Farewells & Fantasies: The Phil Ochs Collection [Box set]

Farewells & Fantasies: The Phil Ochs Collection [Box set]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Among folk legends, the late Phil Ochs is nearly peerless. His dozen years as a ringing voice in the war against social and political injustice left the world with a wealth of music and lyrics that remain powerful and in some cases topical more than 30 years after he recorded them. Joined by the likes of Ry Cooder, Clydie King, Jack Elliott, Van Dyke Parks, Don Rich, and Tom Scott, Ochs created a legacy of words and music that continues to drive the spirit of social conscience in musicians like Billy Bragg, Natalie Merchant, and Ani DiFranco. This 3 CD set collects the work he did at Elektra, A&M, and Folkways between 1964 and 1975, as well as several previously unreleased tracks. It chronicles not just an era when music and politics often clashed, but also one spiritual man's sojourn from rebellion and activism to depression and despair. --L.A. Smith

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.

A Life Full of Farewells
Average customer rating:

A record for summer mornings (and any time)

Beautiful and heartbreaking.

A Life Full of Farewells
The Apartments
Manufacturer: Restless Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Chamber Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
General | Rock | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Apart

The Evening Visits...And Stays for Years

West

ASIN: B000003BLN
Release Date: 1995-05-23

Tracks:

Things You'll Keep
The Failure Of Love Is A Brick Wall (You Prayed For Me To Hit It)
You Became My Big Excuse
End Of Some Fear
Not Every Clown Can Be In The Circus
Thankyou For Making Me Beg
Paint The Days White
She Sings To Forget You
All The Time In The World

Amazon.com

Simply put, Peter Milton Walsh is a great songwriter. While the first two Apartments albums (The Evening Visits, Drift) show this in abundance, it's here on the third where he simply outdoes himself. A song cycle regarding the dissolution of Walsh's increasingly middle-aged life, Farewells begins with the ultra-catchy "Things You'll Keep," works through the complicated games of love ("The Failure of Love is A Brick Wall") and sweeps through to a sad finale where he remembers his father as an absent dad and dedicated worker sent out to pasture by the world he embraced ("All the Time in the World"). All in less time than it takes to fix a flat. --Rob O'Connor

Customer Reviews:

A record for summer mornings (and any time).......1999-01-13

Australian Peter Milton Walsh is one of the best songwriters of the 80s and 90s. One of the most underrated too. But he has faithful fans, who love his incredibly beautiful songs, with great melodies, uplifting arrangements and very personal lyrics about loss, regrets, difficulty of love and night drifts. There is more peace in this record than in "The evening visits" and "Drift". Peter looks back to his past: his lost loves, his father, his failed career, with melancholy but without bitterness, and in a light atmosphere reminding of Jimmy Webb or Burt Bacharach. A very fine record by an author touched by grace. Also look for "apart", his last album.

Beautiful and heartbreaking........1998-11-18

World-weary, but not depressing lyrics that bring to mind those of Paul Westerberg or Robert Forster and Grant McLennan of the Go-Betweens. These associations are just to pique your interest; really, no one sounds quite like this -- not vocally, not instrumentally. This is beautiful, heartbreaking music.

Average customer rating:

A surprisingly successful collection of lesser-known works
Unfamiliar but highly listenable modern classical piano work
A composer pianist's insights.

Thomas Adès - Piano
Leos Janacek , Igor Stravinsky , Ferruccio Busoni , Gyorgy Kurtag , Niccolo Castiglioni , Alexey Vladimirovich Stanchinsky , Edvard Grieg , Conlon Nancarrow , and Thomas Adès
Manufacturer: EMI Records [All429]
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Canons | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Adès: Piano Quintet; Schubert: "Trout Quintet"
Gyorgy Kurtag: Jatekok (Games)
Musik Fur Streichinstrumente
Ades: Catch/Darknesse Visible/Still Sorrowing/Under Hamelin Hill/Five Eliot Landscapes/Traced OVerhead/Life Story
Thomas Adès: America: A Prophecy

