American Poet [Limited Edition] [Live] [Special Edition]

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
2004 reissue of long deleted 2001 live release (recorded 12/31/72 at the Hampstead Theatre on the 'Transformer' tour) includes two bonus tracks, 'New Age' & 'Rock 'N' Roll' (recorded at Kings Cross Cinema on 7/15/72). Alchemy/Pilot.

Tracks:

Le Banjo, Fantaisie Grotesque, Op. 15
Bamboula, Danse De Negres, Op. 2
Le Bananier, Chanson Negre, Op. 5
La Savane, Ballade Creole, Op. 3
Tremolo, Grande Etude De Concert, Op. 58
La Jota Aragonesa, Caprice Espagnol, Op. 14
Manchega, Etude De Concert, Op. 38
Souvenirs D'Andalousie, Caprice De Concert Sur La Cana, Op. 22
Souvenir De Porto Rico, Marche Des Gibaros, Op. 31
L'etincelle, La Scintilla, Op. 20
La Gallina, Op. 53
Suis-moi!, Caprice, Op. 45
Pasquinade, Caprice, Op. 59
Tournament Galop
The Dying Poet, Meditation
The Union, Paraphrase De Concert On The National Airs Star Spangled Banner, Yankee Doodle, And Hail Columbia, Op. 48

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful, beautiful music!.......2007-07-07

Listening to this Gottschalk CD hs been a truly rewarding experience. We listen to it everyday, so I'm sure we will be purchasing more of his music.

A very powerful performance.......2006-12-15

June 7, 2003
This is a very powerful performance by Licad, the first in a long
while. I had a chance to compare her recording with an earlier
recording of Gottschalk's piano works by another (relatively unknown)
pianist, and I must say that the latter recording pales miserably
in comparison to Licad's. Listening to Licad play in this recording,
I can't help but be reminded of Vladimir Horowitz's piano performances
during his heyday. Licad and Horowitz have very similar touch, intensity,
technical prowess and dynamic range. There are 16 piano works works in
this recording, and I must say that all are top caliber performances,
with the possible exception of track #9, Souvenirs de Porto Rico,
Marche de Gibaros, Op.31, where Licad seems to have missed a few
notes and desynchronized the rhythm in a few places. My favorites
are tracks #5 (Tremolo, Grande Etude de Concert), #7 (Manchega,
Etude de Concert), and track #14 (Tournament Galop); in the last
one, you can almost see and hear the horses galloping around the
race track. With the price ... this recording is a genuine steal.
However, I am still waiting to hear Licad play a Liszt, Brahms,
Prokofoiev or Bartok, where I believe we can really hear Horowitz
come alive.

Shock treatment.......2005-04-11

There are plenty of other pianists who have played Gottschalk's music. These include Eugene List, Alan Mandel, John Arpin, Alan Marks, Philip Martin, and my favorite, Michael Lewin.

This disc has a very good selection of Gottschalk's music. Still, I do not always like Licad's interpretations of his works. Nor is her playing especially clean.

Le banjo, an excellent piece, is played too fast. Give this lady a speeding ticket! Bamboula is played unusually slowly, and there are even a couple of presumably intentional minor errors in rhythm in it. I think it is okay to play parts of it slowly, as Licad did, for dramatic effect, but I am not overly impressed by her performance of it.

When we reach another fine piece, La Savane, the intentional errors in rhythm get worse. I have never heard La Savane played like this before, and I don't like it.

Next is Tremolo. I think Licad does a fine job on this one, both technically and interpretively. And I also like her interpretations of Manchega and The Dying Poet.

Souvenir de Porto Rico is perhaps Gottschalk's best work, and it is technically very difficult. This would have been a great opportunity for Licad to show that she can handle the task. But she chose to do otherwise. It is disappointing.

Most of this disc is simply not Gottschalk as it ought to be played. If someone unfamiliar with Gottschalk wanted to listen to a CD with some of Gottschalk's best works on it, I'd normally recommend one with this set of pieces. But I certainly wouldn't recommend this. I'll give it two stars just for Tremolo, and one more for shock value.

