An Evening in Cincinnati [Live]

Track Listings

1. He Is the One

2. Merciful God

3. You've Got a Friend

4. I Can Trust in You

5. Light of the World

6. Humble Youself as a Child

7. Railroad Bill

8. Servant's Heart

9. Offering Song

10. Wayward Son

11. Laundry Blues

12. Every Generation

13. Master of My Heart/Just to Know the Lamb

14. Simple Song

Tracks:

Oklahoma!
Carousel
State Fair
South Pacific
The King And I
Cinderella Waltz
Flower Drum Song
The Sound Of Music

Customer Reviews:

Irresistible.......2005-07-29

From beginning to end this CD is pure delight. A great recording has great music, a great performance, and great sound; this one scores on all three counts.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's musicals dominated Broadway in the 1940s and 1950s, and American musical theater has produced no more consistently eloquent and durable voice than Richard Rodgers. From his fertile genius flowed a surprising number of memorable songs, many of which have passed into and become an accepted and beloved part of modern American culture.

This well-filled CD (77:36) features symphonic arrangements (all but two by Robert Russell Bennett) of the music from Oklahoma (1943), Carousel (1945), State Fair (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), Flower Drum Song (1958), and The Sound of Music (1959). All the great tunes are here in suites from each musical that average 10-12 minutes in length. The arrangements are expert: rich, varied, and colorful. The performances are polished, idiomatic, and irresistible; Kunzel and this orchestra are thorough masters of this kind of material. And Telarc's sound (recorded 1991) is state-of-the-art (engineer Michael Bishop deserves to take a bow).

In short, there's nothing here to cloud your listening pleasure (the only quibble I can imagine is that some of your favorites may not last long enough), so it's hard for me to envision anyone with ears and a taste for music who wouldn't enjoy this CD. Warmly recommended. Finally, if you like this one as much as I do, you might want to know that the same team has produced a companion volume, the Lerner & Lowe Songbook for Orchestra.

"Some Enchanted Evening" with Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops.......2003-12-26

Erich Kunzel's Rodgers and Hammerstein anthology with the Cincinatti Pops Orchestra is one of the best and most ravishing instrumental Rodgers and Hammerstein albums of all time. With sumptuous arrangements and warm, natural Telarc recording, this glorious 77-minute CD presents sweeping, melodic arrangements of over 60 Rodgers and Hammerstein selections, spanning eight scores, and Kunzel allows the Pops to play with a characterful and polished understanding of the Rodgers and Hammerstein idiom. The disc is enough to cheer you up on a dull day and make you smile, and it might even want to make you feel like a convert to Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals.

This CD has all the scores arranged chronologically. The OKLAHOMA! suite that opens this disc promises a feast for the senses, Kunzel ably evokes the territory's "bright, golden haze" in the way he conducts the various excerpts, until you feel the atmosphere of the country charm of the show, and the love-affair between Curly and Laurey. Then, in CAROUSEL, he ably evokes the pathos of this tragic R&H masterwork, especially in the truncated Waltz, but he leads a wonderfully melodic "June is Bustin' Out All Over" and a devotional "You'll Never Walk Alone." Although this suite does not include Billy's pivotal Soliloquy, it includes "If I Loved You" as an expression of his love for Julie, and within minutes you could be soaked in the ups and downs of the show's mood.