ASIN: B00004W47B
Release Date: 2000-11-21

Tracks:

I: Arrival At Tires
II: The Wolf's Lair
III: We Get Away To Bergamo
IV: The Valley Of The Ciamin
V: The Bear's Den
VI: The Spring At Ganna
VII: Ice On The Rosengarten
VIII: Antonio Ballista Sleeps In The Police Station
IX: The Ghost At Presule Castle
X: Song For My Birthday
XIV: The Goblins' Bridal Procession At Vossevangen
XV: The Skuldal Bride
X: Knut Lurasens Halling I
Canon A 4 Voci (Andante Sostenuto)
Les Adieux In Janaceks Manier (Semplice, Poco Rubato E Sempre Parlando)
The Mad Girl With The Flaxen Hair (Presto, Feroce)
Keringo (Allegretto Grazioso)
Hommage A Nancy Sinatra
Homage To Tchaikovsky (Lendulettel)
I: Fuga (Lento Espressivo)
II: Presto
VIII: I Await You!
Tears (Quasi Senza Tempo)
In Memory Of A Just Person (Molto Strascinato)
Preludium (Molto Agitato)
Koral (Dolce, Sostenuto, Quasi Legato)
I: Molto Tranquillo
II: Andantino Melancolico
III: Vivace (Alla Marcia)
IV: Molto Tranquillo
V: Polonaise (Un Poco Cerimonioso)
Recollection Of A German March
Children's Waltz
Piano-Rag-Music
I: Canon 5/7
II: Canon 6/9/10/15
III: Canon 2/3

Amazon.com

To some, he's the dazzling prince-elect of the new-music scene; to others, he's the spoiled brat decked out in an entire wardrobe of the emperor's new clothes--and each side seems to preach to the converted. Well, whatever your take on the music of young British composer Thomas Adès, who has already written full-scale works in a stunning array of genres--from the sensitive cycle Five Eliot Landscapes to the opéra du scandale Powder Her Face and the symphony Asyla--give yourself an unprejudiced listen to Adès as performer on the recital album Piano and you'll discover yet another dimension to the musical world inhabited by the young upstart--one that holds manifold surprising delights. The most obvious is, of course, the choice of program--and kudos to EMI for backing the bold choices Adès has made--which flies against the current trend toward cozy familiarity or, at best, a mixture of chestnuts with scary unknowns. Not that this is "scary" modern music; instead, it's a gracious, beguiling manifesto for the art of the piano miniature, in modernist, postmodernist, neoclassical, even late-romantic guises. Even the familiar composers are represented by obscure works: some peasant dances of Grieg, some motley pages of little-known Stravinsky, a sonatina of Busoni.

A lot of the fun here is in allowing yourself to discover some of the gems you'll very likely never have heard before: the personality-drenched, enigmatic, Paul Klee-like "games" of Kurtág (one of Adès's early mentors) and--most of all--Alexey Stanchinsky's completely enthralling Piano Sonata No. 2, which also happens to be the longest work here, though the varying senses of time each piece unravels become positively Einsteinian as the program progresses. Adès is like a kid in a candy shop, sharing his enthusiasm with each discovery--it's the perfect merger of personalities between performer and composer. He doesn't play pyrotechnical showoff, even in the head-spinning dual-tempo feats of the Nancarrow canons concluding the disc. Rather, he seems more interested in inviting his audience to participate in each given world. Technique with insouciant energy and boundless humor--the entire recital is a blast. --Thomas May

Customer Reviews:

A surprisingly successful collection of lesser-known works.......2004-01-08

The English composer Thomas Adès has been heavily promoted by EMI as the Great White Hope of British music, but his piano playing has received less attention than his composition (even though he is a former winner of the BBC's televised Young Musician of the Year). This disc is his first as pianist, and shows his eclectic range of interests, featuring lesser-known works by well-known composers (Grieg, Stravinsky, Janácek), pieces by unjustly neglected composers (Castiglioni, Stanchinsky, Busoni) and a couple of contemporary classics (Kurtág, Nancarrow).

