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Here and there in the Big Band repertoire we come across swing arrangements of famous Classical pieces. I love Classical music, and I love arrangements and remixes of Classical music. There are plenty of examples but it can be difficult to find them. But here, on one CD, a like-minded producer at Sony Classical decided to pack an album full of big band performances of Classical works.
All but one of the tracks are instrumental (as expected and preferred), and the one vocal track opens the album with the theme that follows. "Beethoven wasn't tame, he might have done the same...it's music any way it plays..." I don't think I fully agree with the claims in this song, but the timelessness of the masters like Beethoven is certainly respected here and throughout the album.
The recordings are of the original big bands (Benny Goodman's, Glenn Miller's, etc), but the sound quality is the best I've heard of such recordings. It is smooth, clear, with no "fuzz" or "static" that I can hear. The sound engineers must have worked really hard to make this a definitive collection of Big Band arrangements of Classical works. The only one I can think of that's missing is Verdi's famous "Anvil Chorus" (Vedi! le fosche) performed by Glenn Miller's band. Fortunately that can be found on Glenn Miller A Memorial here at Amazon.com. But some of these others may not be available anywhere else.
But enough of all this analysis. It's a fun CD to pop in and listen to for a good time, for a car trip, for working around the house, for whistling along. You'll know almost all of the tunes if not their names, and these famous classical masterpieces live on.
