Magical Musicals
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Conductor: Erich Kunzel Orchestra: Cincinnati Pops Orchestra Choir: The Indiana University Singing Hoosiers Director: Michael Schwartzkopf Lable (Release Year): Telarc Records Availability: **** Rating: *** |
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Magical Musicals marks as the third installment of Cincinnati Pops' Walt Disney dedicated album. A Disney Spectacular and The Magical Music of Disney are being the previous two. Ever since The Big Picture, their film music albums do not seem to have won a lot of audiences. Not many people know the existence of Play Ball!, a compliation of music from baseball films. In addtion, the music in SpectacularSpielberg has already been appeared in hundreds of other albums. I guess there is a good reason why they go back to Disney. A Disney compilation album always has its market. Although the name "The Indiana University Singing Hoosiers" is printed underneath "Cincinnati Pops Orchestra", I THOUGHT the album contains mostly pure orchestral tracks. However, after listening through the whole album, I find myself wrong. It turns out that the pure orchestral tracks are only 9, 14, 16, and 21. Well, there are 3 others (1 and 26, 23) but they are only about 30 seconds long. I don't own the original recording of Hercules so I can't compare the new recording with it. But I can image those who get used to the original recording would feel uneasy with the new solo voices. For the tracks that don't have a vocalist listed, the lyrics are sung by the whole chorus. There are tracks that work for me and there are tracks that don't. For example, the chorus version of Huey Lewis' "Once Upon a Time in New York City" and "God Help the Outcasts" are quite fresh and enjoyable. But a chorus replaces Danny Elfman in "What's This?"....it just sounds too strange for me. Also, I prefer the original version of "Heaven's Light" and "Good News" much better. The feeling of listening to this album is much like listening to their Puttin' on the Ritz. The selections from "The Return of Jafar" are nice but they would only seem to appeal to the fans of the video. The suite of Mulan actually contains more of orchestral version of Matthew Wilder's song than Jerry Goldsmith's score. Nonetheless, it is very enjoyable. If you don't mind hearing your familiar songs sung by another voice or by a chorus, you may want to check this one out. Otherwise, just stick to your originals. | |
Hercules (Alan Menken, David Zippel)
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