Search - John Philip Sousa, Louis Ganne, Mariano San Miguel :: Fennell Conducts Hands Across the Sea

Vintage march collection for connoisseurs

05/25/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It seems like the heyday for recorded march collections was the early stereo era. The classic Mercury recordings by Fennell and the Eastman Wind Ensemble dating from that time no doubt contribute to that impression. In this collection, they demonstrate the seriousness with which they approach this repertoire by unearthing some lesser known (at least in the US) pieces to go along with the usual Sousa-esque fare. However, there is no sense that they scraped the bottom of the barrel: all of these marches are first rate. Even the less familiar marches will have you humming along in no time, so infectious are they. These performers bring their usual gutsy exuberance and the necessary polish, too. The sound is on the bold side so turn the volume down a bit for this one."

Happy music

L. J. Ryan | 08/28/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I could't offer a technical critique of this c.d,instead I'll attempt to describe the enjoyment it gave me.Imagine you're sitting in your car listening to the radio,not terribly enthusiastic about getting out to start work.You become aware there's a bright ,cheerful sounding tune being played-vaguely familiar,I find myself tapping out the beat and humming along-what's this called then?Then we get to the part I can identify-DAH-DAHdeDAHdeDAH-DAH-DAH-Oh,of course,it's the music they used in "The Hunters",oh the memories that brought back.That tune got me out of the car ,through the day's turmoil,and when I woke up the next morning at 3a.m.,it was still going throgh my head!Okay,log onto Amazon,click,click,all I've gotta do now is contain my impatience .The C.D. duly arrived,suffice it to say it exceeded all my expectations regarding quality and content and has become one of my favourites.













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