Doesn't quite make it.......2003-11-11

Cecile Licad is a fine pianist, but she's not right for this. Maybe she's trying to put too much "Artistry" into these instead of virtuosic fire, although perversely she plays some pieces too fast. This is still quite nice, considering the low price, but don't throw away your old Leonard Pennario LP's.

An exuberant blazing Gottchalk interpretation.......2003-09-19

Ms. Licad's Gottchalk interpretations on her latest CD is a pioneering effort in presenting the essential Gottchalk. She could have opted for the "safe and traditional " molded from other previous interpretations. But on this CD, she has opened a whole new world about the possibilities of Gottchalk's music who typifies the wondrous cultural influences here in the United States. Her performance is riveting, exuberant, blazing,virtuosic and always with a keen individual musicality that manages to always pay homage to what is essentially Gottchalk's. That is a feat in itself. I highly recommend this CD which should be CD of the Year.
Noel

Average customer rating:

The Most Beautiful Recorded Tenor Voice?
Very, very truncated.
incomplete pleasure
Finally available on CD!

Babes in Toyland / The Red Mill
Victor Herbert , Kenny Baker , and Eileen Farrell
Manufacturer: Decca Broadway
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Operettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Musicals | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music

Traditional Vocal Pop | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music

General | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music

The Decca Records Store | Specialty Stores | Music
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The Desert Song / The New Moon
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Up in Central Park / Arms and the Girl
The Student Prince (1952 Studio Cast)
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ASIN: B00006AWG2
Release Date: 2002-07-30

Tracks:

Opening - From Babes in Toyland (Herbert & MacDonough) with Kenny Baker and Karen Kemple
Toyland
Floretta
Never Mind Bo-Peep, We Will Find Your Sheep
March of the Toys
I Can't Do the Sum
Go To Sleep, Slumber Deep
Song of the Poet
The Military Ball
Hail to Christmas
Finale: He Won't Be Happy Till He Gets It and March of the Toys
When You're Pretty and the World Is Fair - From The Red Mill (Blossom & Herbert) with Wilbur Evans, Eileen Farrell, and Felix Knight
Moonbeams
In the Isle of Our Dreams
Because You're You
Every Day is Ladies' Day With me
The Streets of New York

Customer Reviews:

The Most Beautiful Recorded Tenor Voice?.......2005-06-22

Is any recorded, tenor, singing voice as lovely as Kenny Baker's? As a child, I often heard him during the 1930s on the Jack Benny show, but have scarcely thought of him since. Amazon.com offers him on four CDs: BABES IN TOYLAND, LOVE WALKED IN, THE STARLIT HOUR and WEILL FROM BERLIN TO BROADWAY. Over the years, I have heard the recorded voices of many tenors, mostly operatic. Their fine voices were excellently trained, often to a wider range and more difficult music. But note for note, their sound as recorded is not I think as sheerly beautiful as Kenny Baker's. A splendid, unspoiled, unstrained, natural gift, put to disciplined and tasteful use! His enunciation is remarkably clear, and his musical line, perfectly smooth. He makes each song a different story, as in the six pieces here from BABES IN TOYLAND.

My claim is easy to test. This website has CDs with excerpts for listening to the best tenors of the 20th century, including Enrico Caruso, John McCormack, Giovanni Martinelli, Beniamino Gigli, Tito Schipa, Richard Tauber, Richard Crooks, Jussi Bjoerling, Morton Downey, Mario Lanza, Giuseppe di Stefano, Nicolai Gedda, Jan Peerce, Leopold Simoneau, Fritz Wunderlich, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras. Of course, the earlier the career, the greater the damage to the recorded voice from primitive technology. Heard live, who knows which voice was most beautiful? But at least we have what earlier centuries could only imagine: lasting copies of live performances. Listen to Kenny Baker's voice on tracks 2 and 8 of BABES IN TOYLAND, and then compare.

