La Marche de L'Empereur [Soundtrack] [Import]

1. Frozen World

2. Antarctic

3. Egg

4. Song Of The Sea

5. Baby Penguins

6. Attack Of The Killerbirds

7. Aurora Australis

8. Sea Leopard

9. Song Of The Storm

10. Mother's Pain

11. To The Dancers On The Ice

12. All Is White

13. Voyage

14. Footprints In The Snow

15. Ice Girl

Tracks:

Sara, Belle D'indolence
Meditation Religieuse: Ce Monde Entier N'est Qu'une Ombre Fugitive
La Mort D'Ophelie
Marche Funebre Pour La Derniere Scene d'Hamlet
Formez Vos Rangs, Entrez En Danse!
Dieu Tout-Puissant, Dieu De L'aurore
Veni Creator Spiritus
Tantum Ergo Sacramentum
Recit & Air: Leve-toi, Fils De Sparte!
Choeur: Mais La Voix Du Dieu Des Armees
Priere: Astre Terrible Et Saint, Guide Les Pas Du Brave!
Final: Des Sommets De L'Olympe

Tracks:

Des Espagnols M'ont Pris Sur Leur Navire
Introduction
Recit & Air: Pretresses De Bacchus... O Seul Bien Qui Me Reste!
Recit: Quels Cris Affreux Se Font Entendre?
Bacchanale: O Dieu Puissant, Fils De Latone... O Bacchus Evoe!
Tableau Musical
N'oublions Pas Ces Champs, Dont La Poussiere
Amis, La Coupe Ecume
C'est Le Grand Jour, Le Jour De Fete
Dieu Tout-Puissant, Dieu De L'Aurore
Bien Que Le Ciel Parfois Se Couvre D'un Nuage

Customer Reviews:

Excellent collection of enjoyable rarities.......2005-08-13

Before I get verbose here I'll start with this: the superb performance of the cantata "The Greek Revolution" in this set alone is worth the price of the entire set. This is very early Berlioz but it contains some astonishing things, including a big ending "The Summit of Olympus"--a classic snowballing "call-to-arms" that would make anyone want to go out and battle the Turk--that consistently avoids the trite and obvious and contains ideas about generating excitement a modern rut-ridden choral composer like Philip Glass should pay close attention to. Fornet's recording of this on Denon is also nice and brings out the detail better, and is very powerful, but ultimately isn't as viscerally rousing. Savvy conductors know that even youthful Berlioz contains great stuff.

Anyway:

It's a bit sad that Berlioz is known to many listeners only through a handful of works like the Symphonie Fantastique (his most famous, yet an early work), maybe the Requiem and Harold in Italy, and a few other items (the short list seems to vary from person to person but it's always short). Sad, because unlike some other composers who are one or two trick ponys, Berlioz was a continuously strong and imaginative composer, in fact he was a great composer, up there with the best of them, who let loose with a long string of masterpieces that still need attention--like his opera Benvenuto Cellini and twenty other things. The man, even when trying to write boring music, was incapable of writing boring music. Then there's his incredible writing: his autobiography, his criticisms, his satires. He's not only one of my very favorite composers but one of my very favorite writers too. There's no other composer I can say that about.

So what's up with him, and why should you pay attention to this pricey collection of unknowns? Jacques Barzun, another favorite writer and an authority on Berlioz, thinks the Frenchman was so advanced in his ideas that he's been thoroughly misunderstood and grotesquely underappreciated up until fairly recently. Even Donald Francis Tovey, an insightful musical commentator (and another favorite writer--his books are highly recommended) of over 100 years ago talks of Berlioz as if, at times, he didn't known exactly what he was doing. There's an awful comment by him about how Berlioz allegedly knew how to start and end a piece but got a bit lost in between. How untrue. Barzun, on the other hand, mentions an incident where some critic complains about a series of wrong (meaning incompetently judged and not conforming to theory of that time) chords used in Harold in Italy and the response by a sharp conductor was "So tell me then why they sound so right?" (Someone later did a proper modern analysis and found the chord use was subtle and brilliant) Barzun's point, in a wonderful essay "Berlioz after a Hundred Years" (In "Critical Questions")is that we have yet to totally figure out why so much of his music sounds right. I'd also add that we are only just maybe starting to learn how to make it sound right. Berlioz was smart, possibly smarter than any of us and it's taking us 200 years to catch up with him.

[My guess at one explanation of his greatness was his total mastery of the very poetic French language and his ability to translate that into a sort of music. His melodies often sound like someone speaking. Elliot Carter is another great composer who is intensely literate and a fine writer... and a great composer perhaps for similar reasons.]

I'll go even further, after 30 years of listening to his music I'm convinced he stands at the top platform with the handful of all-time great composers. Berlioz transformed Western art music--single-handedly--into a supple, breathing, colorful, and living thing, and in a way that few composers have managed since. Moving from the Masters (Bach through Beethoven) to Berlioz is like moving from great oil painting to motion pictures in Technicolor and that's about the best way I can describe the phenomenon (Barzun notes his unique multidimensionality). Listen to Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and then listen to Benvenuto Cellini. The music, over 150 years old and only about 50 years older than Mozart's sounds totally modern, and often modern like a modern that hasn't even happened yet. Listen to Schumann's "Faust" (and I dearly love Schumann) and listen to Berlioz's and be shocked. The Schumann version sounds like flat soda in comparison. The only other composer I've encountered whose music has this same visceral "aliveness" (at times) is Shostakovich. Oddly, Berlioz can make even the mighty Strauss sound wooden and fussy (some would say Germanic).

