Death in Detroit

Death in Detroit

Track Listings

1. Panic in Detroit

2. Panic in Detroit [Whatever]

3. Figurative Theater

4. Panic in Detroit [Turning in His Grave]

5. Venus in Furs

6. Skeleton Kiss [Death Mix]

7. Panic in Detroit

8. Spiritual Cramp [Symptom Reversal]

Customer Reviews:

A must have for lovers of French Orchestral music.......2006-04-29

Paul Paray is one of the best interpreters of French orchestral music whose stereo recordings are gathered together in this budget priced box, and offer terrific value to the consumer: great recordings/ performances AND sound, at a low price. First off, this item is highly recommended.

There may be some listeners who have favorite recordings of certain works in this set, such as the Saint Saens ORGAN Symphony, the Ravel TOMBEAU DE COUPERIN (Paray strikes me as rather too fast in the Forlane movement, and other parts), or CARMEN Suites. But it is great to have all this music in one set, and Paray is not inferior to anyone in this music. There are several rare works here, including Paray's own MASS. And there is Bizet's rarely heard LA PATRIE Overture, and Thomas Overtures to RAYMOND and MIGNON; Herold's ZAMPA; and Saint Saens' Bacchanale from SAMSON ET DALILA. The Detroit Symphony of the late 1950s/early 60s plays wonderfully, sounding as good as many more prestigious "big name" orchestras.

Of course other listeners have favorites and may not agree with my perception, but I enjoyed this set alot, and will continue to return to it in the future. That's saying alot for one who's a committed fan of Karl Bohm (1894-1981), Eugene Ormandy (1899-1985), Carl Schuricht (1880-1967) and Bruno Walter (1876-1962). The "French" sound and style Paray drew from the Detroit Symphony is much different from Bohm, Ormandy, Schuricht, or Walter, but is most enjoyable. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Paray's MLP French Gems Are Back!, .......2005-06-07

Those familiar with my reviews on Amazon know my great love for the Mercury Living Presence series. Equally great is my disgust that so many of these brilliant recordings have been deleted in the last few years! Thankfully, some of these legendary performances are resurfacing as SACD hybrids. However, they are unfortunately now being sold at full-price, despite a competing Living Stereo hybrid series on RCA/BMG being available at midline. In spite of the added expense, I hope this MLP reissue trend will continue, and maybe we'll even see a few items receiving their CD debut in this series.

These various performances of French Orchestral Music by the great Paul Paray have always been among my favorite MLP offerings. While three of these recordings continue to be available in their original CD incarnations -- the Ibert/Ravel, the Bizet Suites and Saint-Saens discs -- the remaining two discs of material have been out-of-print for some time. However, with this box set Paray's Lalo/Chausson and French Opera Highlights albums are now deservedly restored to the catalog. Even better is the fact that the four 5CD box sets being reissued have been reasonably priced, however they are not SACD Hybrids. This Paray set, and the ones of Dorati conducting Bartok and Tchaikovsky, and Hanson conducting a variety of American music, including his own compositions, have a total cost cheaper than the original single issue CDs! Once again, Mercury Living Presence lives!

Average customer rating:

Paul Paray ... classical music's Lord of the Dance!
Truly Satanic.
"Fatal" Classical Music
Paray never was so inspired!
Epernay a la Paray

Paul Paray Conducts Dances of Death

Manufacturer: Philips
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ballets | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Waltzes | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Rondos | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Romantic (c.1820-1910) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

German | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Bizet: Carmen Suite; Arlésienne Suites Nos. 1 & 2; Thomas: Mignon & Raymond Overtures
Paul Paray Conducts French Orchestral Music
Enesco: Roumanian Rhapsody no 2
Ibert: Escales; Ravel: Rapsodie, etc
Chabrier: España, rhapsody; Bourrée fantasque

ASIN: B0000057M8
Release Date: 1994-06-14

Tracks:

Mephisto Waltz
Invitation To Dance, Op. 65
Danse Macabre, Op. 40
'Shalome': Dance Of The Seven Veils
La Tragedie de Salome, Op. 50: I. (a) Prelude - (b) Danse des perles - II. (a) Lent - (b) Les Enchantements sur la mer - (c) Danse des eclairs - (d) Danse de l'effroi