The numbers from THE RED MILL will make you want to hear more. This operetta, also composed by Victor Herbert, was first produced in 1906, three years after BABES IN TOYLAND. "Moonbeams" (well sung by Eileen Farrell) is lovely; "Because You're You" (a duet between Farrell and Felix Knight) is quite simple but surprisingly affecting. The last two are the best: "Every Day Is Ladies' Day with Me," and "In Old New York." They are patter songs, perhaps inspired by, and surely as deft, as the ones that Gilbert and Sullivan were writing two decades earlier. Both are sung by Wilbur Evans, in a rich baritone, with perfect enunciation and marvelous comic flair. Great fun!

The selections on this CD were recorded in 1944 and 1945, then released in 1946 on both 78s and 10" LPs. For this CD, they were remastered from wartime lacquered-glass originals. Baker and Evans emerge in radiant form, surely much closer to live sound than reached our family radio via AM transmission 65 years ago. The orchestral and choral sound is less attractive. Poorly miked?

Very, very truncated........2002-12-09

The scores of Victor Herbert's "Babes in Toyland" and "The Red Mill" are lovely classics, but the incomplete scores represented by this Decca Broadway remastering of its antiquated 78s are not the best reprentation. My advice: wait for the John McGlinn "Babes in Toyland" to be released. As for "The Red Mill", you'd do better to pick up the Ohio Light Opera's double-CD from Albany Records.

incomplete pleasure.......2002-11-09

Two terrible mistakes keep this from 5 stars.. BABES IN TOYLAND is not complete as they are missing the delightful IN THE TOYMAKER'S WORKSHOP. Why? In THE RED MILL they use a butchered take of EVERY DAY IS LADIES DAY WITH ME. Again, why?
John McGlinn will be out with a complete BABES soon - and there is a lot of music in it - so you may want to wait.

Finally available on CD!.......2002-08-01

Decca's 1946 album of selections from Victor Herbert's celebrated musical was a welcome addition to record libraries, covering most of the major songs plus some of the delightful dance music. The album was reissued as a ten-inch Lp in 1949. A later reissue in 1957 dropped 4 songs to fit the score on one side of a twelve-inch Lp backed by six selections from Herbert's THE RED MILL. That pairing is reproduced here but the CD contains the complete BABES IN TOYLAND program! It's nice to have it back too! Nice of Decca to give us this early Christmas present this year. But BABES IN TOYLAND is a score that enchants all year round. How strange that no other complete recording exists.

Tracks:

White Light/White Heat
Vicious
I'm Waiting for My Man
Walk It Talk It
Sweet Jane
Interview
Heroin
Satellite of Love
Walk on the Wild Side
I'm So Free
Berlin
Rock & Roll

Album Description

Previously unavailable recording from Lou Reed, recorded live at the Hampstead Theatre on Boxing Day - 12-26-72, during the 'Transformer' tour. Features material from The Velvet Underground, his 1972 solo debut 'Lou Reed' & of course 'Transformer' as well

Average customer rating:

An old favorite of mine updated

Gottschalk: American Piano Music

Manufacturer: Smithsonian Folkways
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Galops | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Mazurkas | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Ballads | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Lullabies & Berceuse | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Caprices | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Piano Music
Gottschalk: A Night in the Tropics
Piano Music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk: 26 Complete Pieces from Original Editions
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (Music in American Life)
Gottschalk: Piano Music

ASIN: B000001DM1
Release Date: 1995-02-08

Tracks:

The Banjo, Opus 15 (Fantasie grotesque)
La Scintilla: Mazurka, Opus 20 (The Spark)
Ojos Criollos, Opus 37 (Les yeux creoles Or Danse cubaine)
March Funebre, Opus 64 (Posthumous)
Bamboula, Opus 2 (Danse des negres)
Souvenir de Porto Rico, Opus 31 (Marche des Gibaros)
The Dying Poet (Le poete mourant; meditation)
Le Bananier, Opus 5 (Chanson negre)
Pasquinade, Opus 59 (Caprice) Arranged By Amiram Rigai
Berceuse, Opus 47 (Cradle Song)
Tournament Galop
Ossian Ballade, Opus 4 #1
Serenade, Opus 11
Morte, Opus 60 (Lamentation: She Is Dead)
Danza, Opus 33 (Porto Rico, November 1857)
Minuit a Seville, Opus 30 (Caprice)
La gallina, Opus 53 (The Hen: Danse cubaine)

