Great performances of popular favourites and some rare gems
Disadvantages:
Barely none, with perhaps slight issues with sound .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Compilation albums of classical music are often a somewhat hit and miss affair. Great for the beginner, not so much for a seasoned collector. Therefore finding compilations that step outside of the norm in offering something else from the evergreens like Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, or Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and include some rarer gems is a thing that is ever so more interesting. Such was the sensation when I chanced upon this album, entitled "Colours of the Orchestra", a collection of orchestral treats that in various ways showcase the versatility and richness of a symphony orchestra. There is a number of composers included, all sequenced alphabetically, this set containing people from A to G. This album was then followed by a second collection that continued from where the first one ended, but personally I haven't seen this around and can't comment on it too much.
As part of Deutsche Grammophon's Panorama series (cheap 2 CD collections of famous and not so famous music), the recordings are generally very good, mostly performed by top ensembles like the Berliner Philharmoniker, Boston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestras among others, under people like Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Daniel Barenboim and Seiji Ozawa. The recordings themselves range from the early 1960s to the late 1990s and all feature clean and well-recorded sound with minimal hiss or other distracting anomalies. With this much talent involved, you can be sure there is not much to be disappointed as far as the performances are concerned.
Beginning in high style by a wonderful performance of Hugo Alfvén's Swedish Rhapsody No.1, "Midsommarvaka", the recording of the Gothenburg Symphony under Neeme Järvi is one of the best I have heard (as are the other rhapsodies in the set from which this has been taken from), being rich, sonorous, and jubilant. This is followed by Leroy Anderson's comical "The Typewriter," one of the numerous light pieces that Anderson wrote in his life, and features the tapping of a typewriter to great effect. It's a perfect "pops" lollipop and provides endless hours of fun after drinking a bit of… ummm… happy beveriges.
Johann Sebastian Bach is represented by two pieces. "Jesu bleibet meine Freude" is not exactly that exilarating; it is not far removed from the usual string orchestra arrangement it is often heard in, this performance only adding what sounds like 2-4 trumpets for providing some accents. Of more interest is the legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski's extremely wild and raucous orchestration of Bach's famous D minor Toccata & Fugue, that is more than fitting in a collection such as this (Stokowski's electric personality fully transcribes to the numerous other orchestrations he has done in the past and this is no exception). Made in 1976, the performance of the Boston Pops Orchestra under Arthur Fiedler is exciting and rugged, and full of Stokowskian electricity. Bach rarely sounds quite as thrilling.
Samuel Barber's ever-popular Adagio for Strings gets a slow and a slightly exaggerated performance from Leonard Bernstein and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, but the result is still quite affecting. Beethoven's Turkish March from the play "The Ruins of Athens" is delightful and a nice make-weight; after all there always has to be some kind of Turkish flavours to be found somewhere.
As is appropriate, there is quite a lot of Berlioz included, for he is one of the greatest orchestrators that ever was and his music really defines what "colour" in music is. There are two selections from the "dramatic legend" La Damnation de Faust (a strange cantata-opera-symphony hybrid), beginning with the "Ballet de Sylphes," a light and fairy-like little waltz, giving ample proof that Berlioz could write music subtle as wind when he wanted to. The following "Menuet des feux follets" is likewise sweetly light, but features little surges of drama appropriate in a witches' sabbath, which allows the good humour of drunken dancing to sweep the section to a close. To cap off the sensitive Berlioz, there is the subtle and magical "Queen Mab Scherzo" from his "dramatic symphony" Roméo et Juliette that is filled with quicksilver movement, magical feeling and just a little bit menace. At 5:40 the tingling percussion are particularly chilling and is a little touch I just love to bits.
Berlioz's more bombastic writing is reserved for the following two pieces. The Rákóczy March was originally written as a tribute to Hungary when the composer went to conduct some concerts there and it has subsequenly become a template of any future arrangements of the nationalistic march. Surprising the people who first heard it, the music following the initial trumpet fanfare turned to perform the melody with more subtlety than bombast, only gathering power as it neared its conclusion and thus creating one of the most orgasmic conclusions of Berlioz's career. Finally there is the absolutely wonderful pantomime scene from his massive opera Les Troyens, called "The Royal Hunt and Storm." With imitations of hunting calls and horses galloping, the ensuing storm is one of the best nature evocations I have ever heard, perfectly capturing the violence of the storm, bouts of hail, gushes of wind, lightning, and thunder rolls. And when the chorus enters the ensuing mayhem is almost unparalleled in music. Ironically, this was about the only scene that Parisian audiences liked in the ill-fated production, but Berlioz was not able to use it due to the time it took to change sets for this one sequence.
Disc 1 ends with a rather traditional arrangement of Boccherini's ever-popular Menuetto (the quintessential background music for dinner parties and balls) for string orchestra and Brahms' First Hungarian Dance that oomphs with that wavelike motion so common in Brahms' Hungarian evocations.Disc 2 begins with some more French music, this time by Emmanuel Chabrier's Joyeuse Marche that, as the title suggests, is very joyous through and through, jubilant and very French indeed. As a contrast, the following "Idylle" from Suite Pastorale is calm and idyllic throughout, with little twinkling bells and a constant pizzicato accompaniment maintaining a light touch with little birdsong added for good measure on the flutes (lessons learned from Berlioz are well in evidence).
