra is just brilliant. Very good brass and violins that accompany Fitzeralds and Armstrongs magic voices leaves you with your mouth open.
A must have for everyone!
Porgy and Bess.......2005-10-14
Could not find this anyway locally. It is a great recording
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- Instruments of the Orchestra - Great Reference Material!
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Instruments of the Orchestra
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Naxos
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Similar Items:
- Britten: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra Op34; Simple Symphony Op4
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ASIN: B00006O0NT
Release Date: 2002-12-03 |
Tracks:
- Overture To 'Tannhauser'
- Domna, Pos Vos Ay Chausida
- We Don't Merely Use Instruments, We Play On Them. And They Play On Us.
- Hungarian Dance No.7
- The Violin Is One Of The Most Tender And Beautiful Instruments Ever Invented.
- Violin Concerto In D Major (Adagio)
- But For A Long Time It Was Seen As The Instrument Of The Devil.
- The Soldier's Tale: Triumphal March Of The Devil
- The Manipulative Seductiveness Of The Gypsy Violin.
- Csardas Music
- The Violin And The Initiation Of Nature
- The Four Seasons (Spring, Mvt 1)
- Birds Are Again Evoked In The Second Concerto, Especially Music's Natural Favourite.
- The Four Seasons (Summer, Mvt 1)
- Like The Devil, The Violin Is A Master Of Disguise.
- Old Viennese Dance No.3 'Schon Rosmarin'
- The Menacing Sensuality Of Ravel's Tzigane: A Very Different Side Of The Violin:
- Tzigane
- Do We Now Have The True Measure Of This Instrument? Not Just Yet.
- Caprice No.24
- The Many Effects Of The String Tremolando: Brandenburg Concerto No.4 (Last Mvt)/From Joy To Fright/Quartettsatz In C Minor/The String Tremolo Practically Spells The World Agitato.
- Variations On A Theme Of Frank Bridge (No.7)
- Prokofiev's Tremolo In Romeo And Juliet Should Not Be Heard Just Before Bedtime.
- Romeo And Juliet: Act IV
- Vivaldi Use It To Illustrate The Shivering Of Travellers Crossing The Ice.
- The Four Seasons (Winter, Mvt 1)
- The Violin Muted
- Clair De Lune
- The Gentleness Of Muted Strings Persists Even When A Whole Orchestra Plays.
- Piano Concerto No.21 In C Major, K.467 (Slow Mvt)
- The Pizzicato Violin
- Pizzicato Polka
- In Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto, The Accompaniment Is Pizzicato.
- Violin Concerto No.2 In G Minor (Slow Mvt)
- Varieties Of Pizzicato: Colas Breugnon (The People's Feast)/Now A Drier, Leaner, Hungrier Pizzicato. There's Not A Lot Of Comfort Here./Capriol Suite (Tordion)/The Use Of Pizzicato As 'Percussion'/Romeo And Juliet (Act I)/Mahler Used Pizzicato...
- The Planets (Mars - The Bringer Of War)
- The Technique Of Double-Stopping Enables The Violin To Play Duets With Itself./Sonata No.3 In C Major For Unaccompanied Violin (Fugue)/Now A Later Example Of The Same Technique
- Hungarian Dance No.4
- Double-Stopping Is A Standard Feature Of A Lot Of Folk Music.
- The Four Seasons (Autumn, Mvt 1)
- Now The Same Technique, But The Sound Might Have Come From Another World.
- Bolero
- Double-Stopping Can Only Approximate The Sound Of A Real Violin Duet.
- Cadenza To The Violin Concerto By Brahms
- Now Compare That With A Real Violin Duet.
- Forty-Four Duos (No. 1: Teasing Song)
- Another Duo By Bartok, Demonstrating The Violin's Rich Lower Register
- Forty-Four Duos (No.2: Maypole Dance)
- And Now What May Be The Most Beautiful Accompanied Violin Duet In History
- Concerto In D Minor For Two Violins (Largo)
- The Soul Of The Violin Is In Song; But What About This Weird Passage?
- Violin Concerto No.1 In D Major (Mvt 2)
- The Use Of Harmonies In The Orchestra Can Be Both Magical And Unsettling.
- Symphony No.1 'Titan' (Mvt 1, Opening)
- Tchaikovsky's Use Of Harmonics In The Sleeping Beauty Is Both Strange And Darling.
- The Sleeping Beauty (Act II, No.15: Entr'Acte)
- Ravel's Harmonics In Mother Goose Effect A Magical Transformation.
- Ma Mere L'Oye - Mother Goose (Beauty And The Beast)
- Stravinsky's Harmonics In The Firebird Transport Us Almost Into Another World./The Firebird (Introduction)
- The Natural Upper Notes Of The Violins Have A Unique Emotional 'Grab'.
- Also Sprach Zarathustra (Of The Afterworldsmen)
- Still In Their Upper Register, The Violins Unleash The Energy Of A Young Colt.
- Variations On A Theme Of Frank Bridge (No. 4)
- Elsewhere, Britten Uses The Same High Register To Create A Very Different Mood.
- Four Sea Interludes (Dawn) From 'Peter Grimes'
- To End This Outing With The Violins, A Charming Little Elfin Dance
- Elfenreigen
Tracks:
- Introduction To The Viola
- Viola Concerto (Mvt 1)
- Khatchaturian Gets A Very Different Sound From It: Fuller, Fruitier, More Exotic.
- Gayane Suite No.1 (Armen's Solo)
- Very Nearly The Whole Of The Violin's Upper Register Is Also Available To The Viola.
- Passacaglia, Op.33b From 'Peter Grimes'
- The Viola Can Bring A Special, Rich Twanginess To Pizzicato That The Violins Lack./Don Quixote/Berlioz Drew Sounds From It That Retain Their Metallic Strangeness Even Today.
- Harold In Italy (Mvt 4)
- The Muted Viola: Intimate, Gentle, Poignant In Dvork
- Cypresses (No.9)
- The Massed Violas Of The Modern Symphony Orchestra In Mahler
- Symphony No.4 (Mvt 3)
- The 'Period' Viola In Bach
- Brandenburg Concerto No.6 (Last Mvt)
- The Cello: A Voice Of Unique Nobility
- Suite No.1 For Unaccompanied Cello (Prelude)
- Brahms And The 'Soul' Of The Cello
- Piano Concerto No.2 In B Flat Major (Mvt 3)
- Most Orchestral Composers Tend To Emphasize The Cello's Lower Register.
- Cantata 'Herz Und Mund Und Tat Und Leben', BWV 147 (Soprana Aria: Bereite Dir, Jesu)
- In The Time Of Beethoven The Cello Remained As Fundamental As Ever.
- Symphony No.3 'Eroica' (Finale)
- But The Cello Is Not Condemned To Spend Its Life In The Basement.
- Elfentanz, Op.39
- Not Only In Recital Showpieces Like That Is The Cello Is Used In Its Highest Register.
- The Protecting Veil (Opening)
- A Cello With An Identity-Crisis: The Pizzicato Flamencan
- Flamenco
- Double-Stopping In The Lower Reaches Of The Cello's Range
- Solo Suiet For Cello And Piano (Sardana)
- It's In The Middle Register That The Cello Really Comes Into Its Own.
- Oriental Dance, Op.2 No.2
- It Was To The Cellos That Beethoven Gave Two Of His Most Famous Themes./Symphony No.5 (Mvt 2)/Still More Famous Than That Theme Is This One From The Ninth Symphony.
- Symphony No.9 (Finale)
- Introduction To The Double-Bass
- The Carnival Of The Animals (The Elephant)
- But The Double-Bass Can Be Intensely Expressive And Graceful.
- Elegy No.1 In D Major
- The Range Of The Double-Bass Is The Greatest Of All The String Instruments/Allegro Di Concerto, 'Alla Mendelssohn'/And It's Also Capable Of Very Considerable Virtuosity.
