Serious Fun!
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Composer: Lord BernersComposer: Jeremy Nicholas
Composer: David Baker
Composer: Bruce Montgomery
Composer: Vernon Duke
Composer: Donald Swann
Composer: William Bolcom
Composer: Tom Lehrer
Composer: Frederick Silver
Composer: Wolseley Charles
Composer: Sheldon Harnick
Composer: Stephen Sondheim
Composer: Peter Winkler
Composer: Marc-Andre Hamelin
Performer: Marc-Andre Hamelin
Performer: Jody Karin Applebaum (soprano)
Performer: Marc-Andre Hamelin (piano)
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-06-01
Music Label: Albany Records
Soundtracks:
- Come on Algernon
- Maternity
- Usherette's Blues
- Musical Chairs
- Pretty Plain
- Someone is Sending Me Flowers
- Christian Dior
- Summer is A-Comin' In
- Madeira, M'Dear
- Ill Wind
- A Word on My Ear
- A Farmer's Boy
- I'm Spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica
- The Masochism Tango
- The twelve Days After Christmas
- The Green-Eyed Dragon
- Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise
- The Shape of Things
- I Never Do Anything Twice
- Tamara, Queen of the Nile
Music reviews of Serious Fun!
Music Review: A Trancendental Sense of Humor!!!!!!
Rating: 5 Stars
As an amateur pianist, I know how it is to play music of different styles for different occasions. I also have a slightly skewered sense of humor as well as a love of serious classical music. So on my shelves I have Dr. Demento as well as Mahler, Broadway Shows as well as Shostakovich. Marc-Andre Hamelin, one of the best pianist nowadays because he makes the most hardest piece of music sound easy, is married to Jody Karin Applebaum, a wonderful singer. They have recorded the Cabaret songs of Bolcom, Britten and Fredrich Hollaender and now turn their attention to comedy songs from many eras. Much of this repertoire is taken from Sarah Walker's Cd on Hyperion. Applebaum's diction is very clear and every song has a different mood and different voices and accents when needed. Comparisons between William Bolcom and Joan Morris are inevitable. Bolcom's "Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise" is also included. The program notes are written by Jeremy Nicholas, who has provided us with very informative program notes for Hyperion CD's, and who has written some wonderful songs such as "Usherette's Blues" and "Place Settings". Tom Lehrer's classic "Masochism Tango" makes an appearance (which is also on one of Dr. Demento's greatest hits CD's).Hamelin's recordings and performances have one thing that many pianist's do not have-HUMOR (when it's needed, of course). Here, he gets to put it to good use, and you can tell that they're having fun. This is a live recording, so there is much laughing from the audience, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Hamelin keeps suprising me with his CD's and repertoire choices, and this is no exception. Let's have some more, please!!! (maybe Dave Frishberg, more Flanders and Swann?).
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Description of Serious Fun!
Jeremy Nicholas writes: ?Phrases that chill the heart: ?I want a volunteer from the audience.? ?Is this your car, sir?? ?Have we shown you our holiday snaps?? Or how about ?Tonight?s lecture is on the art of writing comedy.? Go to that seminar and one thing you know for sure in advance is that you are consigning yourself to an evening devoid of any humor. Dissecting comedy, analyzing jokes or, in this case, comic songs, has all the allure of pulling off the wings of a butterfly to see how it flies. Setting off writing a comic song is rather like being your own crossword compiler, designing the grid, filling in all the squares, setting your own clues. No, it?s not, really. It?s more like taking a pile of kid?s building bricks and making a spectacular skyscraper from them. No, that?s not it either. But there are elements of both that are pertinent (a good word for seminars).? In other words, comedy (and comic songwriting) is hard work. Think of the last time you told a joke and it didn?t come off. The material was right but maybe the delivery was off. But remember the joy when the response was perfect: not only did they laugh, but you sensed the anticipation: this is going to be funny. And for this album, the anticipation certainly pays off. Anyone who grew up in the 1950?s and 1960?s will recall the wonderful humor of the works of Tom Lehrer, the classic HMV (Angel in this country) LP?s of Michael Flanders and Donald Swann. More recently we?ve seen how Stephen Sondheim and William Bolcom can easily move back and forth between the serious and the humorous. And just to prove that comedy can be serious business, we have the participation of Marc-Andre Hamelin, one of the most highly regarded concert and recital pianists as accompanist and composer, joined by his wife Jody Karin Applebaum. Her resume includes performances of Bach?s Christmas Oratorio and St. Matthew Passion, Handel?s Messiah, to contemporary works by Stephen Albert, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Gorecki. Together they have performed in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Canada, England and the Middle East. Together they have recorded music of Britten, Schoenberg, Bolcom, Wolpe, Weill, Satie and Poulenc. Here both they and you have some fun for a change!Classical CDs
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