MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Availability
CD: Animal Songs

Sergey PROKOFIEV (1891–1953)
Peter and the Wolf
[25:03]
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835–1921)
Carnival of the Animals
[28:24]
Francis POULENC (1899–1963)
The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant
[26:12]
Richard Briers (narrator);.David Coram (organ); David Owen Norris (piano)
rec. Romsey Abbey, 1 April 2011; Turner Sims Concert Hall, University of Southampton, 9 April 2011 (Poulenc)
CATHEDRAL CLASSICS CCCD 101 [79:39]

Experience Classicsonline

I have six grandchildren; so I know a bit about the target audience for this recording. It contains three of the Top Ten on anyone’s list of the best classical compositions for children.

Peter and the Wolf was written in 1936, with music and words by Prokofiev, as a commission from the Moscow Central Children’s Chorus. Although its premiere was poorly attended, it did succeed in the long term in achieving its sponsor’s aim of “cultivating musical tastes in children from the first years of school”. It is usually heard with narrator and full orchestra, but here the orchestra is replaced by the organ. This rearrangement works in some ways, and not others: for example, the bird as flute, and the duck as oboe, are convincing, but bassoon for Grandfather and horns for the wolf are less so. And it’s jarring to hear the word “diapasons” used in a description of Peter, aimed at a five-year-old. On the other hand, replacing the orchestra with the organ opens up access to many more audiences, at more reasonable cost. This is precisely what the principals on this album plan to do during a 2012 tour.

Carnival of the Animals is a piece that Saint-Saëns was embarrassed about from its debut in 1886, worrying that it would damage his reputation as a serious composer. Ironically it has become one of his best known and loved works. It was written to show young people the range and playfulness of orchestral instruments, and it succeeded. One reason for its success is that Saint-Saëns borrowed great tunes freely: Berlioz, Offenbach, Rameau and himself. Another is that in 1949 the American poet Ogden Nash wrote droll verses to accompany each of the 14 movements. Most performances and recordings today feature the music with the poetry. Saint-Saëns’ original version uses two pianos prominently with orchestra, so in this recording the piano is essential with organ.

The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant, was written in French in 1933 by Jean de Brunhoff. It spawned a series of books and videos to which his son has further contributed. Poulenc’s three-year old cousin Sophie was vacationing with him outside Paris in the summer of 1940, when she become bored with his composing. Legend has it that she placed her Babar storybook upside-down on the piano stand and said “Play this!” He improvised between sections of the story, and later wrote down the music, dedicating it to Sophie and the other neighbourhood children who thronged to hear it. The English translation used in this recording is different from that in the first Random House publication, and leaves out major sections of the story. Even so, the result comes in at just less than half an hour, a challenging attention span for a child.

The actor Richard Briers narrates all three pieces. His face and voice are familiar from British TV and stage. He is able to call up gravity, impishness or breathlessness as these stories and poems require.

An act of love created this album – or rather two acts. The first act created the label. This is the first release from a new label – Cathedral Classics - from the team of Matthew Dilley and Richard Bland. The latter recorded, edited and produced this album. Their discography includes many recordings in the chapels on the Cambridge and Oxford campuses. An even greater contribution to the recording, including personal investment, came from the organist, David Coram, who clearly loves the instrument, and believes in its power to communicate with children. He arranged the first two pieces here for organ. He also wrote the accompanying booklet which is aimed perfectly at his young audience - with a note to parents warning them of the references to firearms in the Peter and Babar stories, in case even younger ones might be frightened. The booklet cover and the CD feature cute drawings of the stories’ characters .by Mike Brownlow.

If you have children on your gift list, this album will be gratefully received and enjoyed.

Paul Kennedy

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.