The following two tracks are both by Léo Delibes, who was the most prolific ballet composer France has ever seen and whom Tchaikovsky held in such high regard that he considered his own ballets to be garbage in comparison. The extremely famous Pizzicato from Sylvia makes for a great example of the use of barely nothing else but pizzicato strings for a light effect. The following "Variation on a Slavonic theme" from Coppélia is likewise light, but more substantial and colourful within its set of variations. This makes for a great little makeweight, though I can't say I'm extremely fond of balletic music for any long stretches (too light and episodic for me).
Frederick Delius' beautiful "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring" is another one of those evocations of countryside life that is idyllic and summery; there are even some little similarities to the strangely sad yet happy music of Grieg's "Last Spring." The performance of the English Chamber Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim is radiatingly lush and evocative. Antonin Dvorak's following Third Slavonic Dance is fine, though I don't consider it as the best of his 16 dances. Also Leonard Bernstein's take is a little on the slower side, but the more animated parts do come off very nicely.
Next up is Elgar's String Serenade, which I consider as the only real stumbling block in this set. While it is a nice work in and of itself, to include a three movement work that uses only the string orchestra is a little pushing it, particularly as the string orchestra has already been amply showcased in Barber's Adagio and Boccherini's Menuetto. I would much rather have had one of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches there, and not necessarily the more famous First march, but one of the other four that are just as good, if not better. Particularly the Fifth and final march of 1930 would have been nice, as I consider it as the best of the five and is such a rarity that it is rarely performed. Oh well, you can't have everything can you?
George Enescu's First Romanian Rhapsody makes an ideal companion piece to Alfvén's Swedish Rhapsody and is here presented in the classic 1961 Mercury recording of Antal Dorati conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. Though the sound is a little thin due to the age of the recording, it is still a very good performance and the sound is crisp and clear. Gabriel Fauré's "Le Pas Espagnol" from the Dolly Suite is slightly comical and parodies Spanish music with much good humour, tambourines and trumpets creating a scene of festivity with considerable élan. Another great little make-weight. Christoph Willibald Gluck's famous "Dance of the Blessed Spirits" then creates a nice soothing, almost lullaby-like feeling for the listener, something that would indeed be most suitable for falling asleep with.
Charles Gounod takes centre stage next with the two pieces that he is best remembered today from. The Waltz from his smash-hit opera Faust is about as "buttery" as music can get and it is indeed music I could decadently play and get fat by just sitting and listening to it. And with the added comical side effect, it always reminds me of Michael Palin riding on his bike in the middle of the English countryside in one of the Monty Python sketches, naively happy, which the music only enhances. It is followed by the most excellent "Funeral March of a Marionette" that Gounod wrote to parody a particularly disagreeable critic practically nobody liked. Unfortunately for Gounod, the critic happened to die before he had a chance to dedicate the work to him. Most famous as the title theme for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, it is cumbersomely bumbling and comically amusing (though unfortunately the version included here is the shorter, edited version of the too rarely performed work).
Percy Grainger has the last word on the set with "Handel in the Strand", a semi-Händelian composition with many contemporary touches (something Händel could well have composed had he lived in the 1920s), and ending with his arrangement of the famous "Irish Tune from County Derry" or, as it is better known, "Londonderry Air". It is a truly beautiful way to end the collection and is heartwarmingly performed by the Eastman-Rochester Pops under Frederick Fennell.All in all, this is a most satisfying set that features some very famous classics, but also some rarely performed treats in mostly very good performances. It is not often that classical compilations such as these are made, and when ever they are, the results are often quite satisfying. Also, despite being a double-discer with first class performances, the album is very cheap (I paid €6,50 for it in the store as new) and prices at the Amazon Marketplace seem to begin from £2,98. For anybody even remotely interested in classical music and who already have a compilation album that contains all the usual suspects, this is ideal. Of recent times there are only a few compilations that have music I don't already have 15 times over, and thus "Colours of the Orchestra" was a really nice surprise. Warmly recommended if you want to expand you collection with something a little different.
TRACK LISTING
Disc 1 1. Alfvén: Midsommarvaka (12:43) 2. Anderson: The Typewriter (1:43) 3. J.S. Bach: Jesu bleibet meine Freude (3:27) 4. J.S. Bach-Stokowski: Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 (9:43) 5. Barber: Adagio for Strings, Op.11 (10:03) 6. Beethoven: Marcia alla Turca from The Ruins of Athens (1:48) 7. Berlioz: Ballet des sylphes (2:35) 8. Berlioz: Menuet des feux follets (6:06) 9. Berlioz: La Reine Mab from Roméo et Juliette (7:26) 10. Berlioz: Rákóczy March (4:34) 11. Berlioz: Royal Hunt and Storm from Les Troyens (9:37) 12. Boccherini: Menuetto from Quintet in E major (3:22) 13. Brahms: Hungarian Dance No.1 (2:51)
Disc 2 1. Chabrier: Joyeuse Marche (3:36) 2. Chabrier: Idylle from Suite Pastorale (4:04) 3. Delibes: Pizzicati from Sylvia (2:07) 4. Delibes: Variation sur un thème slavique from Coppélia (6:32) 5. Delius: On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (7:08) 6. Dvorak: Slavonic Dance, Op.46 No.3 (5:54) 7-9. Elgar: String Serenade in E minor, Op.20 (12:15) 10. Enescu: Romanian Rhapsody No.1 (11:58) 11. Fauré: Le Pas espagnol from Dolly Suite (2:41) 12. Gluck: Dance of the Blessed Spirits (6:07) 13. Gounod: La Valse de Faust (5:24) 14. Gounod: Funeral March of a Marionette (3:32) 15. Grainger: Handel in the Strand (4:19) 16. Grainger: Irish Tune from County Derry (3:34)
