Just for fun, try playing this CD as a quiz for a musically knowledgeable friend. You can give one hint: the composer is well known. As the suite from the operetta The Bride Elect proceeds, you'll probably get guesses like Johann Strauss (during the opening waltz), Offenbach, or Victor Herbert. But when the concluding number, a march, arrives, the composer will be obvious. Sousa's operettas, if one judges from these orchestral selections, aren't highly original or even outstandingly tuneful. But they are good light entertainment, especially as played by this crack group of Slovak players under the direction of Sousa expert Keith Brion. Naxos's recording is as crisp and clear as the orchestral playing.
2 The Bride Elect: Tarantella: The Dancing Girl (Ballet: People Who Live in Glass Houses)
3 The Bride Elect: The Champagnes
4 The Bride Elect: The Rhine Wines
5 The Bride Elect: White Rock and Psyches
6 The Bride Elect: The Whiskies - Scotch, Irish, Bourbon, and Rye
7 The Bride Elect: Convention of the Cordial, Wines, and Whiskies
8 The Bride Elect: March
9 El Capitan: Selections
10 El Capitan: O Warrior Grim
11 El Capitan: Waltzes
12 El Capitan: March
13 Our Flirtations: Overture
14 Our Flirtations: March
Just for fun, try playing this CD as a quiz for a musically knowledgeable friend. You can give one hint: the composer is well known. As the suite from the operetta The Bride Elect proceeds, you'll probably get guesses like Johann Strauss (during the opening waltz), Offenbach, or Victor Herbert. But when the concluding number, a march, arrives, the composer will be obvious. Sousa's operettas, if one judges from these orchestral selections, aren't highly original or even outstandingly tuneful. But they are good light entertainment, especially as played by this crack group of Slovak players under the direction of Sousa expert Keith Brion. Naxos's recording is as crisp and clear as the orchestral playing.
