16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The style is the man--and the song, May 1, 2001
This review is from: Noel Coward: A Room With A View, Vol. 1 (Audio CD)
Many composers have chosen to perform their own material and commit it to discs, with mixed results. Only with Noel Coward do we feel that a good deal of the charm of his numbers lies in the very way he performs them. For proof, we now have the Naxos Nostalgia <Noel Coward: A Room With a View> (8.120529), which dishes up 16 tracks of the ultra-refined son of W. S.Gilbert, giving us six selections from "This Year of Grace," one from "Bittersweet," a medley of treasures from his "Cavalcade," another from his other works, and a few other trifles that are better than most of what is written today.
Add to all this two classical scenes with Coward and co-star Gertrude Lawrence from his "Private Lives," incredibly valuable for those local drama groups who butcher this work in that this CD can teach them the tone and rhythms that are essential in making this classic succeed.
The subtitle of this set is "The Complete Recordings, Volume 1: 1928-1932." So we can look forward to future offerings featuring this fascinating composer-lyricist-performer. Thank you, Naxos, yet again.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Coward step by step., May 8, 2009
This review is from: Noel Coward: A Room With A View, Vol. 1 (Audio CD)
As an elderly listener, I have the majority of the items on this compilation on old 78's, though not necessarily sung by Coward himslf. To have them now on a single CD, cleaned up and well presented is a very great pleasure. To listen to him with the inimitable Gertrude Lawrence in scenes from "Private Lives", but without the hisses and scratches is a really happy reminder of a great partnership.His early contributions to revues of the 1920's reveal his skill at wedding lyrics and music in an entirely original manner and we get many of the numbers from "This Year of Grace", a revue for which he provided most of the music. Then on to selections from his Musical Comedies, "Bitter Sweet" and finally "Cavalcade" with many of the popular songs of the Ist World War period which he incorporated. The disc is titled ". . .Volume 1.1928 - 1932. I wait impatiently for Volume 2.
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