Niccolò Castiglioni is a composer grievously underrepresented on disc, and thus any recordings of music by this eclectic Italian postmodernist are highly welcome. Adès chooses to play the composer's lighthearted suite Como io passo l'estate, a ten-minute collection of ten comparatively simple miniatures that ranges from witty neoclassicism to icy tone clusters. It's all done with a very winning lightness of touch common to much of Castiglioni's music, which raises the music above the level of so many descriptive piano suites.

Grieg's Slatter is a collection of pieces based on Telemark fiddle tunes, which the composer sought to gentrify in a piano arrangement. Fortunately, the composer has managed here to create compositions which are lively, entertaining and interesting despite a certain lack of fidelity to the original model. Adès chooses to play three of the nineteen, which is probably a wise choice as I imagine hearing all nineteen would become rather tiresome. The performance here lacks a little in lightness of touch and rhythmic vibrancy, but still brings across the essence of the pieces adequately.

Alexey Stanchinsky was one of the more extraordinary figures of early 20th-century Russian music. Declared incurably insane at twenty and dead, probably by his own hand, six years later, he left behind a small but intriguing corpus of contrapuntally intense music that lies somewhere in the huge space between Bach and mid-period Scriabin. Probably the most extraordinary of all his works is the Canon for four voices (the finest of his five Preludes in Canonic Form), a tour-de-force of contrapuntal writing that manages to combine immensely lyrical writing with strict imitative counterpoint. Also very fine is the Second Sonata, whose slow, intense first movement fugue is contrasted with a vigorous, toccata-like finale. Adès tends to rush the contrapuntal movements a little, and Nikolai Fefilov's more spacious and authentically Russian-sounding recording on Etcetera (still available from some Amazon sites) remains a first choice for both works. (Adès' performance of the Second Sonata is, however, superior to the rather pedestrian Daniel Blumenthal on Marco Polo.)

These days, György Kurtág's eclectic brand of modernism needs little introduction, and selections from his career-spanning collection of piano miniatures, Játékok, have become common features of recitals of contemporary piano music. Adès selects eight pieces in all, and though I might quibble with his inclusion of three rather childish parodies (the two Hommages and The mad girl with the flaxen hair) it's always good to hear more from this collection.

The Janácek selection is a brief one-minute squib, included, I assume, as a taster for Adès' songs-and-piano-music collection with Ian Bostridge, and not nearly as interesting as Busoni's Third Sonatina "ad usum infantis." An essay in simple, almost naïve classicism, this sequence of five brief, related movements has far more depth to it than appears on the surface. Adès' reading is appropriately intimate in scale and tone.

Three Stravinsky miniatures from the 1910s follow: Souvenir d'une marche boche is a swaggering, parodistic march, Valse pour les enfants a simple, neo-classical waltz and Piano-Rag-music an over-the-top rhythmic essay that has rather less to do with ragtime than the title might suggest.

The disc ends with Conlon Nancarrow's Three Canons for Ursula. These are late works, written after the composer had finally found interpreters who could do justice to the rhythmic complexities of his music (much of his previous work had been études for player piano). The first two canons are comparatively slow with complex, flowing rhythms somewhat indebted to jazz. The first has the two hands in tempo ratios of seven-to-five and the complex second is a four-part canon in ratios six-to-nine-to-ten-to-fifteen. In contrast, the rhythmically simpler (two-to-three) finale is a coruscating virtuoso tour-de-force.

This is a fascinating disc, and even though not all of the music here is of the highest standard there is still much to enjoy from composers both familiar and unfamiliar. If Adès' pianism is not up to bringing all the works off with equal success, this is probably in part due to the sheer variety of his musical interests and it should not take off the shine from what is a surprisingly successful collection.

Unfamiliar but highly listenable modern classical piano work.......2002-07-11

First, it's easy to recognize Thomas Ades as a master interpreter of 20th century piano classics. And it is a full span of the 20th century from the 1902-03 Norwegian Dances to Castiglioni's "How I Spend The Summer" by a composer only a year my senior, and Gyorgy Kurtag's "Jatekok".