Album Description

Born in New Orleans, Gottschalk (1829-1869) composed piano works that drew on elements of Creole, African American, French, Caribbean, and Southern U.S. culture. He was the first American to earn international acclaim as a pianist-composer. Performed by renowned pianist Amiram Rigai, the selections encompass a variety of styles and reveal the breathtaking scope of Gottschalk's work. This remastered 70-minute recording is indispensable for those interested in American classical music. "Exotic, innovative compositions are performed with panache by a world-renowned pianist." -Billboard

Customer Reviews:

An old favorite of mine updated.......2007-07-08

Gottschalk wrote a lot of very pleasing and colorful if not very deep piano music. Deep has its place, but not every moment is a Bach organ moment, and this is wonderful music when you want to relax to something light. Gottschalk drew on African American and American Folk influences as well as his formal training in Paris to produce a new sound for the mid nineteenth century. Not really classical, but not yet with the structure or sophistication of the later rag and jazz, it's really just Gottschalk. I first encountered Amiram Rigai playing this music years ago on a Musical Heritage Society cassette. A lot of pianists have done credible recordings of Gottschalk, but to me this is how his pieces should sound. This is a terrific CD.

Average customer rating:

Songs of the Nightingale

Manufacturer: Centaur
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Latin Music | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Tracks:

The Wren
The Maiden and the Nightingale
To the Nightingale
The Discreet Nightingale
Nightingale
Songs for the Birds: The Wounded Dove
Songs for the Birds: The Little Blue Pigeon
Songs for the Birds: The Blue Bird
Songs for the Birds: The Little Caged Canary
The Twittering Swallow
O Charming Bird
The Nightingale in the Lilacs
The Nightingale
With Sweet Emotion the Little Nightingale Sang
The Russian Nightingale
The Rose Captivates the Nightingale
The Nightingale and the Rose
The Silver Swan
The Bird
The Bird of the Wilderness
Green Finch and Linnet Bird
The Nightingale and the Star

Average customer rating:

The Best of Polystylism
America's Most Verstile Composer

Lou Harrison: Rapunzel and Other Works

Manufacturer: New Albion Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

English | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Operettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
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American Ultramodernists 1920-1950

ASIN: B000000R4H
Release Date: 1997-04-10

Tracks:

Air For The Poet
Rapunzel: Act I
Rapunzel: Act II
Rapunzel: Act III
Rapunzel: Act IV
Rapunzel: Act V
Rapunzel: Act VI
Songs In The Forest: Slowish
Songs In The Forest: Fastish
Songs In The Forest: Largo
Air In G Minor

Customer Reviews:

The Best of Polystylism.......2002-07-30

Lou Harrison is simply a wonder. His music seems to be able to touch any of his wide musical and philosophical interests and yet remain distinctive, and accessible. This CD, which contains mostly music from the 40s, perhaps more than any other recording that I've heard introduces the listener to the wide range of Harrison's musical world.

The main work on this CD is Rapunzel, and what a surprise it is! Rapunzel is based on a telling of the fairytale by William Morris, with a dose of psychology thrown in. The tonal language is twelve-note, perhaps even serial at times. And yet, it is never dense or cluttered and it is always lyrical. Harrison, even in this early piece from the 40's, is much more interested in communication than in theory. As a result, Rapunzel is an immediately attractive work, an unusual thing to say for such a twelve note piece.

The other works on this CD are more in Harrison's modal genre. The Air for the Poet is a lovely work, mellifluous and yet moving. Songs from the Forest is one of Harrison's East/West chamber pieces and a very successful blend of western instruments and eastern techniques. And Air in g minor is a lovely, almost Baroque style melody over a continuous drone. It's haunting.

All in all, this is another great Harrison CD on New Albion. This might not be the first CD that I would choose to introduce someone to this magical composer, but for those of us who are already converted, this fills in the gaps of an important time in Harrison's musical development.

