Customer Reviews

Song Of Norway (1944 Original Cast Members)

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

 

 

I want to strongly advise against anybody purchasing this shoddily mastered Box Office Recordings CD of "Song of Norway". The score is beautiful, but this CD makes all of the singing voices sound like mush! Decca Broadway (the REAL owners of the masters of the original recording) will be making a remastered CD of "Song of Norway" which is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2003. Please be patient and wait for the remaster. Don't even THINK about getting THIS CD!

What a beautiful score and magnificent singing. I've looked for a long time for this particular album and the remastered cd is as good as I remember the original and that is saying quite a lot. My particular cd seems to have a slight defect and I have informed amazon.com about that. But considering how reliable they have been in the past, I'm not concerned. If you liked the "Sound of Music" you should love this.

This is as clear as mud - the songs are lovely and the singing is fine but the transfer from original discs is substandard. Also to note the libretto and dialogue (even for 1946) are the poorest ever recorded. Embarrassingly awful writing with putrid attempts to act - it was not a loss at all to have a lot of the recorded dialogue cut for the LP transfer.

For the record:

The LP eliminated:

3. Opening dialogue of FREDDY AND HIS FIDDLE
5. Opening dialogue and musical intro to STRANGE MUSIC
7. Entire cut except for final few words
9. Three minutes of opening dialogue
10. Two minutes of musical intro

Cuts 6 and 7, cuts 10 and 11 and cuts 13 and 14 were double bands recorded onto single sides of the 12 inch 78-rpms. Maximum time for a side of this size was 4 and one half minutes.

The score needs a modern studio reproduction sans dialogue. This CD is a very very poor incarnation of the original recording.

I would like to give this Musical five stars, for purpose and effort; but for that alone. In 1945 the concept was aesthetically and politically relevant;the music of Grieg wondrous and the lyrics, well, pretrty campy. The cast,excellent. This CD is worth having for its historical position in American Musical Theatre. But, it is so dated.Kitty Carlisle is a gem, and lucky to hear in prime voice but sadly, she is not Ira Petina. This is a a beautful, naive, "nation-at- war" amd "lets remember Norway" musical

Decca records recorded selections from the operetta SONG OF NORWAY in 1945 for release on six 12-inch 78 rpm discs. A 1949 LP reissue deleted sections of several numbers in order to fit the material on a single LP. This Cd transfer marks the first time the complete cast recording has been heard in 50 years.

This should be a welcome reissue, but the transfer was taken from well worn discs instead of the near-mint masters carefully tucked away in MCA's vaults. The result is a murky sounding CD that limits the high frequencies making it difficult to understand the lyrics.

The cast is first-rate - even Kitty Carlisle substituting for original stage star Irra Petina who was then under contract to Columbia records and not allowed to appear on Decca's set. Ms Carlisle sings and acts the part so well that one wonders why she was never given the opportunity to play the role on stage.

The musical - a not-very-factual retelling of the life of composer Edvard Grieg - is not a liklely candidate for revival today. Its a pity that MCA did no deem the show worthy of their own CD transfer which surely would have sounded much better than this.

Had I known that this reproduction of the original cast was not re-mastered I would not have considered it. I had no idea that what I enjoyed in 1944 on an LP was going to be so terrible.

I have loved this recording for 65 years. I was estatic to find the one I loved on CD. I listen to it every night.

There is a beautifully recorded studio cast, recorded in the UK, available for those who want the complete score. Amazon carries it; just search for: Song Of Norway 1990 London Studio Cast