- Capriccio Di Bravura
- Double-Bass Solos In Orchestral Scores Are Rare But Often Memorable./Symphony No.1 'Titan' (Mvt 3)/In His Third Symphony Mahler Makes A Very Different Use Of The Instrument./Symphony No.3 (Mvt 1)
- The Double-Bass Muted In Prokofiev/Lieutenant Kije Suite (Kije's Wedding)/In Another Work Prokofiev Uses The Double-Bass To Enhance The Winds./Romeo And Juliet (Act III)/And He Combines The Bass Clarinet With A Shivering Tremolo From The Double-Basses....
- Symphony No.5 (Mvt 3)/So Much For The Strings/On Now To The Winds
Tracks:
- The Antiquity And Magic Of The Flute
- Prelude A L'Apres-Midi D'Un Faune
- The Versatility And Agility Of The Flute
- Orchestral Suite No.2 In B Minor (Badinerie)
- The Flute In Fifteenth-Century Spain
- Sa'Dawi
- Other Flutes: The Bass And Alto
- Chamber Music No.II
- The Piccolo - Aptly Named
- La Naissance D'Osiris (Mvt 6)
- From A Piccolo Of The Eighteenth Century To One Of Its Descendants In The Twentieth
- Suite No.1 For Small Orchestra (Valse)
- A Variety Of Techniques
- Chamber Music No.II
- Flutter-Tonguing. But Tchaikovsky Got There Eighty Years Before.
- The Nutcracker (Act II, No.2: Scene)
- From The Transverse To The Vertical: The Baroque Recorder
- Recorded Suite In A Minor (Menuet II)
- An Unfamiliar, Early Vision Of The Instrument
- Naelden, Naelden
- The Bachian Oboe
- Cantata 'Ein Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott', BWV 80 (No.7: Duetto)
- Introduction To The Cor Anglais Or 'English Born'
- Symphony No.9 'From The New World' (Mvt 2)
- The Loneliness Of The Cor Anglais
- The Swan Of Tuonela
- The Cor Anglais Joins The French Horn In Haydn.
- Symphony No.22 'The Philosopher' (Opening)
- Introduction To The Oboe D'Amore, Beloved Of Bach - But Also Of Ravel
- Bolero
- The Clarinet Family: Boxing The Compass, From The Depths Of The Bass Clarinet.../The Egyptian (Violence)/...To The Raucous And Squealy.../Taras Bulba (The Death Of Ostap)/...To The Shrill And Complaining...
- Petrushka (No.8: Peasant With Bear)/...To The High Sprits Of A Playful Puppy./Symphonie Fantastique (Last Mvt)/And To The Downright Jazzy/Romeo And Juliet (Act II)
- As The High Clarinets Tend To Be Loud, So The Bass Tends To Be Soft:
- Gayane Suite No. 1 (Mvt 5)
- The Bass Clarinet Is Used By Most Composers Mainly As A Colouring Agent.../Petrushka (No.4: The Blackamoor)/...But It Does Occasionally Get A Whole Tune To Itself./Iberia (Almeria).
- The Range Of The Normal Clarinet Parts Goes Quite High...
- The Snow Maiden (Scene 5: Melodrama)
- ...And Quite Low.
- Peter And The Wolf (The Cat)
- The Clarinet As Concerto Soloist
- Clarinet Concerto In A Major (Rondo)
- But That's Not The Instrument Mozart Wrote It For; This Is:
- Clarinet Concerto In A Major (Rondo)
- Introduction To The Saxophone
- Hary Janos Suite (Mvt 4)
- The Soprano Saxophone Has Quite A Different Feel To It.
- L'Arlesienne Suite No.1 (Minuet)
- The Little Sopranino Sax Goes Even Higher.
- Bolero
- The Most Famous Use Of The Saxophone Is In An Orchestration By Ravel.
- Pictures At An Exhibition (The Old Castle)
- The Saxophone Can Be Quite Contagiously Good-Humoured.
- Sax-O-Phun
- The Puffa-Puffa Image Of The Bassoon
- Peter And The Wolf (Grandfather)
- The Bachian Bassoon, In Accompanimental Mode
- Cantata 'Weichet Nur, Betrubte Schatten' ('Wedding Cantata'), BWV 202 (Aria No.1)
- Bizet Leaves The Puffa-Puffa Image Out, Allowing The Bassoon To Sing./Carmen Suite No.1 (Les Dragons D'Alcala)
- And Ravel, Also In Spanish Mode, Does Likewise.
- Bolero
- The Bassoon As A Voice Of High Seriousness, Indeed Desolate Loneliness
- Symphony No.3 (Opening)
- The Eerie Bassoon In Its Highest Register
- The Rite Of Spring (Opening)
- Stravinsky Now Draws On Its Lowest Register, Lonely And Melancholy.
- The Firebird Suite (1919, Berceuse)
- The Bassoon As Concerto Soloist, Avoiding All Exaggeration
- Bassoon Concerto In G Minor (Finale)
- The Deep-Voiced Contra-Bassoon, As A Fairy-Tale Beast
- Ma Mere L'Oye - Mother Goose (Beauty And The Beast)
- The French Horn Under Its Woodwind Hat
- Wind Quintet, Op.43 (Last Mvt)
- Now A More Prominent Role, In A Woodwind Quintet From An Earlier Era
- Wind Quintet In A Minor, Op.100 No.5 (Mvt 2)
- The Horn In Harmonious Blend With Strings In Another Quintet
- Horn Quintet, K.407 (Finale)
Tracks:
- The Trumpet As Virtuoso Soloist
- Brandenburg Concerto No.2 (Last Mvt)
- The Special Brillance Of Paired Trumpets
- Concerto In C For Two Trumpets, RV537 (Mvt 1)
- The Ceremonial Trumpet
- Fanfare For The Common Man
- Trumpets And Drums - An Incomparable Alliance
- Messiah (The Trumpet Shall Sound)
- The Versatility Of The Trumpet, From The Most Public To The Most Lonely
- Piano Concerto In F (Slow Mvt)
- The Trumpet As The Voice Of The City/An American In Paris/The Trumpet As Recruitment Officer/The Soldier's Tale (The March)/The Trumpet As Swaggerer
- Carmen Suite No.2 (Habanera)
- The Trumpet As The Voice Of Strength And Courage
- Carmet Suite No.2 (Toreador's Song)
- The Trumpet Muted/Petrushka (No.4: The Blackamoor)/Lieutenant Kije Suite (Opening)/The Trumpet As The Voice Of Weariness
- Billy The Kid
- The Trumpet As Character Actor
- Pictures At An Exhibition (No.6)
- The Trumpet As The Voice Of God
- Mass In B Minor ('Et Exspecto')
- The Birth Of The Trombone
- Aenmerckt Nu Hier
- The Birth Of The Brass As A Family
- Canzon 12 In Double Echo
- The Trombone In The Eighteenth Century
- Trombone Concerto In B Flat Major (Finale)
- The Tone Of The Tenor Trombone/Romance For Trombone And Organ/The Memorable Voice Of The Bass Trombone/Requiem (Mvt 2)/But The Bass Trombone Is More Than An Instrumental Bullfrog.
- Hosannah
- The Trombones Become Part Of The Orchestra.
- Symphony No.5 (Finale)
- The Wagnerian Trombone:/Overture To 'Tannhauser'
- The Trombone As Caricaturist
- Pulcinella (No.19: Vivo)
- The Trombone As Raspberry/Concerto For Orchestra (Intermezzo)
- The Horn And The Hunt
- Horn Concerto No.4 In E Flat, K.495 (Finale)
- The Challenging Horn Of The Baroque
- Abaris Ou Les Boreades (Menuet)
- The Scarcity Of First-Rate Players In Handel's Time
- Walter Music (Minuet 1)
- The Horn As Magician/The Firebird Suite (1919, Finale)
- Horns And The Sound Of Nobility
- Overture To 'Tannhauser' (Opening)
- The Special Sound Of The Horn In Its Higher Register
- Mass In B Minor ('Quoniam Tu Solus Sanctus')
- The Trumpet-Like Sound Of Massed Horns
- Symphony No.3 (Mvt 1, Opening)
- The Tuba - Unfairly Maligned?