The concert starts with Castiglioni's "How I Spend The Summer", a work that can be played by very young piano students, but is a delight to adult ears, with its mixed and playful moods.

That is immediately followed by Grieg's challenging Norwegian Peasant Dances, partly graceful and partly powerful and untamed melody and rhythm.

Neo-classicist Alexey Stanchinsky's four-part Canon and his Piano Sonata in G are extraordinary works which have been described as Bach on the left hand and Scriabin on the right. A pity this brilliant talent lived such a pitifully short lifetime.

As noted by another reviewer, the Kurtag work is a delight and very much to be listened to carefully to catch the playful allusions to Debussy, Tschaikowsky, Janacek, and (catch this) Nancy Sinatra.

Janacek's music, like Grieg's, is pure folk, composed by Janacek and played by Ades as folk without classical pretensions.

Ades continues with works by Busoni and Stravinsky, concluding with Nancarrow, another composer like Kurtag who was wildly original and humorous, apparantly matched only by Ades who performs them in like spirit.

This CD can be an introduction to modern classics, or an addition to an advanced collection. In either case, this music will be new to most listeners, and is bound to be a delight.

A composer pianist's insights........2001-01-18

Thomas Adès is certainly among the most original and compelling composers in today's public eye. In this recording, he demonstrates how a composer with the requisite performing skills can illuminate music in ways that might elude the "mere" performing virtuoso. But make no mistake, Adès is no mean pianist: The musical world first noticed him as a pianist when he took Second Prize in the 1989 BBC Young Musician of the Year contest.

This free-ranging recital includes no virtuoso showpieces. And most (if not all of) the pieces will be unfamiliar to most listeners. But each of them has a compelling musical purpose that Adès finds and places on display for our listening pleasure. Even the juxtaposition of pieces in the recital serves this end.

Special mention should be made of Adès' performances of the Kurtag and Nancarrow pieces. The Kurtag miniatures, from his "Playing Games" are filled with wonderful humor and poignancy that Adès obviously relishes. (Check out "The Mad Girl with the Flaxen Hair", an hommage to Debussy.) These "simple", short works are rarely performed on or off record; the current disc may be worth hearing for them alone.

The Nancarrow canons are outrageously original and slyly humorous takes on this ancient form. While not "virtuoso music", they are nearly impossible to play! But Adès does play them -- and in a way that upstages their dedicatee, Ursula Oppens (whose performance of two of them is available on another five-star disc: Music & Arts CD-4862). While Oppens seems to understand where the music is going and is a fine guide, Adès conveys the sense of knowing why the music goes where it does. So that for example, when the wild syncopations in one of the canons suddenly unfold into familiar jazz-inflected riffs, Adès finds and gets into this groove, and brings us into this familiar world for the brief moment that it lasts. Oppens, on the other hand seems more the detached observer letting it pass by.

In sum, this is a disc for anyone not afraid of the unfamiliar, who doesn't equate musical excellence with overt virtosic display.

Tracks:

What's That I Hear
The Bells
Morning
Bound For Glory
The Highwayman
Power And The Glory
That's What I Want To Hear
Links On A Chain
Love Me, I'm A Liberal
Too Many Martyrs
In The Heat Of The Summer
Here's To The State Of Mississippi
I'm Going To Say It Now
One More Parade
Draft Dodger Rag
I Ain't Marching Anymore
We Seek No Wider War
Ringing Of Revolution
When I'm Gone
Song Of My Returning
There But For Fortune

Tracks:

The War Is Over
I Ain't Marching Anymore
White Boots Marching In A Yellow Land
Is There Anybody Here?
Santo Domingo
Song Of A Soldier
Cops Of The World
Bracero
Canons Of Christianity
I Kill Therefore I Am
The Confession
William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park And ...
A Toast To Those Who Are Gone
Changes
The Doll House
When In Rome

Tracks:

Pretty Smart On My Part
The World Began In Eden And Ended In Los Angeles
Tape From California
Chords Of Fame
Gas Station Women
Miranda
Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends
Cross My Heart
Flower Lady
The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns
Pleasures Of The Harbor
Jim Dean Of Indiana
Rehearsals For Retirement
Doesn't Lenny Live Here Anymore
No More Songs
Crucifixion

Amazon.com

Among folk legends, the late Phil Ochs is nearly peerless. His dozen years as a ringing voice in the war against social and political injustice left the world with a wealth of music and lyrics that remain powerful and in some cases topical more than 30 years after he recorded them. Joined by the likes of Ry Cooder, Clydie King, Jack Elliott, Van Dyke Parks, Don Rich, and Tom Scott, Ochs created a legacy of words and music that continues to drive the spirit of social conscience in musicians like Billy Bragg, Natalie Merchant, and Ani DiFranco. This 3 CD set collects the work he did at Elektra, A&M, and Folkways between 1964 and 1975, as well as several previously unreleased tracks. It chronicles not just an era when music and politics often clashed, but also one spiritual man's sojourn from rebellion and activism to depression and despair. --L.A. Smith

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely a Joy to Own.......2006-06-17

Okay, I love Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, the Weavers, the Kingston Trio, but Phil Ochs' music has always impressed me and I collected quite a few of his albums while growing up. Since most of those albums were lost or donated, I was delighted to snap up this definitive collection of his music culled from those, and other, albums. I was disappointed Boy in Ohio, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Me, Hills of West Virginia, and a few others were not included (I gave it four stars instead of five because of their omission), but with Changes, Flower Lady, The Scorpion Departs but Never Returns (based on a true event of a submarine torpedoed with no survivors and led me to search the Web for articles on it), Miranda, The Crucifixion, and my favorite, No More Songs, I cannot complain. So many terrific photos, biographical data, and backgrounds into each song. The only thing they left out were the lyrics to all the songs! I feel sorry for those who never heard of him, and wish he had not taken his life. There were so many songs he could have written. Thanks to this Elecktra collection though, those songs he did write can be revisited over and over. It's as the song I Dreamed I saw Phil Ochs Last Night, by Billy Bragg, put it: "When the song of freedom rings out loud, from valleys and from hills, where people stand up for their rights, Phil Ochs is with us still, Phil Ochs is with us still."

Phil Ochs: Hello Goodbye :(.......2006-02-20

Phil Ochs "Farewells & Fantasies" . . . brings back magically present to us not only the voice but the person that was Phil Ochs!

Phil was a true troubador . . . he sang "the news" and he sang "the people" . . . he obvously felt pain at the sufferings he saw in the world around him and he put that pain into lyric and music(and even into sharp biting sarcasm). He was that nagging little voice which tried to wake the sleeping consiences of people . . . for this he was either loved or put-down . . . but he was hard to ignore.

This three disc retrospective contains his best songs and his best performances of these songs . . . it even includes his "moments" like when he forgot the lyric line in "The Highwayman" and had to "na na na" the verse to completion . . . but he kept on going without missing a beat!

His classic "I Ain't A Marching Anymore" is here as is "The War Is Over". His political barbs as pointed and piercing as ever.

But i love this set for some of his other work. Phil was also a story-teller and picture painter and "poet of the heart".

"Chords Of Fame" is a country styled portrait of a broken-down failed singer "i could see by your guitar" . . . and Phil warns not to seek the "chords of fame" as vacuous and hollow.

"Flower Lady" is a poetic look at the sad life of a poor woman selling flowers . . . and even of these there are no takers.

But to my mind Phil's best song is "Changes" . . . a song about the passage thorough this pilgrimage we call time . . . our time on earth is short and we constantly are on the move and saying so many "goodbyes" . . . a sad note is that one evening Phil was sitting in his sisters' apartment with a few friends who tried to cheer him from his depressions and encouraged him to make a "comeback" musically . . and they asked him to sing for them - and Phil did sing for them: the last song Phil Ochs sang was "Changes". the next day when no one was home, Phil committed suicide leaving us all behind as he made his "changes" and moved on.

