Customer Reviews

Gottschalk Festival

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I bought my first component stereo system some 30 years ago, Gottschalk was one record I took along to test the sound. Gottschalk remains as enjoyable now, but this cd would never be my test case of a stereo. The performance and recording are adequate but they lack the vitality one can find in other recordings. However, except for the lack of solo piano pieces, the album has a nice selection of Gottschalk's work and it's inexpensive. The last track on disc 1, Pasquinade, Caprice is probably his best known piece - a good introduction to his work.

Gottschalk's music is decidedly American - he grew up in New Orleans at the height of Creole culture. His father was of Spanish Jewish descent, his mother was French. However, Gottschalk began training in France at the age of 13. Thus he was very familiar with the European music of his era (1829-1869); in many ways, his music serves as a bridge between the European and American piano traditions - Scott Joplin being an example of the trajectory of American piano music. Depending upon your taste you may consider his music as classical, as salon orchestra music, as early decidedly American multi-cultural music or as just plain enjoyable fun.

While the disc (and performances) are not flawless, the CD redeems itself with an ambitious presentation of a wide variety of this neglected composer's works. The tarantelle is his masterpiece and well played here. Listen for the two-piano pieces; this man was a master!

The United States has produced very few great composers of anything that might be called classical music. Who was the best of them? While there have been many American composers, including MacDowell, Joplin, Rodgers, Copland, Gershwin, Sousa, Anderson, and Bernstein, well, how many were truly great?

My choice for the best of them is Gottschalk. And these discs give one a good idea of what he composed. A couple of "symphonies," some piano duets, some marches, a one-act opera. Yes, there are bombastic patriotic marches. And some precursors to ragtime. And plenty of what sounds like modern program music. Maybe my favorite of the orchestral works is "La Nuit des Tropiques." Now, is this performance as good as the ones by the Utah Symphony with Abravanel? Some folks think Abravanel's best one is better, but you may not be able to find it so easily. And I prefer this one.

Gottschalk's many solo piano compositions may be his best works, and they aren't included. But I still like these discs and performances.

This is not a terrible album, but I do find it wanting. My greatest complaint is with the quality of the recordings and the CD's themselves (scratched too easily). My copy also has some misprints on the cover (the pieces are not listed in the correct order- if you didn't know any better you might think that you were listening to an arrangement of the Pourtuguese national anthem instead of "A Night in the Tropics"!). However, it is inexpensive (it is a 2 CD set) and worth it to those who are giving Gottschalk a first try. It also has an interesting and informative booklet on Gottschalk and the pieces featured (unfortunately I am not enough of an expert to verify their acuracy).

Yes, not the very best in the market, but without a doubt
one of the earliest attempts to introduce the music of this
great American composer. As the more recent recordings of
the music of Gottschalk some of the orchestral works are re-orchestrations
too, we might never get to know what Gottschalk really sounded like
but these works are a fair attempt to recreate the music. The music
is fun and full of surprises. There are some works for piano two-hands
which are just as fun and much more closer to Gottschalk than the
orchestral works. The orchestras do a wonderful job.

This album will disappoint Gottschalk fans. A better version of Night in the Tropics is the Maurice Abravanel & Utah Symphony. Only buy this one if you've already heard the Abravanel and want to know what it sounds like mangled by Europeans.

This CD had a piece that I was looking for everywhere that my father, a classical music connoisseur had been wanting for some time. When he received this CD as a gift, he was very pleased with the selection.