Search - Ferde Grofe, Douglas Furber, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky :: Concert Miniatures

Concert Miniatures
Ferde Grofe, Douglas Furber, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Concert Miniatures
Genres: Jazz, Pop, Soundtracks, Classical
 
  •  Track Listings (12) - Disc #1


     
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Not what you'd expect from Hefti
Stuart M. Paine | Arlington, VA USA | 05/19/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Neal Hefti, arranger extraordinaire for big bands such as Count Basie's, presents a charming collection of, for the most part, short orchestral reimaginings of well-known classical pieces. All the selections come off well despite, in a few cases, some bold cutting, pasting and reorchestrating. For instance, we have clipped, but comfortable, new takes on "On the Trail" from Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite and Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers" and a 3:30 reduction of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" made up mostly of finale. Also, two more Tchaikovsky pieces: a very brief snippet from the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, the melody known to pop fans as "Our Love", and from a string quartet, the famous "Andante Cantabile", which Hefti actually plays fairly straightforwardly. Rimsky-Korsakov's "Song of India" is adventurously treated, and to good effect, as a bolero.



There are some conspicuously non-classical selections, too. In 1957 when this album was released, The Drifters' recording of "The Bells of St. Mary's", track two here, was just a year in the past. Hefti has also programmed Alec Templeton's hip "Bach Goes to Town" and his own quirky little composition, "Merry-Go-Round" - now one of his best known along with "Li'l Darlin'" and, of course, the "Batman Theme". Hefti's reworking of Kern's 1927 masterpiece, "Old Man River", seems a little overdone to me, but with a song that good, it's difficult not to enjoy it anyway.



My own favorites are Khatchaturian's exciting "Dagger Dance", the aforementioned "Our Love" and the very gentle, true miniature (for piano, originally) by Claude Debussy, "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair", which ends the program on such a pleasant note that I regularly find myself playing the disc through a second time.



Hefti must have really enjoyed himself doing this album. TT: approx 34:30"