- Symphony No.6 (Mvt 3)
- The Tuba Perfectly Cast By Ravel
- Pictures At An Exhibition (Bydlo)
Tracks:
- Introduction. And We Begin With A Bang.
- Fanfare For The Common Man/The Bass Drum On The Battlefields/Wellington's Victory, Op.91 (Opening)
- At The Opposite Extreme Is The Triangle.
- Piano Concerto No.1 In E Flat (Scherzo)
- Categories Of Percussion: Tuned And Untuned. The Side Drum
- Overture To 'La Gazza Ladra' - The Thieving Magpie (Opening)
- The Side Drum In An Effective But Unexpected Role/Clarinet Concerto (Mvt 1)
- The Tambourine. One Of The Oldest Instruments In The World
- Den Hoboecken Dans
- Even Older Is The Originally Oriental Gong.
- Ma Mere L'Oye - Mother Goose (Laideronette)
- No Single Instrument Can Match The Gong In Evoking The Breaking Of Waves./Passacaglia, Op.33b From 'Peter Grimes'/But Gongs Don't Have To Be Struck To Be Effective.
- Gymnopedie No.2
- The Cymbals Are Generally Discovered Early In Life./The Sanguine Fan/And They Do More Than Clash Together Loudly. They Can Be Clashed Together Softly./Studio Example: But They Needn't Be Clashed Together At All/Studio Example: They Can Be Lightly...
- Other Untuned Percussion Instruments Include The Whip.: Piano Concerto In G Major (Opening)/And Here Are No Fewer Than Twenty, Cracked By Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker (Act I, Scene 5)
- More Versatile Than The Whip Are The Wood Blocks.../Studio Example/...Which Crop Up All Over The Place In Twentieth-Century American Music.
- Rodeo (Hoe-Down)
- Related To The Wood Blocks, By Sound, Are The Castanets./Jota Aragonesa/But The Castanets Were Also Used By Monteverdi Back In The Seventeenth Century.
- Scherzi Musicali (Damigella Tutta Belle)
- A Still Earlier Example From Fifteenth-Century Spain
- Yo M'Enamori D'Un Aire
- The Birth Of The Bongo
- Symphonic Dances From 'West Side Story'
- From The Streets Of New York To The Blacksmith's Shop/Il Trovatore ('Anvil Chorus')
- Desert-Island Decibels: Grand Canyon Suite (On The Trail)/Arcana
- From One Vegetable To Another: The Humble Squash, Or Marrow/Huapango
- Onwards To The Tuned Percussion. First, The Timpani
- Also Sprach Zarathustra (Introduction)
- But The Drum Roll Can Be More Effectively Frightening Than The Big Bang.: Symphony No.2 'Resurrection' (Mvt 3)
- Not One Drum Roll, But Many/Grand Canyon Suite (Sunrise)/Symphonie Fantastique (Last Mvt)
- Taking Advantage Of Tunability
- Music For Strings, Percussion And Celeste (Mvt 2)
- The Russian Composer Rodion Shchedrin Takes A Downward Turn./Carmen Suite (Changing Of The Guard)/Tuned, Yes; But For The Truly Melodic We Must Look Elsewhere.
- Introducing The Glockenspiel/Carmen Suite (Carmen's Entrance And Habanera)
- Saint-Saens And The Xylophone
- The Carnival Of The Animals (Fossils)
- Ravel And The Xylophone
- Ma Mere L'Oye - Mother Goose (Laideronette)
- Introducing The Marimba/Carmen Suite (First Intermezzo)
- Introducing The Vibraphone
- The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (Narange Dolce)
- The Vibraphone Goes Russian.../Carmen Suite (Carmen's Entrance And Habanera)/...And Is Joined By The Marimba./Carmen Suite (Carmen's Entrance And Habanera)
- Introducing The Hungarian Cimbalom
- Folk Dances
- The Cimbalom And The Symphony Orchestra
- Hary Janos Suite (Mvt 3)
- Introducing The Tubular Bells
- Hary Janos Suite (Viennese Musical Clock)
- A More 'Up-Front' Approach From Rodion Shchedrin
- Carmen Suite (Introduction)
- But The Bells Can Also Make The Sinister Even More Sinister./Symphony No.7 'Sinfonia Antartica' (Mvt 1)
- Introducing The Celeste
- The Nutcracker (Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy)
- Magic, In The Use Of Collective Percussion
- Miroirs (La Vallee Des Cloches)
- Plucked Instruments: The 'Undercover Percussion'/Carmen Suite (Scene)
- A Prime Case In Point Is The Harp, Irresistible To The Romantics./The Nutcracker (Act II, No.1: Scene)/The Non-Solo Harp As An Integral Part Of The Orchestra/Hungarian Rhapsody No.1
- The Traditionally Subservient Role Of The Harpsichord In The Baroque Orchestra
- Brandenburg Concerto No.2 (Slow Mvt)
- The Piano: King Of The Tuned Percussion/Symphony No.3 'Organ' (Mvt 3)/And A Quarter Of A Century After That:
- Petrushka (Russian Dance)
- The Anti-Romantic Piano As An Integral Part Of The Orchestra
- Music For Strings, Percussion And Celeste (Last Mvt)
Tracks:
- Keyboard Instruments In The Orchestra - The Most Powerful Of Them All:
- Symphony No.3 'Organ' (Finale)
- But Things In Handel's Day Were Very Different.
- Organ Concerto In B Flat, Op.4 No.3 (Last Mvt)
- The Organ Is Difficult To Classify.
- An Unexpected, Organ-related Guest
- Concerto Pour Zampogna (Last Mvt)
- Peasant-Fancying... And A Touch Of The Roaming Cowboy
- Les Miserables (Drink With Me)
- Outside Artefacts And The Power Of Association
- Mahler's Sleighbells
- Symphony No.4 (Opening)
- A Roll-Call Of Some Unusual Guests/The Typewriter/Parade
- Chains, And More/Integrales/An American In Paris/Sandpaper Ballet
- Purpose-Built Oddities: Wind Machines/Symphony No.7 'Sinfonia Antartica' (Opening)
- Don Quixote (Variation VIII)
- National Calling Cards: The Guitar For Spain/Concierto De Aranjuez (Finale)
- And The Guitar's Poor American Relative, The Banjo/Washington Breakdown
- And Poorer Still, The Mouth Organ/The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (Packing Up)
- The Balalaika For Russia/Romeo And Juliet (Act II: No.14)
- The Maracas For Mexico/The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (El Desayuno)
- The Bongos And Congas And A Whole Wealth Of Other Drums For Africa And Central America/Studio Example
- The Sitar Of India/Evening Raga: Bhapoli
- The Accordion For France (Especially Paris)/Paris Canaille
- The Zither For Vienna/The Third Man (Theme)
- The Cimbalom For Hungary/Folk Dances
- The Guitar As An Integral Part Of The Orchestra/Rondena
- There Are Whole Orchestras Of Balalaikas./Sveit Mesiats
- The Effect Of The Wordless Human Voice, Used Purely As An Instrument/Symphony No.7 'Sinfonia Antartica' (Mvt 1)
- Nocturnes
- Instruments And the Imitation Of Nature. The Clarinet As Cuckoo
- The Carnival Of The Animals (The Cuckoo)
- The Flute As An All-purpose Aviary
- The Carnival Of The Animals (The Aviary)
- The Oboe As Duck
- Peter And The Wolf (The Duck)
- The Recording Of Reality. Does It Work As Well?