One of the final songs Phil ever wrote was titled "No More Songs". He felt that there just were no more songs for him left to sing. In "Doesn't Lenny Live here Anymore" he even presents a picture of just such an "exit" complete with the hard discovery when no answer to the knock at the door and the subsequent entry into the room shows that "lenny doesn't live here anymore".

So this three disc collection brings us Phil Ochs "as he was" . . . his humor, his satire, his sarcasm, his poetry, his music, and his depression. It is unfortunate that Phil couldn't see what we can see when we "hear" his recordings today: that he was a most vibrant and insightful and intelligent talent . . . that we needed his voice and presence back then . . .and we sure need his presence today more than ever. had he been able to see that perhaps he might have chosen to remain with us . . . and i wish he had.

Thanks Phil for all your great songs and for "being there" when we needed you . . . we miss what you brought to us but at least you've left us these recordings to "make you present again" and to remind us of higher aspirations.

A Truly Great Songwriter.......2005-03-26

and this collection shows off his songwriting skills and his wonderful voice. I agree that the missing "My Life" is a sad note in an otherwise strong collection. Phil's songwriting is as relevant today as it was back then--aren't we still "The Cops of The World"? And yes, there are still "Braceros." "The Highwayman" is one of the best renderings of a poetic piece that I've ever heard. I also wonder how many folks today know that "A Small Circle of Friends" was based on a true incident that happened in Queens New York.

Expensive, poorly compiled set.......2001-07-12

This package represents the most extensive re-packaging of Och's remarkable oeuvre. That said, it is good to have so much of this vital artist's work in one set. Still, with its glaring omissions and poorly arranged order of songs, the set represents a wasted opportunity to do full justice to Och's achievement. Yes, it has a nice book, yes it has a less than stirring one page introduction by Och's daughter (who is more concerned with plugging a few causes her Dad would perhaps endorse, but neglects to say much about his achievement. Perhaps this is explained by the fact that Ochs, like so many others of his generation, was self-involved to an almost shameful degree and not the most attentive of parents). While it is wonderful to hear several previously unavailable or hard to come by gems that stand tall alongside the best of Och's material, the set will be a complete toss for anyone who holds in reverence the original albums. Och's discography is so slim that it is beyond me why it could not ALL have been compiled onto a nice, extensive five or six disc set. Certainly it would have been nice had those behind this farce taken greater care with the running order. The songs appear to have been selected at random, with absolutely no thematic or chronological sense. It thus leaves a very incomplete and patchy representation of Och's work scattered across three randomly assorted discs. AUdiophiles would be advised to either compile their own collection via various sources or wait for someone to finally compile this great artist's recordings in a more careful and comprohensive manner. Oh, and contrary to what folk purists would have us believe (who seem to take issue with anything even remotely Sgt. Pepper influenced) the original studio version of 'Crucifixion' is a fantastic relic from the period (and of which Och's was justly proud) and exhibits far more interest and imaginative power than the rather stark and tedious account substituted in this set. Again, it would have been nice to have EVERYTHING, so that it is not necessary to choose between either version.

"My Life" is now available.......2000-12-04

Even without the magnificant song "My Life" (on the superb "Rehearsals for Retirement" [perhaps his finest overall album] which is now available from AMAZON.COM in a double CD with the excessively mediocre "Gunfight at Carnegie Hall"), this boxed set shows once again why Phil Ochs was the premier folk singer/composer/lyricist of the 1960s and 1970s. While his melodies could calm the proverbial savage beast, his lyrics evoked and provoked. Few love songs equaled the beauty of the oft-recorded "Changes." Few songs evoked the patriotism of his "Power and the Glory" (even Anita Bryant recorded it, although I've read that she kept complaining that she couldn't understand what the song was about).

I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Ochs perform about half a dozen times. And while his live performances were always superb, these recordings enable us to remember someone who really was a voice of his generation, a voice snuffed out by his own hand far too soon. If you ever get a chance to see one of the travelling Phil Ochs song fests that his sister organizes, go. And if you can't see one, get this boxed set to relive the beauty, intelligence, energy, and charm of Phil Ochs, truely an American troubadour.