Customer Reviews:

Paul Paray ... classical music's Lord of the Dance!.......2007-03-04

For those who only know Paray's "dance moves" in the light opera overtures he was so famous for playing, you might be surprised that he can do the same in these rather more serious compositions. Too often, conductors think that compositions such as those here need to be done in a lugubrious manner. Not so! And Paray proves it. You won't hear a better Danse Macabre than the one on this recording. And the Mephisto Waltz is performed here as a true dance -- not some sort of mini symphonic poem that you often hear with others. The Florent Schmitt Salome is one of the most successful renditions of the work ever recorded -- it was the first one in stereo, and it's outlasted all the others that have come since until the July 2007 release of Thierry Fischer's highly effective recording on Hyperion.

All in all, a very satisfying musical experience.

Truly Satanic........2006-09-29

If you want music that is truly satanic, then look no further than "Dances Of Death." I like Classical music that has to do with death, and this one is no acception. Songs like "Dance Of The Macabre" are much better than those so-called Classical Opera works that don't have any feeling in them. This Cd truly has emotions that will chill you to the core. Highly recommended along with the three act Opera of The Omen. This is true Classical music. Buy it...if you dare.

"Fatal" Classical Music.......2005-10-18

Paul Paray and his Detroit Symphony Orchestra were top exponents of a variety of classical music in the post-World War II Era. Paray, born in French-Canada, became an American icon in classical music at a time when Bernstein, Karajan, Solti and other brand name conductors far outshone him. In this album, Paray creatively compiles fatalistic music- that is music in which death or tragedy is mixed with the art of dancing. The first track is Lizst's popular Mephisto Waltz, a frenzy of fingering on the piano. Liszt was known for having a penchant for music that was both sensual and even frightening in its primal force. Weber's Invitation to the Dance is a rondo for piano and sounds excellent in symphonic form. Saint Saens Danse Macabre is, inevitably, on this recording and sounds dark and lilting at the same time. Strauss' Salome and Schmitt's Salomes are two different versions of the same story. Herod's wicked daughter falls for the languishing Prophet John the Baptist and after he rejects her advances asks for his head on a platter. Schmidtt's version is the more obscure rendition while Strauss' opera is more popular. Both are excellent danceable but dark musical pieces. This is a great recording and if you are into this kind of music you will definately enjoy it.

Paray never was so inspired!.......2004-07-15

Paul Paray built literally to Detroit Symphony , elevating his average performances in a real triumph . He gave balance , nuance and above all a deep expresiveness in every page he conducted . His predilect taste for the french music , however was not a serious obstacle to win in other battlefields .
This album is the best proof for this statement . The Macabre dance or the Mephisto waltz until the moment has not any other recording that even gets close in fierce intensity, dyonisiac fire and powerful wildness .
Buy this one . Its interpretative values are so many that it's useless to describe with all the adjectives that deserves it.
Bravo for Paul Paray!

Epernay a la Paray.......2001-04-19

This disk is selling a lot of copies since it represents the finest of Epernay vintages at a Korbel price.

Absolutely the only thing I would argue with here is that Paray didn't use a soprano for the wordless descant in the Schmitt...here it's relegated to oboe, which Schmitt allowed, but what a soloist he is! Paray makes a case for Schmitt's counterpoint, of all things, but it makes superb sense: this is a ballet after all and the only way a dancer would hear what she needs from the pit is to hear the beat and the counterpoint. No one else has ever thought of it and it says quite a bit about the standard of Schmitt as a composer. As ever, you end up learning something every time you listen to one of Paray's uniformly inspired performances. Too bad he didn't essay Malipiero's Pantea which is designed idependently but separately for solo dancer!

The balance of the disk is no less exemplary. Everything sounds fresh, the orchestral execution is so astonishingly accomplished that it is no wonder Le Mousnier in his bio of Paray draws telling parallels with Toscanini. Yet Paray's not Toscanini--he's unique among maestri. If you read transcripts from Paray's rehearsals, the mystery only deepens as to what it was that he did to get such inordinately extraordinary results, such as this program demonstrates. He talks a lot, is very literate, tells lots of jokes, conveys his admiration of his musicians constantly.

