Customer Reviews

Scott Joplin: The Easy Winners; Itzhak Perlman & Andre Previn

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

 

 

I purchased this album in vinyl many years ago. It is one of my all-time favorite collections of music.

Joplin's piano music is always a delight, but the combination of Perlman's violin arrangements and Previn's piano do, in my opinion, significantly improve on the original. (This is a statement I almost never make about adaptations of classical music, but it is really true in this case.)

The upbeat pieces are incredibly jaunty and lively; the melancholy pieces are moving. The violin adds immensely to the voice of Joplin's songs.

I give this CD as a gift frequently, and it has never failed to please.

I owned this recording as an LP and played it non-stop. What a thrill to find it on CD! Perlman and Previn created a rollicking Joplin jamboree here. You get the sense that they are having the time of their lives with Joplin's melodies and syncopation.

In short, this recording is a joy to hear!

While I believe this recording rather faithfully captures the spirit of Joplin, especially the seven-minute "Solace" track, it seems that Perlman hogs most of the melody-carrying space, while Previn remains the loyal accompanyist. A pity.

I first bought this album years ago when I despaired of finding a pianist who brought this music to life. When my CD was lost, I was glad to find it as a download. Perlman wrote these arrangements--a testament to his love for them. Not only does he bring them to life, he uses every classical trick on the violin to make these pieces really alive and interesting. Previn is not just a loyal accompanist--he brings his own swing to it. At one point, he makes the piano sound like cow bells! I enjoy this album several times a week--wherever I am. If I am down, bored, or anything, this music makes me happy again. You might find this album bundled (on itunes?) with a jazz album by these guys with a jazz trio backup. There are two stellar cuts ("Chocolate Apricot" and "Who Reads Reviews") that this jazz hater (yours truly) loves.

Really now...should there be quibbling about the cost of the disc? No. Isn't a review all about the music being offered? Yes. Does any music performed by highly esteemed artists deserve to be poo-poo'd because it is a new interpretation and delivery of old material? No. Because it is played on instruments other than those for which it was written? No.
Joplin's compositions have been too frequently interpreted as lighthearted background rinky-dink, when in fact his work was sophisticated and sensitive. It comes properly into its own when interpreted and played by sophisticated and sensitive artists. This earliest of jazz deserves the best treatment as American classic music.
Each to his own, but for my time and money these Perlman/Previn renderings are out of this world fabulous. Joplin's music was unfortunately shunted to Hollywood timepiece sets such as The Sting, which film's 1930's context is actually NOT in the Ragtime period at all. Joplin passed away in 1899...Ah, Hollywood: a place where history and taste count for nought.
Back to reality: In 1975 Perlman/Previn rescued America from the dreadful orchestrated travesty as background music in the 1973 film "The Sting". This recording has been a top-shelf keeper for us ever since the 1975 LP was released, alongside William Albright's piano recordings of Joplin's complete works. Albright's piano delivery is great for its instrumental purity and dignity of style. We are quite content with both these recordings as truly representative of Joplin's musical appeal.

For less than half the cost of this disc, you can get the EMI release Joplin: The Easy Winners & Other Rag-Time Music / Previn: A Different Kind of Blues that contains all of the music on this CD as well as Andre Previn's album "A Different Kind of Blues".

This is a perfect example of why those with classical sensibilities should stay far away from the performance of popular music. Anyone who has ever heard a classically trained vocalist destroy a Gershwin or Lennon/McCartney ballad knows what I am talking about. If you do not know what you are doing, stay away! Leaving aside the question as to why Scott Joplin, a great ragtime composer, has been taken over by the classical crowd as if he was one of them, I would love to know what in Perlman's past musical career made him think that he could swing along with Scott. What was once jaunty and infectiously rhythmic is now ponderous. What was once happy-go-lucky is now dull and lifeless. What was once music to be heard on a smiling summer day with one arm full of cotton candy and the other with a newfound love is now music to be endured in a tuxedo in some stuffy concert hall that no one but the very rich can afford. Joplin's music should skip and dance along with utter joy. Perlman and Previn have neither the beat nor the joy of it. A simple and elegant piece like "Solace" becomes a bloated monstrosity under their heavy hands. A travesty.