Command Performance

Richard Rodgers | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 30, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Harbinger
• ASIN: B001EKT9O8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,066 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Four Facets of Richard Rodgers - from 1926 to 1971 August 22, 2012

By M.H.Deal

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

When I read a review of this in 2008, I had some idea of its content, but not until I got the CD from the library did I realize what a treasure this is for those of us beguiled by the Great American Songbook,as the ripest period of American popular songs is called. Tracks 1-8 feature Rodgers' playing as transcribed on piano rolls[1926-1929]. Tracks 9-16 have the composer demoing, in voice at the keyboard, songs from the movie, Mississippi[1935], starring W.C. Fields and Bing Crosby. Tracks 17-20 are radio air checks in which Rodgers plays the piano, conducts, and speaks along with Larry Hart. Concluding tracks 21-23 come from the post-Hart period, being a demo with singer of "A Wonderful Guy[1947]", Rodgers conducting a preview for "Cinderella" TV show, and his brief spoken recollections of working with Hart and Hammerstein. The accompanying booklet enhances one's understanding of each period with annotations by seven men throughly familiar with Rodgers' spirit and substance. Hearing a composer play and sing his own works gives them a new perspective. Those who've read the biographies of Rodgers[for example, Meryle Secrest, Somewhere for Me: A Biography of Richard Rodgers, 2001] or of Hart[the latest being Gary Marmorstein, A Ship Without A Sail: The Life of Lorenz Hart, 2012], should be particularly interested in this CD. In fact, Marmorstein includes it in his "Selected(and Highly Idiosyncratic) Discography" at his book's tail end.
However, if you do not believe you will be moved, in spirit or fact, to do a fox trot or Charleston when listening to the piano rolls, save your bucks. Just pass this one by.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Gramophone Review June 14, 2010

By The Musical Theater Project

Format:Audio CD

In the October 2009 issue of Gramophone magazine, classical music critic Donald Rosenberg offered high praise: "The disc, beautifully packaged with testimonials by William Bolcom, Michael Feinstein, Hugh Martin and others, is an illuminating addition to Rodgers scholarship and a release musical theatre mavens will treasure."