Beauty and the Beast - English Chamber Orchestra with Carol Rosenberger
Everybody give a big "Happy Birthday" to ANGELA LANSBURY who turns 82 today! Angela is a stage and screen veteran, having been in the movie, television and theatre business since 1944 acting in such memorable project like The Picture of Dorian Gray, the Manchurian Candidate, Murder, She Wrote and Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks! My favourite film of Angela's is Beauty and the Beast.

So, to celebrate Angela Lansbury's birthday, I am posting a cover of the song she sang as Mrs. Potts, Beauty and the Beast. This particular recording was composed by Donald Fraser and is performed by the ENGLISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA with CAROL ROSENBERGER on the piano.

As with all the tracks on HEIGH-HO MOZART, this piece was re-written in the style of a great classical composer. In this case it is SERGEI RACHMANINOFF, a Russian composer and pianist whose work was influential in the Romantic era of classical music. He is known for his flowing melodies and beautiful piano scores. One of his most famous works, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is a standard in the classical world and is also used frequently in film.

This interpretation of Beauty and the Beast is modeled after one of his piano concertos. Rachmaninov had really big hands, allowing he to play thirteenths on the piano. You can hear this being mimicked in this track.

Beauty and the Beast English Chamber Orchestra 1995

Labels: beauty and the beast, beauty and the beast song, carol rosenberger, classical, english chamber orchestra, heigh-ho mozart, sergei rachmaninoff

  ¶ 7:32 AM 2 Comments Links to this post

  Kiss the Girl - English Chamber Orchestra
BIBBIDI-BOBBIDI-BACH is the second of two albums that take classic Disney songs and reinterpret them in the styles of various classical composers. On this album the Little Mermaid's love ballad Kiss the Girl was scored in the style of Finnish composer JEAN SIBELIUS. This piece is performed by the ENGLISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA.

When I first heard this piece I thought it sounded a lot like Wagner. But I when I looked at the liner notes I saw that it was in the style of Sibelius. Now I'm no expert on classical music so I searched Sibelius on Wikipedia and found out that Wagner is one of Sibelius' greatest inspirations!

This version of Kiss the Girl takes on a more dramatic approach. It turns this love song into a full out opera. It is unique and inventive. You have to listen very closely or you may not even recognize the song! The themes are there but they go through a few different variations.

Kiss the Girl English Chamber Orchestra 1996

Labels: bibbidi-bobbidi-bach, classical, english chamber orchestra, jean sibelius, kiss the girl, little mermaid

  ¶ 10:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post