The argument then is one shouldn't avoid anything by Berlioz and one should shop around to find recordings by conductors who understand his music (Gad! Solti doing Faust is stunning)and orchestras who can handle the twists, turns and other race car demands of the scores. This collection of choral works, many rare, many early (keeping in mind the ever-popular Fantastique is early too), is excellent with the only drawback being that a few, lovely as they are, don't showcase his best compositional assets. He was, regardless, a striking choral composer as Colin Davis noted during the recording sesssions for "Cellini." Personally, I never cared much for choral music or even opera until I forced myself to listen to the non-orchestral Berlioz. Well, at least I like HIS stuff in these genres! Everything about this disc is first-rate: performances, conducting (Plasson is an excellent Berlioz conductor) and sound. The only complaint is the cover art is awful. It looks like someone at EMI wanted to save a few bucks so they hired a vaguely talented teenage niece or something to handle it.

Finally, unlike most collections of rarities and odds and ends by composers--even the best of them--this is a set of discs I drag out, play, and enjoy regularly.

Average customer rating:

A Historical Achievement
A Historical Achievement
Amateur music, amateur performances

Edmond Dédé: Orchestral Works

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00004R7NN
Release Date: 2000-03-14

Tracks:

Chicago
Tond Les Chiens, Coup' Les Chats
Mirliton Fin De Siecle
Reverie Champetre
En Chasse
Mephisto Masque
Battez Aux Champs
El Pronunciamento
Cora La Bordelaise
Mon Pauvre Coeur
Chicago
Mon Sous Off!
Francoise Et Tortillard: Ov
Francoise Et Tortillard: Rondeau
Francoise Et Tortillard: Duo
Francoise Et Tortillard: Quadrille Et Galop Final
Mon Sous Officier
Mephisto Masque

Customer Reviews:

A Historical Achievement.......2003-08-06

As time passes, the general public sometimes forgets what was once good and so cherished. Out of mind and sight, the great musicians of the past like Edmond Dédé (1827-1901) are forgotten, abandoned, and fell from our graces. I must admit only a few, like me, still enjoy such musical nuances as displayed on this CD.

Contrary to some popular thought, this music still has relevance musically and historically. DéDé `s contemporaries included Louis Moreau-Gottschalk, Sidney and Lucien Lambert, to name a few. Many historians and scholars believe that this type of music served as a bridge between nineteenth century concert music and later popular genres such as French chanteuse, cabaret singing, ragtime, jazz, and blues. Indeed, the Hot Springs Symphony sounds much too detached, a lack of legato (smoothness)playing, and a poor quality of tone and blend in some movements. These are the limitations of the orchestra, not the music itself! The music stems from a definite source - a musical style prevalent in high society of France and Creole New Orleans during the middle to late nineteenth century. Musicians played this light music or café music, as it was called, for private parlors, concerts, preludes or interludes to major works (opera, symphonies, etc.) However, the vocals - both solos and choruses -sound wonderful and bring some vitality and truth to their performances. While this is far from a definitive performance of Dédé's music, Naxos has provided the listener with a rather historical achievement. Bravo Naxos! Thank you for rejuvenating this lively music. In so doing, we pay homage to a musical genius that inspired future musicians that would revolutionize the world of popular music.

A Historical Achievement.......2003-08-06

Amateur music, amateur performances.......2000-05-21

Edmond Dédé was a free-born Creole of color born in the 1820s in New Orleans. He moved to France and lived most of his adult life in Bordeaux, where he had an active musical life, primarily as a theatre conductor. The music on this disc is presented primarily, I imagine, because it represents music by an early African-American composer. It is primarily in the form of quadrilles, galops, waltzes and the like. One can easily imagine some of this music played at house parties or dances. Unfortunately, I can't imagine wanting to hear it more than once. And the performances themselves, although spirited, are pretty clunky.

Tracks:

Frozen World
Antarctic
Egg
Song of the Sea
Baby Penguins
Attack of the Killerbirds
Aurora Australis
Sea Leopard
Song of the Storm
Mother's Pain
To the Dancers on the Ice
All Is White
Voyage
Footprints in the Snow
Ice Girl

Customer Reviews:

great.......2006-02-18

They are all of the songs from the movie in Frence version and more. I really like it. Helps remind every scene. Music itself is great too.

Beautiful Soundtrack of a beautiful movie!.......2006-01-14

If you have seen the movie "March of the penguins" and you loved the images and the music as much as I did, you're gonna love this album! It brings you back to the story of the movie and reminds you of the penguins.
Don't buy this album if you prefer to listen to Emilie Simons in French, since most songs are sang in English (some songs are without lyrics).

oh.......2005-06-04

When I saw that this album had fifteen songs, I was so happy. But Emilie only sings on five songs! That's ridiculous. The rest are instrumental songs. You are wasting money on this album. And for forty dollars. Why is this album so much money? It's not worth it!

the new ice princess!!!.......2005-05-17

what a wonderful surprise!!!,emilie done soundtracks about the land of ice and its creatures.even if u have a flu,or allergic to all coldness of wintery nights,you'll warm to her lullabies.
some songs are instrumentals but i would love to think it more like emilie trying to capture the essence and spirits of all artic/antartica.think bjork,that stina girl and you'll get what i mean.
the lyrics are really poetic.if u are a fan of all non-mainstream or to nurse that irritating flu,this will do for warm winter darkness!

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