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This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.
Notes and Editorial Reviews
They don't make collections like this any more! Or so it seems. Yet can musical tastes really have changed so radically from the days when people would patiently turn over a 78rpm record for the second half of Boieldieu's La dame blanche Overture? I think not, and that there must surely be a welcome for such a collection of charmingly melodious, unpretentious and yet well-crafted pieces as on this CD. Paul Paray (1886–1979), conductor of an American orchestra, had a name that never sounded quite as quintessentially French as that of, say, Pierre Monteux, but he was a genuine son of Normandy who in his seventies could still bring out the Gallic warmth, excitement and sparkle of these pieces. I particularly admired the orchestral interplay in
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the marches Saint-Saens marches and the solo passages in the Offenbach and Rossini overtures. The recording sounds just a shade raw with the violins at the top of their range, but generally the warmth and richness of sound make it quite unbelievable that these recordings are now 30-odd years old.'
-- Andrew Lamb, Gramophone, 11/1993
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Works on This Recording
1.
Le Prophète: Coronation March by Giacomo Meyerbeer
Conductor:
Paul Paray
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1849; Germany
Date of Recording: 04/1959
Venue: Old Orchestra Hall, Detroit, Michigan
2.
Marche funèbre d'une marionette by Charles Gounod
Conductor:
Paul Paray
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1872/1879; France
Date of Recording: 04/1959
Venue: Old Orchestra Hall, Detroit, Michigan
Length: 3 Minutes 31 Secs.
3.
La dame blanche: Overture by François Boieldieu
Conductor:
Paul Paray
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1825; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 11/1960
Venue: Cass Technical High School, Detroit, MI
4.
Les contes d'Hoffmann: Suite by Jacques Offenbach
Conductor:
Paul Paray
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1881; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 04/1959
Venue: Old Orchestra Hall, Detroit, Michigan
5.
Marche Militaire Française by Camille Saint-Saëns
Conductor:
Paul Paray
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1880; France
Date of Recording: 04/1959
Venue: Old Orchestra Hall, Detroit, Michigan
6.
Marche héroïque in E flat major, Op. 34 by Camille Saint-Saëns
Conductor:
Paul Paray
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1871; France
Date of Recording: 04/1959
Venue: Old Orchestra Hall, Detroit, Michigan
7.
Si j'étais roi: Overture by Adolphe Adam
Conductor:
Paul Paray
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: ?1852; France
Date of Recording: 11/1960
Venue: Cass Technical High School, Detroit, MI
8.
La belle Hélène: Overture by Jacques Offenbach
Conductor:
Paul Paray
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1864; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 04/1959
Venue: Old Orchestra Hall, Detroit, Michigan
9.
Orphée aux enfers: Overture by Jacques Offenbach
Conductor:
Paul Paray
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: Paris, France
Date of Recording: 04/1959
Venue: Old Orchestra Hall, Detroit, Michigan
Notes: Composition written: Paris, France (1858).
Composition revised: Paris, France (1874).
10.
Chant de guerre pour l'armée du Rhin "La marseillaise" by Claude-Joseph de Lisle
Conductor:
Paul Paray
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Period: Classical
Written: 1792; France
Date of Recording: 04/1959
Venue: Old Orchestra Hall, Detroit, Michigan
Length: 1 Minutes 8 Secs.
11.
Guillaume Tell: Overture by Gioachino Rossini
Conductor:
Paul Paray
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1829; Italy
Date of Recording: 01/1959
Venue: Ford Auditorium, Detroit, Michigan
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: 
( 1 Customer Review )
A Great Reissue of Mercury Living Presence May 16, 2015
By Robert Abbott (louisville, KY) See All My Reviews
"Paray had a way with French marches! And Mercury had a superb way of recording them. As a march freak, I bought the album for the well known Meyerbeer Coronation March and the Saint-Saens Marche Militaire Francaise. The Offenbach Tales of Hoffman and the Gounod Funeral March of a Marionette and of course the Rossini William Tell were icing on the cake. Amazing what good playing and good recording from 1959 and 1960 could do."
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