- The Pines Of Rome (The Pines Of The Janiculum)
- The Recording Of Reality Electronically Reborn In New Guises
- Cantus Articus - Concerto For Birds And Orchesra (Mvt 2)
- Beethoven Turns Avian: Cuckoo, Nightingale, And Quail
- Symphony No.6 'Pastoral' (Andante Molto Mosso)
- Some Improbable Casting: The Violin As Braying Donkey
- The Carnival Of The Animals (Persons With Long Ears)
- A Truly Orchestral Hee-haw To Be Reckoned With
- Overture To 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
- A Thunderstorm In A Million
- Symphony No.6 'Pastoral (Allegro-Allegretto)
- the Instrumental Depiction Of A Silent World
- The Carnival Of The Animals (The Aquarium)
- Saint-Saens' Menagerie Takes A Curtain Call.
- The Carnival Of The Animals (Finale)
Tracks:
- The Grouping Of Instrumental Families. An Additive Approach. First, Two Violins
- Forty-Four Duos (No.4)
- A Great Contrast, Of Both Pitch And Character: Violin And Viola
- Duo For Violin And Viola In B Flat Major, K.424 (Finale, Vars 1 & 2)/Studio Example
- Arrival Of The Standard String Trio: Violin, Viola, And Cello
- String Trio In B Flat (Menuetto)
- The String Quartet: Two Violins, Viola, And Cello
- String Quartet In F, Op.18 No.1 (Mvt 3)
- The String Quintet - When The Extra Instrument Is A Second Viola
- String Quartet No.5 In D, K.593 (Adagio)
- The String Quintet - When The Extra Instrument Is A Second Cello
- String Quintet In C (Mvt 3)
- The String Sextet: Two Violins, Two Violas, And Two Cellos
- String Sextet In B Flat (Mvt 2)
- The String Octet: The Standard String Quaret Times Two
- Octet In E Flat, Op.20 (Mvt 1)
- Double The String Octet: A Fully Fledged String Orchestra
- String Symphony No.2 (Finale)
- The Massed Strings Of A Symphony Orchestra
- Fantasia On A Theme Of Thomas Tallis
- Contrasts Of Pitch And Instrumental 'Colour' In The Woodwind Section
- Wind Quintet In A Minor, Op.100 No.5 (Theme)
- In The First Variation It's The Horn That Gets The Lion's Share.
- Wind Quintet In A Minor, Variation 1
- In Variation Two The Torch Is Handed To The Bassoon.
- Wind Quintet In A Minor, Variation 2
- In Variation Three The Oboe Leads.
- Wind Quintet In A Minor, Variation 3
- Variation Four: Conversation Before Returning To A Solo-dominated Texture
- Wind Quintet In A Minor, Variation 4
- And Variation Five is Dominated By The Clarinet.
- Wind Quintet In A Minor, Variation 5
- The Next To Be Featured Is The Virtuoso Flute.
- Wind Quintet In A Minor, Variation 6
- Individual Farewells And A Closing Chorus
- Wind Quintet In A Minor, Variation 7
- A Mixed Group: Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, String Quartet, And Double-Bass
- Octet In F (Mvt 3)
- The Early Classical Symphony Orchestra Of Haydn And Mozart
- Symphony No.29 In A, K.201 (Finale)
- Strings, Wind, But No Brass. What Haydn And Mozart Never Knew
- Canzon 28
- Beethoven's Fifth: Two Horns, Two Trumpets, And Three Trombones Join The Team.
- Symphony No.5 (Finale)
- From Beethoven To The Massive Orchestras Of Berlioz, Wagner, And Mahler
- Beethoven Changed The Face Of The Symphony And The Orchestra Forever
- Symphoy No.6 'Tragic' (Mvt 1)
- The Cult Of Orchestral Elephantiasis Reaches Its Peak.
- Symphony No.1 'Gothic' (VI: Te Ergo Quaesumus)
- When Large Doesn't Necessarily Mean Loud: Debussy
- Images (Gigues)
- A Crisis Of Confidence; The Orchestra's Survival Hangs In The Balance, But It Still Develops. The Ondes Martenot:
- Turangalila Symphony (Chant D'amour 1)
- The Advent Of The 'Early Music' Movement Brings A New Vitality And Freshness.
- Balle De Xerxes (Gavotte En Rondeau)
- Computer And Synthesiser: Friends Or Foes?
- Concerto In D Minor For Two Violins (Largo)
- A Speculative Look Ahead/Mass In B Minor ('Dona Nobis Pacem')
Customer Reviews:
Instruments of the Orchestra - Great Reference Material!.......2007-04-04
This set lends itself to greatly enhancing one's knowledge of the orchestra, instruments in it, and their usage. I am a huge music buff, and I still picked up a great deal I previously did not know. I highly recommend this for all who wish to understand the origin of music, as well as the processes that are employed to create music!
Beginner or Expert.......2007-03-12
This CD is excellent for the beginner or expert! To be able to haear the instrumets separately and then together really provides a good education. and/or refresher. The book thaty comes with the CD is alomost worth the price by itself!
Very Informative and Enjoyable.......2006-11-20
Whether you're a music novice or pro, "The instruments of the Orchestra" is a very worthwhile purchase. The 7 CDs, with a total of 8 hours, are expertly narrated by Jeremy Siepmann. He's a great speaker, very much like the late Leonard Bernstein was. Mr. Siepmann takes you on an unforgetable musical journey covering the origins and use of the various orchestral instruments throughout musical history. The balance between his narration and a wealth of musical examples, which range from snippets to entire movements, is superb. The comprehensive enclosed booklet is excellent and faithfully follows the 7 CDs in content. Even with my 40+ years of music training I still learned new things from this wonderful collection. Considering the excellence of the content, and a cost that translates to about $5 per disc, this collection is a great value. Grab it, you won't regret that you did. Five solid stars!
Frank's view.......2006-08-19
This boxed set of CD's with booklet achieved all I had hoped that it would. There are good samples of individual instruments and well done commentary on each. The only drawback was that some of the samples were too brief and could have been longer, hoiwever I guess this fits in with time constraints of the medium. It has given me a lot of clues as to future purchases of CD's for listening to individual instruments. Altogeth a satisfactory purchase and a welcome addition to my collection.
Excellent Intro for Those Not Familiar with the Orchestra.......2003-11-08
I've listened to classical music for years and am interested in composition. I bought this CD set to learn how an orchestra and its instruments work. I thought the CDs would be a nice but boring lecture. They aren't! Not only are they FUN but they are informative as well. I learned a huge amount from each CD and couldn't wait to listen to the next one.
The narrator and writer is a great speaker and holds your attention well. He is definitely knowledgeable. He provides musical examples for each point he makes, so you get to "hear" what he just talked about. I'd say the CDs are about 65% music and 35% narration. You'll learn about the range of instruments, some history, different ways to play them, how they sound, and how they are used in the orchestra. This CD set was a great learning experience and is sold at such a low price!
I recommend this CD for those who want to learn about classical music and those who know about it but are interested in learning more about the inner workings of an orchestra. You'll learn much useful information. For instance, the Rite of Spring (with that eerie start) is written for bassoon! I never knew a bassoon could sound like that but now I do.
The one complaint I have is the last CD. This deals with the orchestra. I wanted more of a tour of how the orchestra has been used through history up to the present. Instead, it was a tour of how different groups of instruments sound. I thought it could have been better. The other 6 CDs are excellent.
Average customer rating:
- Very good show which I hadn't heard of...