But lots of great maestri have done that. We'll probably never know...and that's the mystery of great art.

I'd like to point out something missed by the previous reviewer: this was Paray's only STEREO Grand Prix du Disque. He and the Detroit Symphony won three others for work in Mercury's exemplary monaural sessions. Luckily I have my old vinyl of these, but I wish I could share their felicities with others, especially the astounding work in Beethoven and Brahms.

Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3; Paray: Mass for the 500th Anniversary of the Death of Joan of Arc
Average customer rating:

the classic performance

Paray...Music as Art

My Thoughts on the Saint Saens.......

Paul Paray RULES

ditto of the other reviews; great performances and recording

Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3; Paray: Mass for the 500th Anniversary of the Death of Joan of Arc

Manufacturer: Philips
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Saint-Saëns, Camille | ( S ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
Romantic | Symphonies | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
General Modern | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
Detroit Symphony Orchestra | ( D ) | Featured Performers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Masses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Paul Paray Conducts Dances of Death

Chadwick: Symphonic Sketches; MacDowell: Suite for orchestra Op42/1-5

Byron Janis: Prokofiev; Rachmaninov...(Recorded By Mercury On Location In Moscow)

Paul Paray Conducts French Orchestral Music

Vienna: Music by Schoenberg, Webern and Berg

ASIN: B0000057L4
Release Date: 1991-11-08

Tracks:

1. Adagio - Allegro Moderato - Marcel Dupre
Poco Adagio - Marcel Dupre
2. Allegro Moderato - Marcel Dupre
Maestoso - Allegro - Marcel Dupre
1. Kyrie - Frances Yeend
2. Gloria - Frances Yeend
3. Sanctus-Benedictus - Frances Yeend
4. Agnus Dei - Frances Yeend
Post-session thanks to the performers - Paul Paray

Customer Reviews:

the classic performance.......2007-04-18

This is the organ symphony I knew growing up in the 50s, and its heritage and direct links to Saint-Saens, together with the sheer clarity and vigor of the playing, outshine every version I've heard since. The listing about Aagesen is an Amazon typo (at least if the cover art is accurate and the weird listing isn't). The symphony is coupled with Paul Paray's Joan or Arc mass, which I find not to be a success. Conductors less often make good composers than compopsers make good conductors.

Paray...Music as Art.......2004-10-21

For me, Paray is the hook that will bring me to the Saint Saëns. From the other comments I gather the two performances make up a glorious complement, and I look forward to it.

In commemorating Joan of Arc, Paray had a daunting task: to encompass a subject that's almost impossible to conceive - an historical, mystical, mythical life, which ended 500 years ago, but which transcends time as a national epic - then fold it into the themes of the Mass. How does one find a musical idiom to express such an enormous synthesis? Without knowing how - I leave that to the academics - I think Paray has succeeded magnificently.

In his "Lives of the Great Composers," Harold Schoenberg takes to task The Grove Encyclopedia of Music and other "authorities" for dismissing Rachmaninov. I pulled an "A" in Music Appreciation for pointing out that our college text omitted Rachmaninov altogether. What does this have to do with Paul Paray? Rach and Paray both have been dismissed as romantics, and derivative ones at that. Paray, then, is a nice little old man who composed quaint, sentimental stuff, when not at his day job with the Detroit Symphony.

Yes, Paray's music can be called romantic or conventional. So what? My impression of the Paray Mass is of a music of our time, but also of a time 500 years ago and of all time in between.

Someone said of Bach, "To him it does not matter if music is old or new, as long as it is true." It's what makes Bach universal. The same can be said about Paul Paray.

My Thoughts on the Saint Saens..............2004-06-18

Symphony #3 is among my favorite pieces, this perfomance conducted by an "old master," Paul Paray. Current conductors in recent recordings have versions that are blah in comparison. I really like Paray's performance, but there are two annoyances that ruin it for me. In the Poco Adagio towards the end, one of the violins slides (sort of glissandos) into the high notes. Towards the end of the Maestoso, a violin makes a prominent sqeaking noise.