America's Most Verstile Composer.......2000-05-05

Lou Harrison is America's most versitile composer, plain and simple. He can assimilate any style and make it his own, and more, even forms which are alien to the American Muse he can render intelligible and accessible. He is as at home with a gamelon as he is with a symphony orchestra. This recording goes from the graceful Air for the Poet through the dark serialism of the title opera (on a text by William Morris) to the meditative Songs in the Forest, to the very melodic Air in g minor. It is all amazingly listenable music and because of its variety there is likely to be something for everyone. Well, maybe not: there are too many facets of Harrison's talent for one, or even a dozen, CDs to express. If you don't know his music, however, you ought to give him a try. He is just plain wonderful.

Arthur Fiedler Conducts the Boston Pops Orchestra (Box Set)

Average customer rating:

Arthur Fiedler Conducts the Boston Pops Orchestra (Box Set)

Manufacturer: Delta Camden
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Polkas | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Waltzes | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Marches | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Classical | Box Sets | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00003L9IV
Release Date: 1999-12-21

Average customer rating:

Now
Heavenly
Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops at its best
Nice, Nice, Nice!

One Hundred Fiedler Favorites

Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Polkas | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Waltzes | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Quintets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

German | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Italian | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Russian | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Operettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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Pops Roundup
Fiedler Greatest Hits
Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops Play the Beatles
Pops Stoppers
Sixties Classics: The Encore Collection

ASIN: B000003FRA
Release Date: 1994-10-11

Tracks:

Light Cavalry Overture
Little Fugue In G Minor
Hora Staccato
The Love For Three Oranges: March from The Love For Three Oranges
Tambourin chinois
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
Peer Gynt Suite No. 1: Morning from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1
Die Walkure: Ride of the Valkyries
In the Steppes of Central Asia
Oberon: Overture
Rodeo: Hoedown from Rodeo
Goyescas: Intermezzo from Goyescas
William Tell: William Tell : Overture

Tracks:

Poet And Peasant Overture
The Merry Wives Of Windsor: Overture
Lohengrin: Prelude To Act III
Hungarian Dance No. 6
Peer Gynt Suite No. 2: Solvejg's Song
Der Freischutz: Overture
Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances
Sleigh Ride
Mlada: Procession Of The Nobles
Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers
Roumanian Rhapsody No. 1
Gayne: Sabre Dance

Tracks:

Reverie
Jewels Of The Madonna: Dance Of The Cammoristi
Suite No. 3: Air On The G-String
Cradle Song
Xerxes: Largo
Serenade
Sadko: Song Of India
Gayne Suite No. 1: Lullaby
Serenade
Spring Song
Serenade
Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo
Quintet No. 11: Minuet
Liebestraum
None But The Lonely Heart
Madama Butterfly: Humming Chorus
Hansel And Gretel: Dream Pantomime

Tracks:

Tales From The Vienna Woods
The Skaters' Waltz
Pizzicato Polka
Wine, Women And Song
Thunder And Lightning Polka
Roses From The South
The Count Of Luxemburg: Waltzes
Music Of The Spheres
Acceleration Waltz
On The Beautiful Blue Danube

Tracks:

Aida: Grand March
Babes In Toyland: March Of TheToys
Semper Fidelis
Suite No. 1: Marche Miniature
Yankee Doodle
Up The Street
The Damnation of Faust: Rakoczy March
March Of The Siamese Children
Caucasian Sketches: Procession Of The Sardar
Sambre et Meuse
The Ruins Of Athens: Turkish March
Colonel Bogey
Dixie
American Salute
Strike Up The Band
Athalie: War March Of The Priests
Karelia: Alla marcia
Funeral March Of A Marionette
Pomp And Circumstance March No. 1
Valdres March
National Emblem March
The Stars And Stripes Forever

Tracks:

Cuban Overture
Rhapsody In Blue
El Salon Mexico
Interplay: Gavotte
Interplay: Blues
Slaughter On Tenth Avenue
The Typewriter
George M. Cohan Medley: George M. Cohan Medley: Give My Regards To Broadway, Mary's A Grand Old Name, Little Nelly Kelly, You're A Grand Old Flag, You Remind Me Of My Mother, Harrigan, Yankee Doodle Dandy

Tracks: