Scheherazade & Other Stories [IMPORT]

Annie Haslam, Renaissance

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 30, 1994)
• Original Release Date: 1975
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Repertoire
• ASIN: B0000073BG
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,898 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

1. Trip to the Fair

2. Vultures Fly High

3. Ocean Gypsy

4. Song of Scheherazade: Fanfare/The Betrayal/The Sultan/Love ...

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

1994 reissue on Repertoire of the prog icon's 1975 album forBTM, featuring their interpretation of Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Scheherazade' and a full orchestra complete with strings. Four tracks total. 'Songs Of Scheherazade' is a nine part suite.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Renaissance's Best Effort, August 23, 2001

By A Customer

Renaissance is a band that went through various permutations, the best known being the line up that featured Annie Haslam's soaring, pure vocals, John Tout's considerable piano prowess, Jon Camp's imaginative bass, Michael Dunford on guitar and Terence Sullivan on drums. This was the second, and longest-lasting lineup of the band. An earlier lineup had a completely different lineup (how/why they kept the same name is somewhat surprising considering the band had a 100% change in personnel). A later permutation had Tout and Sullivan replaced by two other musicians.

Anyway, the Haslam-led lineup had two phases in their musical styles -- an early, progressive-rock featuring long, complex arrangements of songs influenced by classical composers (particularly Prokofiev) and a later, more pop-oriented style.

"Song of Scheherazade and Other Stories" is probably the best of the band's progressive-rock years, and argued by many to be their best overall effort as well. It opens with "A Trip to the Fair", featuring typical Renaissance arrangement of piano and orchestral highlights and, of course, Annie Haslam's distinctive, beautifully strong singing voice. The album's second track, the short "The Vultures Fly High" shows the band making a (then) rare trip to pop arranging. The final track of the vinyl's side one is the poignant "Ocean Gypsy", featuring some of the best piano work John Tout turned in.

"Song of Scheherazade" took up the entire second side of the album, featuring a suite of songs which told the story of 1001 Arabian Nights in condensed form (if you can call a 24 or so minute effort "condensed"). This was certainly the highlight of the band's orchestral/classical arranging, featuring an opening fanfare, a soft romantic ballad ("The Young Prince and Princess"), a piano fugue, and upbeat finale ("The Festival"/"Finale"). From its opening to its ending, the suite presents a well-formed, cohesive movement that tells of the Sultan's betrayal by his wife and his subsequent dastardly daily wedding and execution, Scheherazade (the heroine of the story) becoming his wife and weaving a magic spell of stories for him which he cannot live without, and the sultan renouncing his ways to live with Scheherazade happily ever after. This is musical story-telling in the progressive-rock vein at its finest.

Not only was this probably Renaissance's best effort to that point, it also marked one of the last progressive-rock dominated albums they'd release. Their next studio release, "Novella", was fairly progressive-rock oriented but after that came "Song for All Seasons", on which the band started moving in a more pop/mainstream direction.

Progressive-rock lovers everywhere should get "Scheherazade" and even those whose taste for progressive-lock runs lean will probably appreciate "Ocean Gypsy" for the pure beauty of its melody and arranging, as well as the title track for its overall arrangement and story-telling.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The High Point of Their Career, July 31, 1998

By A Customer

Why this album is listed as an import is a bit of a mystery to me. Several of Renaissance's albums are US releases, but not this one? Well, at least it's pretty decently priced. Anyway, this has got got to be one of the best albums of it's day, at least as far as progressive rock is concerned. Undoubtedly the high point of Renaissance's career, the album consists of 3 tracks that were originally on the first side with the title track that was on the other. The great point about this CD is that there are no weak songs. Scheharzade is the showpiece for the work; it's a group effort and although different members contribute to different parts it fits together really well. The Young Prince and Young Princess is a highlight of this section. The first part consists of strong songs; perhaps the best is Ocean Gypsy. I have introduced this song to various friends and relatives and it has always converted them to followers of the group. I would say that this album, with the possi! ble exception of Live At Carnigie Hall, is the perfect place to get to know the music of Renaissance.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Song of Scheherazade," the group's most ambitious effort, September 28, 2000

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This 1975 album featuring the nine-part 25-minute "Song of Scheherazade" suite is certainly the most ambitious effort by the progressive (nee classical) rock band Renaissance, recorded with a chorus and members of the London Symphony Orchestra. Personally, my favorite Renaissance album was "Turn of the Card," issued the year before this one, which is admittedly a much more atypical work for the group, but the consensus of opinion certainly seems to suggest this is the most popular album among the learned gentry.

The songs on the "first side" of the album certainly make this the strongest album by virtue of the fact that they are all well above average tracks. "Trip to the Fair" is another showcase for the wondrous voice of Annie Haslam, "The Vultures Fly High" presents a nice change of pace, and "Ocean Gypsy" is one of those lush songs you expect from Renaissance. Consequently, this is the one album (besides the live recording of their Carnegie Hall concert) on which you are not inclined to skip tracks.

The "Song of Scheherzade" was inspired by Michael Dunford's fascination with the "1001 Tales of the Arabian Nights" and consists of nine distinct but cohesive movements. The work is unique because it represents a rare example of musical collaboration between Dunford and the rest of the group. Dunford and lyricist Betty Thatcher wrote the three vocal sections, keyboard player John Tout wrote the opening fanfare and fugue sections, with bass player Jon Camp working with Dunford and Tout on the other sections. The orchestrations were arranged by Tony Cox. Like similar efforts by other progressive rock groups (e.g., Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Karn Evil 9" from "Brain Salad Surgery), the Scheherzade Suite represents the great heights "rock" music could attain when it broke away from the radio play format.

I have heard in the past that Dunmore and Thatcher were trying to turn their cantata into a musical, similar to what Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice did with the original children's cantata version of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," but apparently that effort, if not abandoned at this point, has yet to reach fruition.