- THE APPLE TREE (1966 ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST)
- I still remember these songs after 40 years
- Really 2.5
- Boring material that you forget very easily
|
The Apple Tree (1966 Original Broadway Cast)
Sheldon Harnick
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
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ASIN: B0000027WD
Release Date: 1992-11-24 |
Tracks:
- Eden Prelude
- Here In Eden
- Feelings
- Eve
- Friends
- The Apple Tree (Forbidden Fruit)
- Beautiful, Beautiful World
- It's A Fish
- Go To Sleep, Whatever You Are
- What Makes Me Love Him?/Eden Postlude
- The Lady Or The Tiger? Prelude/I'll Tell You a Truth/Make Way
- Forbidden Love (In Gaul)
- The Apple Tree (Reprise)
- I've Got What You Want
- Tiger, Tiger
- Make Way (Reprise)/Which Door/I'll Tell You a Truth (Reprise)
- Passionella Prelude
- Oh, To Be A Movie Star
- Gorgeous
- (Who, Who, Who, Who) Who Is She?
- I Know
- Wealth
- You Are Not Real
- Passionella Postlude/Finale
Customer Reviews:
Very good show which I hadn't heard of..........2007-05-13
I was very into theatre in high school and college and thought I was up on most musicals, but had never heard of this show until recently. It's comprised of three short stories which were adapted into the musical format. The first two stories are tied together very well, although the last seems tacked on. But the songs are catchy and it's fairly easy to figure out what's happening simply by listening to the songs. There are two songs which are tied for my favoritism: "It's a Fish" from Adam and Eve and "You Are Not Real" from Passionella. Check it out.
THE APPLE TREE (1966 ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST).......2007-04-10
IT WAS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR. I WENT TO THE REVIVAL OF THE APPLE TREE ON BROADWAY IN NEW YORK CITY AND LOVED THE SCORE BUT THERE WASN'T A SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE SO I PURCHASED THE ORIGINAL VERSION AND I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!
I still remember these songs after 40 years.......2006-11-05
I saw this show on the stage when it first ran, and have never forgotten it. The key to a good Broadway show is this question: Are you humming the songs when you leave the theatre? In the case of The Apple Tree, the answer is a resounding "Yes." I have been waiting 40 years for this show to be revived, and I have tickets for the revival opening in December at the Roundabout. I hope not to be disappointed, for the trio of Barbara Harris, a very young Alan Alda, and the late Larry Blyden were terrific. The three-part concept can be jarring because just when you're getting into the story, it ends -- but just enjoy the kind of songs they just don't write anymore.
Really 2.5.......2006-07-25
SO this is another show thats actually three one acts. The first "The Diary of Adam and Eve" is the best by far. It has really cute songs and nice plot. Thats the only reason I rounded this up from 2.5 to 3 stars. The rest of the show is nothing great. "Lady and Tiger" is short and boring. And "Passionella" is exactly what it sounds like, a knock off of Cinderella. But hey, its a good show for collectors and "The Diary of Adam and Eve" is nice. Favorite Song: "Its A Fish"
Boring material that you forget very easily.......2006-06-29
According to some reviews, this musical was supposed to be very good and I bought it. Unfortunately, I was quite dissapointed. It's composed of three different tales, the first one referring to the Adam & Eve biblical story. The lyrics here are very silly and tedious. The second tale, "The Lady or the Tiger?" contains songs that are simply awful, probably the worst ever written for a Broadway show. The third story, "Passionella", contains music that does nothing to make things better. The album contains a good informative booklet in English, German, French & Italian (as Sony uses to do)which says that Time magazine defined this show as "three moldy figs". I entirely agree. I would recommend this musical to those suffering from insomnia: it will put them to sleep right away.
Average customer rating:
- Unworthy of This Show
- Great.
- Deserves a place in your Sondheim Discography
- Dashed high hopes
- Letdown from the original
|
Assassins (2004 Broadway Revival Cast)
Stephen Sondheim , Neil Patrick Harris , Marc Kudisch , Michael Cerveris , Denis O'Hare , and James Barbour
Manufacturer: P.S. Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
General
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General
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ASIN: B0002B161Y
Release Date: 2004-08-03 |
Tracks:
- Everybody's Got The Right
- Ballad Of Booth
- Ladies And Gentlemen, A Toast!
- How I Saved Roosevelt
- What Does A Man Do...?
- Gun Song
- Ballad Of Czolgosz
- Unworthy Of Your Love
- I Am A Terrifying And Imposing Figure...!
- Ballad Of Guiteau
- Have It Your Way
- Another National Anthem
- Take A Look Lee
- Something Just Broke
- Everybody's Got The Right
Amazon.com
"Everybody's got a right/To their dream." So begins Stephen Sondheim's 1991 show Assassins--and in this case, said dreams involve killing an American president. The characters form a veritable rogues' gallery, including John Hinckley, Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth of course, but also half-forgotten luminaries such as Leon Czolgosz (who killed McKinley) and "Squeaky" Fromme (who aimed for Gerald Ford with an unloaded gun). While Sondheim's lyrics are trenchant as ever, his music, which ranges from Sousa pomp to clever little waltzes, is technically brilliant but also oddly uninvolving. (Many fans prefer the recording of the 1991 Off-Broadway version, though "Something Just Broke," which was added to the 1992 London production, makes its recorded debut here.) Still, there are several high points. In "Unworthy of Your Love," for instance, Hinckley and Fromme wax poetic about their unrequited love for Jodie Foster and Charles Manson, respectively, in a Burt Bacharach-style ballad that's deliberately (I hope!) sappy. And of course as with most Sondheim shows, the cast of this revival--Michael Cerveris, Mario Cantone, Becky Ann Baker, Marc Kudisch, Denis O'Hare--is very good. --Elisabeth Vincentelli
Customer Reviews:
Unworthy of This Show.......2007-03-01
Assassins is a masterpiece of American theatre. Through a revue of skits and songs, it examines ideas we don't want to face, and shows us the flip side of the American Dream. The score rates as one of Sondheim's best, and the overall effect, when the show is performed well, is incredibly powerful. For years, people have wanted to mount a production on Broadway.
Given this result, they needn't have bothered.
I am still amazed at how much this production got wrong. The principal cast is nothing short of dreadful: the acting is almost laughably overwrought; the pacing keeps getting disrupted by pauses held too long and lines spoken too slowly; some singers are frequently behind the tempo (notably Michael Ceveris as Booth), while others are painful to listen to (like Jeffrey Kuhn as Zangara and Mario Cantone as Sam Byck); the new orchestrations allow for more musicians in the pit, but are much less effective than the earlier arrangements.
To top it all off, this production includes "Something Just Broke", a song sung by the Ensemble as various "average" Americans of different time periods recalling where they were when the president was shot. The song was introduced in the London production, presumably for people who didn't understand the show to have something to latch on to, but it was mercifully kept out of the published vocal score and libretto. It's not a bad song in and of itself, but musically it does not fit in with the rest of the score, and dramatically it doesn't fit in with the rest of the script. Worse, it is placed right between the Kennedy assassination -- the climax of the show -- and the finale, thus skewing all the dramatic momentum and depriving the show of an effective resolution.
The result of all this is that the comic moments aren't funny, the powerful moments fail to move, and the wonderful music is left ho-hum.
I realize that the extraordinary cast of the original production of Assassins presents a dauntingly high standard for everyone else to compare to, but the college productions I've seen were better than this.
Great. .......2006-11-08
What an amazingly talented cast! Neil Patrick Harris, Marc Kudisch, Alex Gemignani (The new Valjean in the revival of Les Miserables) and of course, the former demon barber of Fleet Street, Michael Cerveris (in the role that won him a Tony)...Just to hear these giants of musical theatre perform together as an ensemble alone is worth the price of this recording. This recording is so wonderfully done, and I can't recommend this enough.
'Unworthy of your Love' and 'The Ballad of Booth' are heartbreakingly beautiful, strange that I say that considering the subject matter, but it's true, those two songs alone will stay with you for days on end. The Ballad of Booth has poetic and tragic lyrics like 'Damn my soul, if you must, let my body turn to dust, let it mingle with the ashes of my country...What I did, I did well, and I did it for my country. Let them cry 'Dirty Traitor!', they will understand later...'. and the hauntingly gorgeous melody that goes with those lyrics is just so well, romantic! But then you have the tongue-in-cheek, slightly macabre numbers like 'The Gun Song' and 'Everybody's Got The Right' with lyrics like, 'Everybody's got the right to be happy. Life's not as bad as it seems! Everybody deserves a little sunshine...' and 'All you have to do is, move your little finger...and you can change the world!'
