Circus Spectacular

Karl L. King (Composer), Matthew H. Phillips (Conductor)

Product Details

• Conductor: Matthew H. Phillips
• Composer: Karl L. King
• Audio CD (February 18, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vox (Classical)
• ASIN: B000001KEZ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #40,145 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good music, mediocre playing, November 18, 2001

By	R. E. James "mostly Libertarian" (Longwood, FL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It was indeed exciting to find so many of Karl King's marches on one disc. The band's playing, however leaves a lot to be desired, as does the sound quality of the disc. The balance is poor, with a very annoying tenor sax playing loud and out-of-tune on every cut. Buy this if you are a march collector (which I am), but I do not recommend it for its entertainment value. Get the "Screamers" disc by Fennell and Eastman for a far superior set of circus marches with great playing and sound.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review of Circus Spectacular, December 6, 2000

By	Daniel E. Turkington (Danville, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Certainly the best thing about this CD is that there are many of Karl King's marches that have probably never been recorded previously, which is curious, since some of them rank with his best. The curious thing about this CD, on the other hand, is that it is supposedly a circus album, but only a few marches were actually written for the "big top". This band is not the best I have heard - recommend listening with headphones, to get a much clearer, less muddled sound. King was only kind of a contemporary of Sousa, having lived 35-40 years later. He actually published more marches than Sousa, and generally wrote in a style that was "softer" than the March King. Sousa wrote mostly military-style marches (better than anyone else ever has, of course), whereas King wrote many military as well as circus marches, and marches in a simpler style, suitable for school bands.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Circus Spectacular, August 11, 2000

By	CWHughes - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This recording of music by Karl King is absolutely splendid -it contains 28 tracks most of which I have certainly not heard before - I particularly liked the tempos of the marches - not too quick but just right - the band is good (although I had never heard of them) - I came across this recording by chance and I'm glad I did - highly recommended