Average customer rating:

An excellent introduction to both the life and the work

The Life and Works of Frédéric Chopin

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ecossaises | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Mazurkas | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Polonaises | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Waltzes | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Ballads | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Etudes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Preludes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Rondos | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Scherzo | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

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

Barcarolles | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

The Life and Works of Ludwig van Beethoven
Life & Works of Bach
Life & Works
The Life and Works of Franz Liszt
Brahms: Life & Works

ASIN: B00005MKG5
Release Date: 2001-07-17

Tracks:

Chopin And The Soul Of The Piano - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Berceuse, Op.57 - Idil Biret
Chopin The Pole - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Polonaise in g - Idil Biret
Early Education - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Vars On A German Air - Idil Biret
Encounters With The Polish Peasantry - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Mazurka in G - Idil Biret
Chopin As Industrious Pupil - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Son in c (Opening) - Idil Biret
He Finds His True Voice As A Composer - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Rondo A La Mazur, Op.5 - Idil Biret
The Fun-Loving Teenager - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Ecossaise, Op.72 No.3 - Idil Biret
Onset Of Illness And The Death Of A Sister - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Nocturne in e - Idil Biret
Hats Off, Gentlemen! A Genius! - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Vars On 'La Ci Darem La Mano', Op.2 - Idil Biret
The Influence Of Paganini - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Souvenir De Paganini - Idil Biret
The First Etudes - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Etude in c#, Op.10, No.4 - Idil Biret
Success In Vienna - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Nocturne in c# - Idil Biret
Chopin In Love - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Polonaise - Idil Biret
Stagnation, Celebrity And The First Con - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Con in f, Op.21 - Idil Biret
Return Of Vitality And Inspiration - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Con in e, Op.11 - Idil Biret
Farewells And The Final Departure From Poland - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser

Tracks:

Europe And Chopin In Crisis - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Scherzo No.1 in b - Idil Biret
Arrival In Paris - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Waltz in E flat, Op.18 - Idil Biret
Paris, Politics, Poles And Performance - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Impromptu in A flat, Op.29 - Idil Biret
Chopin And The Opr - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Andante Spianato, Op.22 - Idil Biret
Chopin And Kalkbrenner - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Etude in G flat, Op.10, No.5 - Idil Biret
The Cholera Epidemi; The Fashionable Teacher - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Etude in C minor, Op.10, No.12, The 'Revolutionary' - Idil Biret
Teaching In Earnest - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Etude in a, Op.25, No.4 - Idil Biret
Souplesse Avant Tout! - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Nocturne in b flat, Op.9, No.1 - Idil Biret

Tracks:

The Woodzinska Affair - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Nocturne in B, Op.32, No.1 - Idil Biret
An Elegant, Pale, Sad Young Man - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Nocturne in D flat, Op.27, No.2 - Idil Biret
George Sand And A Majorcan Winter - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Prlds, Op.28 - Idil Biret
Misanthropy, Hypocrisy And Prejudice - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Mazurkas - Idil Biret
At Nohant: An Idyllic And Creative Summer - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Impromptu in F# - Idil Biret
The Idyll Continues - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Sonata in b flat: Funeral March And Finale - Idil Biret

Tracks:

The Return To Paris - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Ballade No.4 in f - Idil Biret
Chopin Grows Moody, Petulant And Volatile - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Son No.3 in b, Op.58: Finale - Idil Biret
Failing Health And Mounting Tensions - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Barcarolle, Op.60 - Idil Biret
The Break With Sand; Illness; London - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Prld in F#, Op.28, No.8 - Idil Biret
Scotland, London, Paris; Decline And Death - Jeremy Siepmann/Anton Lesser
Polonaise in A flat, Op.53 - Idil Biret

Customer Reviews:

An excellent introduction to both the life and the work.......2001-08-10

Not having known very much at all about Chopin, I cannot vouch for the accuracy in the Naxos entry in their CD and cassette Biography series; but I can vouch for the enjoyment (NA 421912) afforded me.