What a rollarcoaster of emotion! I mean, seriously, who else but Sondheim could pull that off and make it the brilliant masterpiece that it clearly is?
One of my biggest regrets is not seeing this during it's brief run in 2004. :(
Deserves a place in your Sondheim Discography.......2006-07-28
Like other reviewers I was fortunate enough to see Roundabout's revival production but perhaps unfortunate that my total enjoyment of that production may bias my critical listening. I can't help but recall the proprietor (Marc Kudish) caressing a pistol into the hand of each assassin when listening to the opening Everybody's Got The Right.
However, while fans of Sondheim and musical theater will argue over every nuance, I find that both this and the original are excellent in their own way. Yes, the voices in the first recording are more refined, yet this recording seems to better capture the character's mannerisms in the vocal stylization, whether the twitchy madness of Guiteau (Dennis O'Hare) or the depressed howl of Sam Byck (Mario Cantone).
This is a worthwhile recording and one that provides me with a reprise of the excellent staging and acting of this quirky play.
Dashed high hopes.......2006-07-14
Assassins is a fascinating and surprising show. You can't imagine a more unlikely topic for a musical and yet, when you hear and/or see the show, you can't help to be impressed by the entire production. Maybe if I'd never heard the original cast recording, I would have given this a higher rating, but, to be frank, this recording suffers in comparison to the original recording in nearly every way.
While the diction on this recording is often impressive...especially Neil Patrick Harris's...too often it is accomplished at the price of tempo. Too many times the musical director has made the choice to slow down portions of the songs to the point of sluggishness. Absolutely NONE of the performances is superior to the original. That doesn't mean that any of the newer performances are horrible, it's just that they don't measure up. The one who comes the closest is Neil Patrick Harris whom I find naturally charming and vulnerable in anything he does.
The best addition to this recording is Mario Cantone's rant as Sam Byck. Unfortunately, I can't recommend getting this recording based solely on that. The biggest mis-step is the omission of the full, final, Kennedy scene. Hearing it on the original recording for the first time is an absolutely thrilling and chilling experience. Not having it all here is a MAJOR disappointment.
Buy the original recording first and check this one out from the library.
Letdown from the original.......2006-04-10
I have been a huge fan of Assassins since it first came out back in '91. While I've never had the pleasure of seeing the play in person, I've read it several times and listened to the original cast recording so often one can hardly believe it. So when I saw "Broadway Cast Recording" I was thrilled. Then I listened to it. I went from thrilled to appalled.
John Weideman, who wrote the music, seems to prefer the Broadway cast recording--at least he says so in its liner notes. I'm not sure why. While some of the songs are still excellent (like the Hinckley-Fromme duet "Unworthy of Your Love"), many of them are just plain painful to listen to. Most of the time the singing vaccilates between being totally flat of affect (most notably Moore in "The Gun Song") to hyperbolic melodrama. Booth mumbles to the point of near-unintelligibility in several songs; Zangara sounds eerily like the mob boss from 'Johnny Dangerously' that keeps calling everyone "farging bastages"; Moore sings nearly the whole time as if she'd OD'd on sedatives; and Guiteau sounds so stereotypically gay that GLAAD should be suing the producer.
It almost seems as if the cast are not sure what do do with their characters. The cast of the Original Cast Recording hit the characters perfectly--an outstanding mix of suffering, despair, anger and hostility. The Broadway cast can't seem to, in the language of the musical, "connect" to the characters. For me this is a huge failing, as the "charcaters" here are real individuals; if the performers can't connect to them, how can we be expected to?
There are also some content differences between this recording and the original. Several brief additions are made from elsewhere in the musical, and the new song "Something Just Broke" written for the Broadway revival is included on the recording. However, about half of the last act (which is included on the original) is cut out. Sadly, the material cut out is far more moving, unsettling and significant than the material added. Also, "Something Just Broke", while a fine song (and performed better than most of the rest of the material), unfortunately breaks up the natural link between the Kennedy assassination's triumphalist ending and the closing version of "Everybody's Got the Right".
I gave this three stars because I love Assassins. It is a brilliant and unnerving drama. But the Original Cast Recording is immensely superior to the Broadway Cast Recording in its ability to reveal this to the audience. I'm glad it was revived, and I'm glad it won three Tony awards--now it can get the recognition it deserves; but for me, I'll stick to the original version I fell in love with years ago. If only the Broadway recording has found a way to be "worthy of your love"...
Average customer rating:
- I love this!
- a wish come true
- Memories Return
- Prince Charming and Cinderella
- EXHILARATING! ENERGETIC! ENCHANTING!
|
The Slipper and the Rose (1976 Film Soundtrack)
Richard M. Sherman , Robert B. Sherman , and Richard Chamberlain
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
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- The Slipper and the Rose
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ASIN: B00005OC9K
Release Date: 2001-10-09 |
Tracks:
- Overture - The Orchestra
- Why Can't I Be Two People? - Richard Chamberlain
- What Has Love Got to Do With Getting Married? - Edith Evans, Michael Hordern
- Once I Was Loved - Gemma Craven
- What a Comforting Thing to Know - Richard Chamberlain
- Protocoligorically Correct - Michael Hordern, Kenneth More
- Bride Finding Ball - Richard Chamberlain
- Suddenly It Happens - Gemma Craven, Annette Crosbie
- Waltz Theme - The Orchestra
- Secret Kingdom - Richard Chamberlain, Gemma Craven
- He Danced With Me/She Danced With Me - Richard Chamberlain, Gemma Craven
- Position and Positioning - Christopher Gable
- Tell Him Anything (But Not That I Love Him) - Gemma Craven
- I Can't Forget the Melody - Gemma Craven
- Secret Kingdom (Reprise) - Richard Chamberlain, Gemma Craven
Amazon.com
If one needed an object lesson in the fickle nature of Hollywood and its precipitously shifting tastes, one could do worse than to examine the career of the songwriting brothers Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman. After inventing veritable swaths of Disney's musical theme park, TV, and film legacies in the '50s and '60s (including Zorro, The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins, and The Jungle Book), the brothers found their talents largely underemployed in TV and film efforts after the death of Walt Disney. It isn't to say that their talents were in the least diminished, as this soundtrack to the 1976 U.K.-produced live-action adaptation of Cinderella ably attests. Fans of the Shermans' Disney canon should find this soundtrack restoration a welcome addition to their collections. The Shermans' music is a familiar, effervescent delight, even as it tackles the full emotional spectrum of romantic and familial entanglements, from Prince Edward's existential ponderings in "Why Can't I Be Two People?" through the king's Gilbert & Sullivan-esque take on royal bureaucracy in "Protocologically Correct" to the romantic pinings of "Secret Kingdom" and "He Danced with Me." The Slipper and the Rose is a musical cult favorite, and for good reason. --Jerry McCulley
Customer Reviews:
I love this!.......2007-01-14
I love this soundtrack! If you are a fan of the movie, you will really enjoy this. There is only one disappointing thing about this soundtrack.
While all of the songs with words are there, most of the background music is missing. There is the overture and the waltz theme, but no other background music. I was particularly disappointed in the absence of the music from the wedding.
Despite this, I am very glad I have purchased this CD and high recommend it.
a wish come true.......2006-11-04
I'm so happy this soundtrack is no longer out of print. The movie is one of my favorite musicals and all the music from the movie is wonderful!
Memories Return.......2006-06-24
This has to be one of my favorite musicals. And that's saying something. I remember watching the movie with my mom when I was little. When I purchased and played the cd, that all came back. Mom and I busted out singing, "Protocoligorically correct", practically cracking up through half of it; and enjoying the romantic theme "He/she danced w/me"!
