Stars & Stripes: Fanfares, Marches & Wind Band Spectaculars

Leo Arnaud (Composer), Samuel Barber (Composer), Pierre Leemans (Composer), Julius Fucik (Composer), Karl L. King (Composer), Charles A. Zimmerman (Composer), Johann I [Senior] Strauss (Composer), Ralph Vaughan Williams (Composer), John Philip Sousa (Composer), Percy Grainger (Composer), Frederick Fennell (Conductor), Cleveland Symphonic Winds (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Cleveland Symphonic Winds
• Conductor: Frederick Fennell
• Composer: Leo Arnaud, Samuel Barber, Pierre Leemans, Julius Fucik, Karl L. King, et al.
• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Telarc
• ASIN: B000003CTD
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,204 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some appropriate music for August, 2004. And other goodies., August 16, 2004

By 

Bob Zeidler (Charlton, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stars & Stripes: Fanfares, Marches & Wind Band Spectaculars (Audio CD)

This being the month of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, not too surprisingly, the "...appropriate music..." alluded to above are the Three Fanfares by Leo Arnaud (b. Lyon, France 1904; d. Hollywood, CA 1991). The first two fanfares ("Olympic Theme"; "La Chasse") were originally written in 1959. At the time, the first fanfare had no specific name; the two fanfares together were simply called "Bugler's Dream." It was nearly a decade later (1968) that ABC-TV adopted the first fanfare for the '68 Olympic Games (and then for "Wide World of Sports"); then the "Olympic Theme" name stuck. Permanently. So, all the Olympics watchers in the U.S. can expect to OD on the theme, whether they like it or not. (Interestingly, in cruising a few classical music message boards during these Olympic times, I find that all too often people attribute this "Olympic Theme" to John Williams. Not so!)

Well, so much for the "preliminaries for the Olympic occasion." The Cleveland Symphonic Winds under Fred Fennell play these three brief works for all they're worth, even to restoring the French horn responses to the trumpet calls in the second part of "Olympic Theme." These French horn parts were-and are-so difficult that the ABC-TV version, from, obviously, a different and earlier recording, had them replaced by trumpets.

My main reason for acquiring this album when it first came out two decades ago was not Olympian in the slightest. In short, it was because Fennell reprises three wind ensemble classics that he had done many years earlier, with the Eastman Wind Ensemble on the Mercury Living Presence label. These three are Sam Barber's "Commando March," Ralph Vaughan Williams's "Folk Song Suite," and Percy Grainger's "Lincolnshire Posy." All three are classics for the wind ensemble, and I can envision tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of former wind ensemble players who "passed this way" in high school and college. I certainly did, and remember these works with great fondness (along with many other wind ensemble "classics" that Fennell has conducted over a long and illustrious career).

The Eastman band was never ever a slouch in performing this type of music. (In fact, it was the model for the repertoire.) But the Cleveland Symphonic Winds (essentially, the Cleveland Orchestra minus the strings, but beefed up where sections require more instrumentalists, plus cornets, saxophones and baritone horns not normally found in orchestras) is on another, higher, plateau entirely. This is most evident in the Grainger work, which is a true masterpiece of the repertoire, with some highly original parts writing that provides intriguing sonorities not normally associated with "band" music.

All three-the Barber, Grainger and Vaughan Williams works-come off noticeably better on this Telarc release than they did years ago (MANY years ago in the case of the Barber work) when Fennell led the Eastman Wind Ensemble. In terms of sonics, it isn't even close: as might be expected, the Telarc sound is still state-of-the-art after two decades.

The balance of the album is mostly fillers of marches from the U.S. and Europe. (The album title is somewhat of a misnomer, given its contents, including the Grainger and Vaughan Williams pieces.) A few marches are well-known; a few are obscure. All are as well-played as the pieces I've commented about in some detail.

At just a little under an hour, this is not necessarily high value, but it was typical for "early" CDs, as this one is. To me, it is worth it for the superb job on the Grainger work. To others, perhaps the three Arnaud fanfares will fill the bill. For the next few weeks, anyway. :-)

Bob Zeidler

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple to sum up!, February 21, 2002

By 

Mark A Framness (WI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stars & Stripes: Fanfares, Marches & Wind Band Spectaculars (Audio CD)

This is a simple one to sum up.

If this CD does not bring a smile to your face, then you are DEAD and nothing ever more will make you smile.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great wind band music, April 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Stars & Stripes: Fanfares, Marches & Wind Band Spectaculars (Audio CD)

Yes, the title is a bit misleading: this disc goes beyond the familiar to include some attractive rarities. Recorded in terrific Telarc sound, these virtuosic players open with the Olympic theme made famous by ABC's 1968 TV coverage of the Olympics, followed by two other olympic themes written in a similar style. The Barber and Leemans pieces are also beautiful rarities, the Barber sounding quite cultured for a military march. The handsome Florentiner March by Fucik is one of my favorites on the disc. The other pieces will sound instantly familiar to most people; the "Barnum and Bailey's Favorite" by Karl King surely will be a hit with circus goers and "Anchors Aweigh" with sea farers. The glorious Vaughan Williams and Grainger works are less martial and, written by non-Americans, prove beyond a doubt that this disc about more than stars-and-stripes flag waving.