Plays The Great Themes From The Classics

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 1958

Label: MGM Records

ANITRA SWINGS (based upon "Anitra's Dance" from the "Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 by Grieg) • LOVE AND DREAMS (based upon "Liebestraum No. 3" by Liszt) • ROMEO MEETS JULIET (based upon "Romeo and Juliet Overture" by Tchaikovsky) • RACHMANINOFF MEETS PAGANINI (based upon "Caprice No. 24" by Paganini and the 18th Variation of "Rhapsody On A Theme by Paganini" by Rachmaninoff) • GOIN' WITH CARMEN (based upon "Habañera" from the opera "Carmen" by Bizet) • CONCERTO FOR FOUR (based upon the first movement theme of the "Second Piano Concerto" by Rachmaninoff) • BRAHMS IN BLUE (based upon the theme of the third movement of the "Third Symphony" by Brahms) • MOUNTAIN KINGERY (based upon "In The Hall Of The Mountain King" from the "Peer Gynt Suite No. 1" by Grieg) • NIGHT SONG (based upon "Nocturne in E-Flat" by Chopin) • COOL FANTASY (based upon "Fantasie Impromptu in C Sharp Minor" by Chopin)

When a recording company decides to release simultaneously five albums by a single performing group, you know there has to be something pretty unusual astir. That's exactly what MGM Records has done with the Metropolitan Jazz Quartet, America's new "MELODIC JAZZ" stylists – and the music-making at hand is definitely unusual enough to warrant the event. In this album – and its related foursome – consists of numbers that you don't normally hear in jazz versions – material in which the melody must be stressed for full effect. Stressing these melodies brilliantly but adding the spirit of freedom of jazz easomely in some of the most entertaining waxings you've heard in many a moon. Like we said, the stylings are unique – with great listening entertainment built in! This is jazz everyone will like!

In the present album the Quartet has a go at eleven great and familiar themes from the classics. The melodic brain-children of such immortal composers as Grieg, Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Paganini, Rachmaninoff, Bizet and Brahms provide the base for terrific flights of instrumental fantasy. You're sure to find it all lots of fun!

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