Written and produced by Jeremy Siepmann, this audio-bio not only tells the strange story of Chopin's life but also includes generous examples of his music, drawn from the bottomless pit of Naxos musical CDs. An excellent idea was to use actors for the voices of Chopin (Anton Lesser), George Sand and other females in his life (Elaine Claxton and Karen Archer), and other male acquaintances (Neville Jason). It is the kind of reading that would fascinate even if the work were fictional.

His letters are particularly fascinating, especially as they are read dramatically by the small cast; and one would rather hear about all his faults--physical and psychological--from people who knew him well. Perhaps his strange epistolary relationship with his Titus is dwelt upon a bit too much, but such are the times (then and now).

Tracks:

History (Radio Edit)
Back On My Feet Again
On Your Own (Acoustic)
Monkey Magic (Brainstorm Mix by Nick McCabe)

Customer Reviews:

I'd give it 8 out of 5.......2001-10-11

This heartfelt, heartbroken little "single" embodies musical perfection.

Tracks:

1 - History (edit) - (best edit I've ever heard)

2 - Back On My Feet Again - (excellent nonalbum track full of love)

3 - On Your Own (acoustic) - (soul-wringing with marked improvement over the album version)

4 - Monkey Magic (Brainstorm Mix)

Tracks:

La Boheme: Act III: Donde lieta
La Boheme: Act IV: Vecchia zimarra, senti
Tristan und Isolde: Mild und leise (Leibestod)
TOSCA: Act III: E lucevan le stelle
Cosi fan tutte: Act I: Soave sia il vento
La Traviata: Act III: Addio del passato
Andrea Chenier: Act IV: Come un bel di di Maggio
Manon: Act IV: Adeau, notre petit table
Le nozze di Figaro: Non piu andrai
Madama Butterfly: Act III: Tu, tu, piccolo iddio!
Aida: Act IV: La fatal pietra
La Fanciulla del West: Act III: Ch' ella mi creda
Dido and Aeneas: Thy Hand, Belinda - When I Am Laid In Earth
Cavalleria Rusticana: Addio alla madre
Gotterdammerung: Act III: Mein Erbe nun nehm' ich zu eigen

Average customer rating:

Russian Romantic Songs

Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
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Russian Album

ASIN: B0007ST3MQ
Release Date: 2005-05-10

Tracks:

Do Not Chide Me, Mother
Amid The Din Of The Ball
Will I Forget?
O Never Speak Of It, My Love
A Sad Mood (Guitar Solo)
To Hold You Close
Do Not Ask Of Me
A Dainty Mouth
The Two Farewells
Nocturne (Guitar Solo)
Serenade
When My Eyes Fall On You
Reminder
Waltz (Guitar Solo)
None But You
Likeness
Adieu!
In Vain We Love
A Gust Of Wind (Guitar Solo)

Average customer rating:

Opera Farewells

Manufacturer: EXCELSIOR
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000EZY2Y6

Product Description

TRACKS: 1-GLUCK=CHE FARO SENZA EURIDICE FROM ORPHEO, 2-VERDI=ADDIO DEL PASSATO FROM LA TRAVIATA, 3-VERDI=PACE, PACE FROM LA FORZA DEL DESTINO, 4-VERDI=ECCO L'ORRIDO CAMPO FROM UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, 5-VERDI=DI PROVENZA IL MAR FROM LA TRAVIATA, 6-PUCCINI=E QUAL VIA SCEGLIETE FROM TOSCA, 7-PUCCINI=E LUCEVAN LE STELLE FROM TUSCA, 8-PUCCINI=AMORE TANTO AMORE FROM TURANDOT, 9-VERDI=QUESTO O QUELLA FROM RIGOLETTO, 10-LEONCAVALLO=PAGLIACCIO NON SON FROM I PAGLIACCI, 11-PUCINI=DORME?..RIPOSA FROM LA BOHEME, 12-PUCCINI=CON ONOR MUORE FROM MADAMA BUTTERFLY

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