Customer Reviews

Hooked on Classics 3: Journey Through the Classics

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

 

 

I was hooked on Hooked on Classics in the 80's and I think this is a good follow up

La más bella música del Mundo, Magistralmente interpretada por La Real Orquesta Filarmónica de Londres y Dirigida por el Maestro Louis Clark, te esta esperando. Permite que los maestros de las armonías extasíen tu alma.

Whether or not the HOOKED ON CLASSICS series is an effective introduction to classical music is moot. It would be fascinating to survey some of the reviewers who have posted below to see if they've actually gone on to sample other classical works, gone to orchestral concerts or started listening to classical radio. Or was their exposure limited to this series or to just one disc in the series. I'm not being judgmental here--just curious. If it turned out that HOOKED ON CLASSICS was really little more than a novelty on the order, say, of "A Fifth of Beethoven" would that matter at all, or are the works of interest in and of themselves.

It's a serious question (or a series of serious questions). I didn't grow up listening to classical but over time did develop an ear for it. Once in a while, someone will ask me just how I "got into" it, and it's never an easy question to answer. But it did have something to do with increasing exposure, over time, to the real thing. When I was in high school and college, I listened a bit to rock music that leaned on classical music to some extent (the Nice, the Moody Blues) and enjoyed some of that, but even before so-called progressive rock got really big in the 1970s, much of that music lost its luster for me. It seemed be be straining to be taken seriously. And, as an intro to classical music, well, I think FANTASIA actually worked better.

Louis Clark, the conductor and arranger for the HOOKED ON series, has roots in "symphonic rock," as it turns out. He used to do arrangements for ELO back in the day. The HOOKED series, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, seems to be another attempt to meld classical and popular music, this time with minus the rock band but with a steady LinnDrum accompaniment (which is sometimes effective, and sometimes kind of irritating, to tell the truth). When it does work, it does so in a light classical, pops concert kind of way. The medleys are imaginatively thought out and cleverly arranged. You can play "Guess the Composer" when listening to the two "Journey Through the Classics" tracks, and to some extent with the medleys entitled "Hooked On Marching" and "Journey Through America" (pretty easy if it's your home turf).

Much of the material here has folk roots or stems from the musical theater. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the title HOOKED ON CLASSICS might be a tad misleading. The last track is a very enjoyable medley called "Hooked On Rodgers and Hammerstein," and while you can make the case that R&H wrote "classic musicals," it is, to some extent, genre bending to lump them in with Haydn, Vivaldi and Strauss, as Clark and Co. do here. In some ways, it's kind of unsettling to listen to a record that BEGINS with "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and ends with strains from "Oklahoma."

Nonetheless, it's all a fun listen, and maybe for some listeners it really could be an effective Classical Music 101 course. Purists may not care for it, but they probably don't go to Pops concerts either. Louis Clark is, I'm guessing, "hooked on" all sort of music. And that's not a bad thing at all.

Got the first "Hooked on Classics" about 25 years ago and since my daughter is in a High School Orchestra I wanted her to hear it...once I found it again. I did and it was just as good now as it was then. So much so that I had to start trying others in the series. # 3 starts off with a bang, has a middle that can be a bit sleepy but from track 8-12 it just gets better and better. Will certainly be buying the rest of the series! The disco beat in the background does not prove to be a distraction to the overall great music. I'm "hooked"!

Great way to enjoy the Classics! Not boring at all.
Try it while walking as it will liven things up for you.

I got this CD to listen to while walking at the Mall. However, the quality of sound is very poor. Would not recommend it to anyone.

Years ago I got hold of several of the "Hooked on the Classics" and have
enjoyed them very much. (They are great background music for doing housework)

I have been searching for copies on CD for a long time.

Thanks for tracking them down for me.

I shall keep looking for "Hooked on Classics #2 and "Hooked on Swing" as
well.