Warning! Highly exciting! Handle With Care! "The Sounds of a Thousand Strings," 1959

 

One of my favorite mood music LPs, budget or otherwise, stereo or mono.  And this happens to be a stereo issue, and Crown Records really played up the stereo aspect: "This album is musical dynamite!  It may explode some of your previous ideas as to what is top stereo sound--and music."  Okay, okay--we get the point.

The label promises "Some of the most vibrant, colorful music you'll ever hear."  And we know this is so, if only because of the presence of such awesome fare as Grandfather's Clock and Little Brown Jug.  But, seriously, these are wonderful arrangements (by conductor de Treville, maybe?), and Journey Into Space (wish they'd given the composer) remains one of my favorite mood music tracks of all time.  (Love Affair is terrific, too.)  This edition was pressed in clear red vinyl, and the engineering is just fine, and there are only the occasional minor pressing imperfections.  Someone certainly got his or her 99 cents' worth back in the day.  I think I paid more than that, since this was likely an eBay acquisition versus a thrift find.  (I rarely remember when or where I come across my sound recordings.)

Because this is a budget product, there's a heapin' helpin' of public-domain material--Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Joseph Eastburn Winner (Jug), Henry Jay Work (Clock), and the very busy Author Unknown (Wayfaring Stranger).  But these are highly entertainingly presented.  In fact, they're graced by "just powerful, dazzling arrangements," and liner notes never lie, so...

Gosh, I wonder what famous light concert work could have inspired A Texan in Paris?  The title, at least.  And Exotic Island leaves no doubt as to which genre is being exploited.  Great stuff--but I caution you to handle the highly exciting zip file with care!  Exclamation mark.  I mean, this sonic dynamite might, um, damage your media player or something.  Leave a hole in it, perhaps?  So be careful...

Link follows:

DOWNLOAD: The Sounds of a Thousand Strings: Orch. Conducted by Antoine de Treville.

La Cucharacha

Love Affair

Journey Into Space

Dance Chinoise

Romance

Wayfaring Stranger

A Texan in Paris

Exotic Island

Minute Waltz

Grandfather's Clock

Dance de Mirlitons

Little Brown Jug

The Sounds of a Thousand Strings--Orch. conducted by Antonine de Treville (Crown CST 148; 1959)

Lee