The sound recording was well pitched, loud enough to hear, and there wasn't anything fuzzy. This I was very grateful for. I look forward to one day playing it for my daughter so she'll enjoy it to.
Prince Charming and Cinderella.......2005-09-11
I know the beautiful movie and I wished to have the soundtrack. Now I bought it and I am happy. It is a great CD, the actors give the best and the music is very romantic. I recommend the CD.
EXHILARATING! ENERGETIC! ENCHANTING!.......2004-07-11
THE SLIPPER AND THE ROSE is a most EXHILARATING CD, with crisp, catchy, tunes that cause one's heart to be made cheerful! "Why Can't I Be Two People", "Protocologorically Correct", and "Position and Positioning", are songs that I have found marvelously ENERGIZING! I work in a stressful medical environment, and on a dreary day, I slipped this CD into the office CD player, to discover an amazingly, invigorating phenomenon. The stressed out office staff began whistling and humming the tunes....a few even danced down the halls of our clinic, which can be a bit disconcerting when you have specimens in both hands. As the employees got happier, attitudes and energy levels soared! It was exciting to watch the merriment as staff sang and danced along to "Suddenly It Happens", and "What A Comforting Thing To Know". The love songs sung by Richard Chamberlain and Gemma Craven, "Secret Kingdom", "He/She Danced With Me", and "I Can't Forget The Melody", are hauntingly romantic songs, guaranteed to ENCHANT even the hardest heart. This is one of my favorite CD's of all time. The Sherman Brothers outdid themselves; creating a masterpiece that EXHILARATES, ENERGIZES, ENCHANTS.......and occasionally, on a dreary, stressful day, causes the heavy hearts of listeners, to be transformed and ultimately to transcend.
Average customer rating:
- Wonderful Town is a wonderful show
- Light and lively musical comedy
- a must-have recording for REAL Broadway fans
- Leonard Bart-stein? Listen for yourself....
- Quality over quantity
|
Wonderful Town (Original 1953 Broadway Cast)
Leonard Bernstein , Betty Comden , and Adolph Green
Manufacturer: Decca U.S.
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- On the Town
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- Redhead (1959 Original Broadway Cast)
ASIN: B00005O6KS
Release Date: 2001-09-25 |
Tracks:
- Christopher Street
- Ohio
- One Hundred Easy Ways
- What a Waste
- A Little Bit in Love
- Pass the Football
- Conversation Piece
- A Quiet Girl
- Conga!
- My Darlin' Eileen
- Swing!
- It's Love
- Ballet at the Village Vortex
- Wrong Note Rag
- Opening (from the original Decca recording of "On the Town")
- Carried Away (from "On the Town")
- Lonely Town (from "On the Town")
- I Can Cook Too (from "On the Town")
- Lucky to Be Me (from "On the Town")
- Ya Got Me (from "On the Town")
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful Town is a wonderful show.......2004-10-25
This is a terrific show. It has a famous composer, great tunes and a good, upbeat story. Why it has so thoroughly faded from memory is a question that puzzles me greatly.
The orchestrations are attributed to another individual, but Bernstein must have taken some substantial role in their creation, for large parts of "Wonderful Town" resemble only one other musical, "West Side Story."
Rosalind Russell is the star here, and rightly so. She sings--or rather croaks--her material very well, indeed. Only in "Swing" is she overmatched by the musical requirements and even then she fights them to a draw.
Edith Adams is very good, too, as Eileen. I think of her as Edie Adams, a sixties icon, wife of comedian Ernie Kovacs, mayhem-minded member of the Nairobi Trio and super-sexy pitchwoman for White Owl Cigars. I had no idea that she had also starred on Broadway. It was a pleasant surprise to find her here.
The men in the lead parts sing in that typical Broadway growl: perfect diction and lousy tone. They are endearingly awful. And I mean that in the best possible sense.
Five stars, no doubt about it!
Light and lively musical comedy .......2004-08-07
The first cast album of WONDERFUL TOWN sounds even better than ever in Decca's latest remastering. The sound is still somewhat flat (as are all Decca albums from the 40s/50s) but the Decca engineers have worked wonders on the 50 year old tapes making them sound as good as possible. Rosalind Russell was a perfect choice to play the acerbic Ruth. She doesn't have much of a singing voice but the songs were tailored to her limited range and she makes the character come alive. Edith Adams sounds properly winsome as her sister Eileen. In the supporing roles, Jordan Bentley comes off best as Wreck, but George Gaynes makes for a ponderous, somehwat stuffy Bob Baker.
In terms of album production, Decca eliminated the Overture and some of the dance music, and re-arranged "Christopher Street" to eliminate the spoken vignettes. Otherwise the score is presented in a faithful aural re-creation. The booklet offers a detailed synopsis to guide you through the score.
The bonus tracks are six songs from ON THE TOWN originally recorded when that show was playing on Broadway. This is NOT the definitive recording of ON THE TOWN. For that you need the 1960 album avaialble on Sony. But, the excerpts heard here provide an enjoyable bonus.
a must-have recording for REAL Broadway fans.......2002-12-26
This marvellous new re-issue of WONDERFUL TOWN is a must-have for Broadway buffs. In fact, this is really two albums in one, as it also contains the rare 1945 studio recording of ON THE TOWN as a bonus!
The story is based on the play "My Sister Eileen", written by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov; as well as the stories written by Ruth McKenney. The play was later turned into a successful Columbia film starring Rosalind Russell (as Ruth Sherwood) and Janet Blair as Eileen. Several years later Columbia released a musical version (following the success of WONDERFUL TOWN) which starred Janet Leigh and Betty Garrett.
WONDERFUL TOWN originally starred Rosalind Russell (repeating her film role) as Ruth and Edith 'Edie' Adams as Eileen. The cast also included George Gaynes (GIGI, 'Punky Brewster') as the romantic male lead.
The score by Betty Comden and the late Adolph Green is gorgeous, and features the comical "100 Easy Ways", the lilting "A Little Bit in Love" and the showstopping "Conga!" and "Wrong-Note Rag".
No Broadway-recording collection is complete without the original cast of this landmark musical.
This re-issue from the superb Decca Broadway range also includes the rare 1945 set of ON THE TOWN, which featured original cast-members Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Nancy Walker singing their songs from the show, with Mary Martin singing "Lonely Town" and "Lucky to Be Me".
Highly-recommended.
Leonard Bart-stein? Listen for yourself...........2002-09-23
Leonard Bernstein never erred on the side of subtlety, and this original-cast album contains two of his most enjoyable essays in musical near-mayhem: "Christopher Street" and "The Wrong Note Rag." The former is vastly like the theme music to "The Simpsons," and the listener can decide for himself how much of a coincidence this is or isn't. "The Wrong Note Rag" uses the tritone of the scale and a varied meter to make life difficult for the singers and anyone trying to count along. Unlike so many send-ups of the 1920s, this song ingenioulsy captures the musical and lyrical feel of novelty numbers like 1924's "Fascinating Rhythm"--or, better yet, the slightly later "Crazy Rhythm." A parody of the 1920s that shows any sense of the 1920s is a rare item, indeed. "Wonderful Town" is an interesting, enjoyable, and valuable historical piece, and I can only imagine what later performers did with it. I don't want to know.
Quality over quantity.......2002-05-19
Yes, the original 1953 cast recording of "Wonderful Town" may not be the most complete cast recording of the hit musical BUT I would wholeheartedly reccommend this CD over any other version. Why? Because of its original cast members and its original orchestrations! Rosalind Russell is peerless as Ruth Sherwood (I consider her version of "One Hundred Easy Ways" one of the funniest songs in musical theatre history) and Edie Adams shines through radiantly. Listen to her sing "A Little Bit In Love" to understand what I'm talking about. Also, the original orchestrations gtive this CD more vibrance than any of the later incarnations INCLUDING the 1999 studio recording, which to me sounds too mechanical and the British orchestrator doesn't seem to get the rhythms right. The original cast recording is A MUST for the true theatre fan, abridged score or not
Average customer rating:
- "Lord, How Come Me Here"
- WOW!