After a brief STATE FAIR suite, with sweeping renditions of "It Might As Well Be Spring" and "It's a Grand Night for Singing", we are brought into the disc's showstopping highlights. These highlights are the excerpts from SOUTH PACIFIC, THE KING AND I, and THE SOUND OF MUSIC. But yet Kunzel conducts the rest of the disc until the various suites amount to a series of showstoppers. These three suites present wonderfully-arranged versions of their many familiar classic songs, with well-played solos. The SOUTH PACIFIC suite presents the songs in chronological order, yet preserves the atmosphere of the show at the same time. Kunzel ably brings out the romance in "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Younger than Springtime," and contrasts it with the exotic and dreamlike "Bali Hai'i" and the comic "There is Nothing like a Dame" and "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair". Although the suite ends quietly with a reprise of "Dites-Moi" rather than the reprise of "Some Enchanted Evening," within minutes we are swept into the KING AND I suite. Kunzel ably brings out the Oriental pathos in this score, and he captures the warmth of Anna's rapport with the King's Siamese children in "Getting to Know You", and with the King himself in "Shall We Dance." There is also romance in the love ballads "I Have Dreamed" and "We Kiss in a Shadow." Similarly, in the selection from THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Kunzel conducts this until the orchestra soaks itself in the atmosphere of this Austrian R&H score. This SOUND OF MUSIC suite has more of a feel of the score compared to the bonus track on Sony's reissued version of the Broadway recording. You can almost feel as if you are following the progress of the Trapp family and how it lifts its spirits with the joy of music. Kunzel gives us a soaring version of the title song, and spirited versions of "Do-Re-Mi" and "My Favourite Things." He balances it with the open-air quality of "Edelweiss" and "The Lonely Goatherd." Although this suite could have included "Something Good," the love ballad written for the film, the three recollections of the songs that were cut from the movie only last for a while. And, the towering version of "Climb Every Mountain" crowns this portion of the disc, and this sumptuously-produced recording. But, I should also mention the infectuous FLOWER DRUM SONG medley, where Kunzel turns this underrated score into a work of art, until it convinces you to buy the cast recording. And, don't forget about the brief CINDERELLA WALTZ, too, when Kunzel conducts it magically, until you feel like you are in the company of Cinderella and the Prince. He is able to show how this R&H score marked a comeback for R&H after the failiures of Me and Juliet, and Pipe Dream.

Overall, this glorious Rodgers and Hammerstein recording is guarunteed to make you want to pucker your lips out for a whistle or sing along (to paraphrase another revew for Kunzel's Disney Spectacular disc) - even if this recording is music only, and as long as you know the words to the songs (and you might know a large handful of them already.) There is always a certain magic in this fine CD that makes you feel like you're sitting in the theatre watching these musicals, until it makes you feel like it is truly, to borrow two R&H song titles, "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Something Wonderful" to be in Kunzel's company for this R&H offering. It would certainly be one recording that could make you feel willing to buy the complete cast recordings of the shows. And I guaruntee that it will make you feel willing to pull out your existing copies of the cast recordings to listen to them again. I also guaruntee that it will be a cornerstone in any Rodgers and Hammerstein collection, just as it is in mine. Recommended heartily to any Rodgers and Hammerstein enthusiast and to fans of Erich Kunzel's work. And, you can play it while reading the Richard Rodgers biography, Musical Stages, until Rodgers himself would count this as his favourite disc in the afterlife.

By the way, most of the arrangements for the suites on this CD were done by the veteran R&H orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett, and it surely adds to the appeal of this recording. This itself is enough to amount to the icing on the cake, since Kunzel conducts them well on here, and since this recording still allows the suites to have the original theatrical atmosphere. And, although this recording is like the Mauceri collection of the Rodgers & Hammerstein overtures in compiling orchestral suites of Rodgers & Hammerstein, I think that I like the Kunzel recording even more because Kunzel has more magic in his conducting of these suites.

Excellent!.......2003-04-08

This is one of the best Erich Kunzel/Cincinnati Pops collections we own! A must for Rodgers and Hammerstein fans, too.

Great Arrangments.......2001-09-02

This is a first rate album with great arrangments and orchestrations. If you're a Rodgers and Hammerstein fan, you can't afford to miss this specatacular album

Average customer rating:

Live In Cincinnati Jim Cole
Thoroughly engaging live album!
Entertaining, thoughtful...and funny!
Standing Ovation for Jim Cole

An Evening in Cincinnati
Jim Cole
Manufacturer: Impact
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music

Christian Contemporary Music | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music

Live Recordings | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music

General | Christian & Gospel | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Every Generation

ASIN: B000005DEM
Release Date: 1999-04-13

Tracks:

He Is the One
Merciful God
You've Got a Friend
I Can Trust in You
Light of the World
Humble Youself as a Child
Railroad Bill
Servant's Heart
Offering Song
Wayward Son
Laundry Blues
Every Generation
Master of My Heart/Just to Know the Lamb
Simple Song

Customer Reviews:

Live In Cincinnati Jim Cole.......2001-12-18

I love every song on this!! This live concert shows Jim`s great sense of humor in addition to his great sense of God and the Holy Spirit! "Every Generation" could be an anthem for sept 11, even though it was written before it happened. I love the funny songs on here, too. Some great blues! Great singing! Great guitar playing. I agree with another reviewer that some of the songs on here are better than the studio cuts... for example "Master of My Heart"...my only "complaint" is that he didn`t sing the whole song "You`ve Got A Friend" I hope I can see him in concert now that I have heard him on this tape!

Thoroughly engaging live album!.......2000-05-02

When I first heard HUMBLE YOURSELF AS A CHILD, I was surprised at who I thought was James Taylor, singing a song on Christian radio. A call to the radio station corrected me and thus was my pleasant introduction to Jim Cole.

Jim Cole is a talented singer/songwriter whose gift shines in the studio as well, if not even more so, live on the stage. I think a true measure of an artist's gift is if they can stand on a bare stage with only a guitar and beautifully communicate their message and music without the benefits of studio "magic". Jim Cole passes such a test with flying colors.

This album is well paced with heartflet songs which range musically from soft and mellow, (HE IS THE ONE, LIGHT OF THE WORLD, MASTER OF MY HEART/JUST TO KNOW THE LAMB, SIMPLE SONG) to upbeat,(HUMBLE YOURSELF AS A CHILD, WAYWARD SON) to light and humorous. (RAILROAD BILL, OFFERING SONG, LAUNDRY BLUES)

There really isn't a disappointing song on the entire album which is rare on a live recording no matter what genre you might be considering. In fact, I like most of these recordings better than the studio versions. While comparisons with James Taylor are inevitable, Jim Cole has proven here that he is a gifted singer/songwriter in his own right.

Entertaining, thoughtful...and funny!.......1999-07-01

I came across this recording through a friend, and immediately got my own copy! Cole's music is wonderful, and his sense of humor shows that Christians can be fun, too. Thanks for the great music!

Standing Ovation for Jim Cole.......1998-12-02

Until I heard this CD, I had never heard of Jim Cole (forgive me). One listen, and I was hooked. Cole is an incredibly gifted singer/songwriter whose performance both vocally and on the guitar left me amazed that he is not a household name.

Yes, he sounds a lot like James Taylor (a fact that he even pokes fun at), but don't let this fool you. Cole is not a derivative Taylor clone -- his music is both original and deeply personal, and displays dimensions I have never heard in James Taylor's work.

Alternating between solemn songs full of deep truth to light-hearted, humerous numbers, Cole knows just how to keep his audience thoroughly engaged. Just when things are on the brink of getting too serious, he jolts them with a good dose of humor. "Railroad Bill", in particular, is one of the most cleverly humerous songs I have ever heard.

Tracks:

Fanfare For The Common Man - Dallas SO/Donald Johanos
The Entertainer - Roger Shields
Maple Leaf Rag - Roger Shields
Adagio - New Zealand SO/Andrew Schenck
Rhap In Blue - Eugene List
Sym No.9 in e ' From The New World': Largo - LSO/Philip Gibson
The Carousel Waltz - Cincinnati Pops Orch/Erich Kunzel
The Grand Canyon Ste: On The Trail - LSO/Philip Gibson
The Stars And Strips Forever March - Cincinnati Pops Orch/Erich Kunzel

Music:

Music

Music

1. He Is the One
2. Merciful God
3. You've Got a Friend
4. I Can Trust in You
5. Light of the World
6. Humble Youself as a Child
7. Railroad Bill
8. Servant's Heart
9. Offering Song
10. Wayward Son
11. Laundry Blues
12. Every Generation
13. Master of My Heart/Just to Know the Lamb
14. Simple Song