A story of missed opportunities
Rito | Calcutta, India | 03/17/2001
(3 out of 5 stars)
"If the aim of this Sampler is to introduce more people to the magical world of Classical Music, the record company might as well put out a remixed album of pieces by The Ventures!Nearly everything about the Sampler seems to be done in a most disinterested manner, right from the misleading and unimaginative cover down to the selection of the performers. It seems unlikely that RCA Victor and BMG do not have a better set of musicians in its stable. There are not even any helpful liner notes and the whole album seems to be aimed at promoting the individual records. In that case, it is unfair to expect the listening public to shell out money and buy this CD.I have no complaints about the selection of pieces, for they are all masterpieces in their own right and would appear in any Classical Music selection, although Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi are two of the most glaring omissions (and among conductors, RCA's very own Toscanini is an unpardonable lapse). Ironically enough, both the composers are listed on the cover! There seems to be an undue spotlight on Bach, who has been given three pieces (compared to poor Mozart and Beethoven both of whom had to settle for two). Admittedly, listening to the Brandenburg Concerto after Beethoven's Fifth feels like coming out of the shadows of a dense forest into the bright happy sunlight, but a similar effect could be obtained from Vivaldi's Spring or Beethoven's Für Elise. I would have expected Mozart's Marriage of Figaro to find a place in this collection, but then one cannot have everything!Mention must be made of the Philadelphia Orchestra's Blue Danube (under the baton of Eugene Ormandy) and Zubin Mehta's direction of the New York Philharmonic for the Choral which stand out among a collection of mediocre performances.Buy it only to assure yourself that your own Classical Music collection is actually superior to the music in the RCA vaults."
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1