- uhm......yeah right!!
- scadalise my name
- Broadway takes on the spiritual ...
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Spirituals in Concert
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
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ASIN: B000001GDC
Release Date: 1991-03-08 |
Tracks:
- In That Great Getting Up Morning
- Sinner, Please Don't Let This Harvest Pass
- Over My Head/ Lil' David
- Oh, What A Beautiful City
- Lord, How Come Me Here
- I Believe I'll Go Back Home-Lordy, Won't You Help Me
- Ride On, King Jesus
- Swing Low, Sweet Chariot-Ride Up In The Chariot
- You Can Tell The World
- Scandalize My Name
- Great Day
- Oh, Glory
- Calvary-They Crucified My Lord
- Talk About A Child
- Gospel Train
- My God Is So High
- There Is A Balm In Gilead
- He's Got The Whole World In His Hand
Customer Reviews:
"Lord, How Come Me Here".......2007-06-18
I must add, to the praises above, that Kathleen Battle's "Lord, How Come Me Here" is the best "quick" explanation of the long-lasting effects of slavery that I can think of. The line, "They sold my children away," says it all.
And the VERY funny "Scandelize My Name" is also worth the price of the total album!
Alinde O'Malley
WOW!.......2007-03-22
You know, after owning both the CD and VHS of this performance, and having been coached by Sylvia Olden Lee herself, it is no wonder why spiritual mean so much to me. And these two ladies bare their souls and bring these masterpieces to life! WOW!!!
uhm......yeah right!!.......2006-06-21
Clearly you are mistaken. I don't know who that guy is-the person below recommended-but there is NO COMPARISON to JESSYE NORMAN AND KATHLEEN BATTLE!!!! Jessye Norman herself has *30* HONARY DOCTRATES from places like Harvard, Juliard, Yale, Cambridge....I mean HELLO!!!! That guy had no where near the ease, the musicality or even the breath support as these two veterans show!! It is a beautiful CD though it came out in 1991 and I HIGHLY recommend it.
scadalise my name.......2004-10-29
this isn't that good specially after hearing William Warfeild sing it. You can find him at www.wlym.com
Broadway takes on the spiritual ..........2004-01-29
... takes it on and puts it on the canvas by the end of the first round.
I'm going to be the dissenting voice here: thank goodness I signed this disk out of the public library 'cause I'm sure not going to listen to it twice.
There is nothing wrong with the performances. Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle sing beautifully, and there's no problem with the pick-up orchestra under James Levine.
The problem, and it's huge, is the conception of the show and the musical arrangements. To make the video marketable, I suppose, the producers decided that the concert had to be big: big names, big arrangements, big effects. So we have eighteen spirituals given the musical theatre treatment, with a philharmonic chorus providing chain-gang sound effects, big brass, and big percussion -- including a chinese gong. A chinese gong in a spiritual??? Spare me! Almost every track turns out sounding like either a curtain-raiser or a big, end-of-act production number with cute and predictable modulations between some of the stanzas and the sort of curly-cue orchestral ornamentation typical of Broadway shows.
And you know what? It all kills the spirituals stone dead. The spiritual is one of those musical forms where less is more and very little is best of all. That's how they started, after all. That's how and why they worked for their original audiences, and that's why they were powerful enough to make the transition from folk song to art song. If you want to hear Battle sing spirituals that are irresistible, listen to the set on her Salzburg recital CD, also with Levine (ASIN B00000E31B). There, the music speaks for itself and speaks with a strength and a beauty that the tracks on this disk never approach.
Average customer rating:
- Back to when I believed in fairy tales....
- The Glass Slipper Fits!
- Magical collection fit for a princess!
- Fabuloso!!!! A must have!!!!
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Cinderella: Songs from the Classic Fairy Tale (1998 Studio Compilation)
Manufacturer: Varese Sarabande
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
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- Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella
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ASIN: B00005KBB1
Release Date: 2001-06-12 |
Tracks:
- Overture
- In My Own Little Corner
- Spread A Little Happiness
- A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes
- Raise A Ruckus
- Impossible/Suddenly It Happens
- The Ball
- What Has Love got To Do With Getting Married
- A Lovely Night/Ten Minutes Ago
- Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?
- Midnight
- On the Steps Of The Palace
- Once I Was Loved
- If The Shoe Fits
- Tell Hm Anything
- The Stepsisters' Lament
- Finale
Customer Reviews:
Back to when I believed in fairy tales...........2002-09-30
If you could, just for a moment, return to the days when fairy godmothers were real, when you really could turn four white mice into four white horses - then just buy this CD for a few smiles, a lot of memories, and the original Rodgers and Hammerstein tunes. This CD took me way back to when magic was there, and now it makes me wonder, everytime I listen to it, if maybe the magic isn't still there? Maybe I should just call on my fairy godmother..... A true heirloom of a CD.
The Glass Slipper Fits!.......2001-04-21
This is an excellent compilation of songs that express the longings, fears and exuberance of the Cinderella story. Rather than just relying of the romantic side of the myth, producer Bruce Kimmel adds depth to the story by including songs from The Slipper and The Rose and Sondheim's Into the Woods as well as the Disney and Roger & Hammerstein Cinderella versions.
When Susan Egan plans her strategy in "Promise Him Anything" and Pamela Winslow expresses her fear in "On the Steps of the Palace," the listener becomes aware of Cinderella's human side. Likewise, when Christa Moore shares her fantasy world "In My Own Corner" and Christina Noll expresses her thrill of her dream coming true in "Impossible/Suddenly It Happens," the listener is reminded of the powerful message of Cinderella's theme: dreams DO come true.
Fortunately, the compilation does not exclude humor as well. "The Stepsister's Lament" by Farah Alvin and Alet Oury is hilariously poignant; the lyrics "Why would a fellow want a girl like her? A frail and frocky beauty!" could be the alltime wallflowers' lament. And Jonathan Freeman's "What Has Love Got to Do with Getting Married?" is a droll piece of practical cynicism to his Prince son. (The song reminds me of the film Moonstruck. When Olympia DuKakis asks her daughter Cher, "Do you love him?" When Cher answered affirmatively, her mother muttered, "That's bad.")
Also, the musical bridges add to the suspense of the Cinderella story. "Midnight", "The Ball," and "If The Shoe Fits" from Prokofiev's ballet are beautifully orchestrated and remind the listener that the Cinderella myth is adaptable for many forms of entertainment.
I was a little disappointed that "So This is Love" and "The Work Song" was not included, but I guess I'm partial to the Disney version. The 1950 cartoon was my first introduction to Cinderella, and to my delight, my nephew enjoyed it as well thirty years later.
Nevertheless, this CD shows the timeless appeal of the Cinderella myth. Its beauty, humor and suspense is contained here in this magnificent collection.
Magical collection fit for a princess!.......1999-04-13
I was thrilled to come across this collection. One of my favorite movies, The Slipper and the Rose, had been out of print for many years. This CD includes 4 of the songs from that movie and though not by the original artists, just as good. The songs range from the whimsical to the romantic to a few comic gems, all from various stage and film Cinderella scores. "Tell Him Anything" from the Slipper and the Rose, a powerful song filled with longing and despair is sung movingly by Susan Egan, a nice change of pace from the cheerier, more sparkling numbers.
The score from Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella is so charming and catchy it's fun to hear it again by new artists. The performers, all apparently Broadway singers (?), are all beautifully performed with exuberance and style. The orchestration is lush and appropriate to the material.
Fabuloso!!!! A must have!!!!.......1998-08-11
This is an AWESOME cd. It has songs from the original Rodgers and Hammerstein version, the Disney version, and Into the Woods. This is a faboulos collection of songs. Definetly buy it. NOW!!!!!
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