I thought the Charles Munch BSO version was much superior both in sonics, recording, musicianship, interpration, excitement, emotion, and punch. If Symphony #3 is one of your favorite pieces, it is good to have both versions, both 'old masters,' and you make the comparison yourself. For me, Munch gets 5 stars and Paray gets 4. However, it just boils down to a matter of preference.

From the below reviews, I am now going to give a serious listen to the Mass. Thanks for the reviews on that!

Thanks, and cheers to all.

Paul Paray RULES.......2002-03-23

It's amazing how similar my experience of the Paray MASS is to that described on this page by 'a music fan' (see January 23, 2002). I purchased the vinyl version of the MASS in the bargain basement of a department store in the Bronx around 1962... I immediately fell in love with the soaring melodies and exciting fugues and have listened to it at least once a month for the last 40 years. (NO KIDDING!) It is SHOCKING how neglected this great masterpiece is. It is one of the supreme masterpieces of French romanticism, full of emotion and utterly unlike the dry, mechanical, jazzed up and finally dull experiments that were in vogue back then for reasons that will become increasingly unclear as civilization progresses. If music like this can ever be forgotten, then hey I'm outa here....

ditto of the other reviews; great performances and recording.......2002-01-24

This is an absolutely wonderful CD.........I just wish to add that when I was a teenager in the 60s, I purchased the stereo LP of the Paray Mass at a local dimestore for $1.59. Then, when I was a college student, I was enamored by open-reel stereo tapes, and I sold all my vinyl. Then, when I started collecting vinyl again, of course I could not find the Paray Mass. Years later, I purchased a mono version from a used record outlet, but the sound quality on it was, of course, not that great........So, needless to say, I was thrilled when the CD reissue came out, and I bought it very shortly after it was released by Philips/Mercury. And, I am very pleased by the Paray/DSO recording of the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony.

Average customer rating:

Not Bad, But Could Be Better

Death in Detroit
Christian Death
Manufacturer: Cleopatra
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Goth | Goth & Industrial | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Thrash & Speed Metal | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Panic in Detroit
Panic in Detroit [Whatever]
Figurative Theatre
Panic in Detroit [Turning in His Grave]
Venus in Furs
Skeleton Kiss [Death Mix]
Panic in Detroit
Spiritual Cramp [Symptom Reversal]

Customer Reviews:

Not Bad, But Could Be Better.......2004-05-28

This is a remix cd of Rozz's cover of David Bowie's "Panic In Detroit"... did you follow that? There are four mixes of Panic and four additional songs, including a remix of Rozz's cover of Velvet Underground's "Venus In Furs." I am a huge Rozz fan but I don't consider "Panic" one of his best songs so it's strange to me that they would release a whole cd of mixes. Don't think this cd is new however, it's about nine years old. I must admit that I like the Xian Death remix cd "Death Mix" way better than this one, but this cd is still essential for any Rozz fan, or any fans of the remixing bands. Since Amazon doesn't list them I will here:

1. Panic In Detroit (mixed by Numb)
2. Panic In Detroit 1.1 [Whatever] (mixed by Rosetta Stone)
3. Figurative Theater (mixed by Die Krupps)
4. Panic In Detroit [Turning In His Grave] (mixed by Spahn Ranch)
5. Venus In Furs (mixed by Leaether Strip)
6. Skeleton Kiss (mixed by Noise Box)
7. Panic In Detroit (mixed by Zero Gravity)
8. Spiritual Cramp [Symptom Reversal] (mixed by Joseph Bishara)

I like Rosetta Stone's mix of "Panic" best, it sounds like it could've been done by NIN. I find it annoying that they included Figurative Theater since that mix is also on Death Mix, but Leaether Strip's "Venus In Furs" makes up for it and is worth the price of the cd alone (at least used).

If you've stumbled upon this cd I'm going to assume you're already familiar with Xian Death, but if not I recommend starting at either "Only Theater Of Pain" or "Catastrophe Ballet" for a real feel of what Rozz's Xian Death sounds (sounded) like. All in all this is a really decent cd.

Rest In Peace, Rozz.

Music Track: