Stars & Stripes: Fanfares, Marches & Wind Band Spectaculars

Probably Excellent.

I first bought a compact disc player in 1984. It was an expensive new technology and cost about $400 for the cheapest Sony model. Groan. Then there was the problem of getting recordings that could utilize the capabilities of this new technology. Well, at that point I discovered Telarc Records. They specialized in digitally recorded music made specifically for audiophiles with compact disc players. Their recordings were excellent, some of the best available at that time, and I bought a variety of things including the "Stars and Stripes" CD by Frederick Fennell and the Cleveland Symphonic Winds.

The "Stars and Stripes" recording is excellent. The problem is I don't really care for this type of music. Oh, it's OK and brings back memories of sitting in the Boulder City Park and listening to this type of concert at the bandshell. Or then there were the parades and the marching bands! I enjoyed them all. But this is a record intended for sitting in the living room and listening. What was I thinking? It's one of those CDs I've played once and then stored away. Oh, I bring it out now ad then just to use it as a demonstration disc on my stereo.

So, how do I rate this disc? Well, the music is excellent. Very well done. The sound is superb. The album presents a good range of classic selections. I can't find anything wrong, except that I don't particularly like listening to this type of music on my stereo. Well, that's certainly not the recording's fault. I'll give it five stars. If you like this type of music, you'll probably find it excellent.

Gary Peterson December 3, 2008

Outstanding--None Better

Having played and enjoyed this music all my life, I have never heard it better played. Nothing beats this. I have the Eastman recordings with Fennell and as good as they are, this is better. Buy it and love it. Even a hackneyed piece like Barnum and Bailey sounds entirely fresh. Essential for every collection. If you have room for only CD of band masterpieces, this is it. October 9, 2007

highest recommendation

As with Frederick Fennell's album of Holst and Handel, also recorded with the Cleveland Symphonic Winds (wind ensemble of the Cleveland symphony), this album includes material I performed in my musical youth in high-school and college-level bands and summer-program symphonies, notably Vaughn Williams' Sea Songs and Folksong Suites (yes, yes and the Sousa). So my ear is experienced, and I find no cut on this CD less than peerless, and with a great director and a great ensemble this is a very worthwhile album. The "Stars and Stripes" and Olympic-fanfare material is a smaller part of what is mostly truly profound music, and some otherwise hard-to-find work. Recording quality still outstanding even this many years on. February 28, 2006

Some appropriate music for August, 2004. And other goodies.

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 August 16, 2004

Simple to sum up!

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. February 21, 2002

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