Previn: Honey and Rue; Barber: Knoxville; Gershwin: Porgy And Bess / Battle, Previn, et al Digital Life Music

Previn: Honey and Rue; Barber: Knoxville; Gershwin: Porgy And Bess / Battle, Previn, et al
from: Deutsche Grammophon

Used Price: $3.35
Third Party New Price: $14.78

Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028943778725
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: October 17, 1995
Sales Rank: 74001
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon

Disc 1:

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
Back at the beginning of the 1990s, with some help from Carnegie Hall, soprano Kathleen Battle commissioned André Previn and Toni Morrison to write a song cycle for her. The result was a set of six songs called Honey and Rue, referring to 'the bitter and the sweet' that comes with life and love and is part of the African American experience. One of the songs, the last to be composed, is unaccompanied. The remaining five are scored for chamber orchestra and showcase Previn's chameleon-like abilities as an arranger--here capturing echoes of such European masters as Mahler and Berg, there a hint of Americana in the Copland-Bernstein vein, and elsewhere the engaging verve of jazz and the blues. Previn conducts his score with breezy authority, drawing spirited playing from the Orchestra of Saint Luke's, particularly in the jazzy third song ('The Town Is Lit') and the spiritual-like concluding number ('Take My Mother Home'). Battle sings expressively and with obvious commitment--both here and in the selections by Barber and Gershwin that fill out the disc--though not without her lately characteristic affectations. The recording makes her voice sound oddly reverberant, as though it had been subjected to the kind of processed engineering usually reserved for pop productions. --Ted Libbey

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Cassette Contents
On this Cassette:
Honey and Rue, song cycle for soprano, jazz ensemble, & orchestra
Composed by Andre Previn
Performed by Orchestra of St. Luke's
with Kathleen Battle
Conducted by Andre Previn

Knoxville: Summer of 1915, for high voice & orchestra (rev. for voice & chamber orchestra), Op. 24
Composed by Samuel Barber
Performed by Orchestra of St. Luke's
with Kathleen Battle
Conducted by Andre Previn

Porgy and Bess, opera I Loves You, Porgy
Composed by George Gershwin
Performed by Orchestra of St. Luke's
with Kathleen Battle
Conducted by Andre Previn

Porgy and Bess, opera Summertime
Composed by George Gershwin
Performed by Orchestra of St. Luke's
with Kathleen Battle
Conducted by Andre Previn

Rating:

- Kathleen Battle at her very best!
I play this CD with great frequency -- it offers a huge range of classical vocal performance.

I listened to Kathleen Battle sing most of these selections LIVE last year in her hometown of Portsmouth, Ohio at Shawnee State University, (I don't know why she comes back here but, thankfully, she does!), and the minute I arrived back at home I got online and ordered this CD. This is an incredible compendium of predominently modern classical vocals with a tinge of 19th-Century Southern Black nostalgic flavour worked in.

At the live performance I attended, Ms. Battle was accompanied by the incredibly talented renowned pianist, Ted Taylor, and I only wish I could obtain a CD in that sort of performance as well; however, the orchestral accompaniment is, of course, nothing short of outstanding -- it's just a little different rendition from what I originally heard.

World-class composer ... Read More

Rating:

- Wonderful Music, Rip-off price
I love this disc. A wonderful singer performing wonderful music. The Morrison poems are hauntingly set by Previn, and the Barber gives Dawn Upshaw a run for her money, the Gershwin as near-perfect as one could hope for. But it's a total cheek to charge this kind of money for a 40 minute disc. In keeping with the American flavour of the disc, how about some orchstrated Barber songs or his opera arias? Copland? More Gershwin? Adams? Even some of Previn's other wonderful music could have notched this into 50 minutes. I feel ripped off.

Rating:

- Sublime!
The poetry The music The orchestra The singer

All in perfect equal parts that gives us a recording of 20th century music that sets the standard for sublime. Wonderfully recorded, and tailored.

A brilliant recording. A must buy.

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Music : Previn: Honey and Rue; Barber: Knoxville; Gershwin: Porgy And Bess / Battle, Previn, et al
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