Search - Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin :: Annie (London Studio Cast)

Great Show - mostly bad orchestrations!

J. Sonne | Berlin, Germany | 05/27/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Well, first of all, I think that Annie`s one of the best Shows ever written, so this is not the reason why I don`t really like this recording. In my opinion the worst - and unfortunately crucial - thing in this recording are the dreadful ochestrations. What the hell has come over them exchanging the beautiful orchestrations of the original show - sometimes lyrical, sometimes brassy - by an orchestration that sounds as if they hadn`t had enough money to pay a full orchestra and thus wrote it for an 8-man-band (examples: "Maybe" with nearly nothing as accompaniment, and "I think, I'm gonna..." which sounds just syntheticly)! And apart from this: Why did they have to speed up "little Girls" - it sounds now as if she`s singing it in a hurry in order to catch the next bus... I`m glad this isn`t my only recording of "Annie"! If you know already other versions of the show, it might be interesting, since not all of the songs are that awfull on this cd (for instance "NYC" or "You`re Never fully..." are rather good). Well, summing up, I wouldn`t recommend this recording if you don`t know "Annie" but if you do know it and are a Charles-Strouse-fan...it`s not that bad."