Customer Reviews

Mozart's Magnificent Voyage

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Mozart's Magnificent Voyage" provides biographical information about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart using some of his most famous compositions as background music. The idea is that Mozart is working on his last opera, "The Magic Flute," but has to take time out to visit his son Karl at school, where the young boy has been acting up. As a result, Mozart will not have time to write the parts for the Dream Children, who decide to do something about it, namely use their magic boat to reach Karl first and take the boy on a journey that takes them back in time to Mozart's childhood when he first became famous as a musical prodigy. There is also a visit to the future, when Beethoven himself offers young Karl some insights on Mozart's music. This album contains more than two dozen excerpts from Mozart's music, including Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, the Clarinet Quintet, Symphony No. 1, variations on "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and several songs from his operas. A few of the songs are worked into the narrative, as when the Dream Children sing "Three Spirits" from "The Magic Flute" and Constanze sings the "Letter Duet" from "Cosi Fan Tutte" on her wedding day to Mozart. None of the songs are identified on the album itself, although they are all listed in the album notes. As a result, children will probably learn more about Mozart's life than his music. Educators should be aware that Teacher's Notes are available for all Classical Kids recordings, a series that also includes "Mr. Bach Comes to Call," "Beethoven Lives Upstairs," and "Tchaikovsky Discovers America."

This CD is awesome, the music great, the story captivating. But it's Mozart, you already know about the music. Other reviewers have already discussed the story and I agree with their assessments that it's very good. The reason for this review is to say that my very active, never stopping, constantly in motion 5 year old SAT DOWN AND LISTENED without fidgeting or fiddling for a full 20 minutes and then sat but fiddled for the remainder of the CD. Maybe this is not a big deal to moms of "normal" energy level children -- but this simple act of being still for 20 minutes moved me to tears. I said nothing before putting the CD in, I just put it in while he was doing his running around. Within seconds of hearing the story start he sat down on the floor, crossed his legs, and listened while looking at the speakers. I have never seen this behavior from my child before, ever. Please note that this is a child who is not ADD, he just cannot be still. He listens to hundreds of hours of stories we read to him -- while he's doing something else. He "watches" videos -- while he's doing something else. He reads, while clapping or tapping out the beat of the syllables. I cannot remember my child ever stopping what he was doing to JUST LISTEN. When it was over he said, "That was a cool story," and got up to run around. That was it, but that's high praise from this child. To see my child sitting still for a full 20 minutes, you cannot begin to imagine my awe. I am running right out to get the rest of the series! Bravo to the producers!

My 3 and 6 year old daughters love this CD, and can listen to it several times a day! Great for keeping them happy in the car, and for adult ears it is a lot better than typical kids stuff...Highly recommended!

This CD is a great way to introduce your children to classical music! Mozart's music really comes alive through this story which is brilliantly and seamlessly interwoven with excerpts from his work. My 3 children were completely riveted, and we were too. I look forward to listening to the other CD's in this collection.

i bought this item after reading some of the reviews on amazon for my nephews who are 2 and 4 years of age. two months after christmas their mom was explaining how they request the cd everytime they are in the car. she groaned when i was in the car and they boys wanted to show me how much they liked the cd. during the trip i witnessed a mother humming along to the music with her children, the boys singing to excerpts, and an overall execptional learning experience about music, culture, and history. if you are looking for something that all children will like, passes the time on a road trip, and teaches important lessons about life without being pretentious then get this cd, it is a guaranteed crowd pleaser.

My daughter is 5 and loves to hear this CD over and over in the car.

I was hoping for more music - there's just too much storytelling for my and my kids' taste. We love the Beethoven's Wig series and were hoping this would be similar.

We've just heard about this series and ordered a download quickly because we were so excited. Trouble though is that the downloads cut off sentences at the end of each track... like #5, #10, #14, #16. It wasn't made for mp3 so it really interrupts the storyline, very frustrating to try to listen to the whole story. Amazon was super fast to refund me for the mp3 album, and I've spent the 3 extra dollars to have it hard copy now. 5 stars for Amazon, 5 stars for the album, 1 star for the mp3s.

The production value in this series of children's stories is well done. My six year old daughter has listened to these various titles since she was three and has a love for classical music and can even recognize compositions.

As a song began to play in the book store one day, she commented: "I do think that's Vivaldi." She was five at the time. Mozart's Magical Adventure was a gift from Santa and gets played often.

Educational & entertaining, parents will enjoy these too.

The series of these CDs was recommended by a friend, she was so right. The 4-year old grandson finds it punishment, when he is not allowed to listen to these stories blended with music. Absolutely wonderful.