Now Listen: the Best of [Import]

Product Description
Australian male vocalist. Shock. 2001.

Now Listen: the Best of,Ross Wilson,Shock,Rock,Vocal

Average customer rating: Pros & Cons for both versions Five for the work ,for Hickox at least four stars! Sir John's love is more impressive the first time around Five stars, but not the only choice.

Vaughan Williams - Sir John in Love / Hickox, Northern Sinfonia Ralph Vaughan Williams , Richard Hickox , Anne-Marie Owens , Sarah Connolly , Northern Sinfonia and Chorus , Brian Bannatyne-Scott , Donald Maxwell , Roderick Williams , Susan Gritton , Matthew Best , Mark Padmore , Stephen Varcoe , Stephan Loges , John Bowen , Richard Lloyd-Morgan , Laura Claycomb , Henry Moss , and Mark Richardson Manufacturer: Chandos ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Vaughan Williams, Ralph | ( V ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music General | Vaughan Williams, Ralph | Composers | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music General Contemporary | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music English | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music Operettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music Similar Items: Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Pilgrim's Progress - Gerald Finley / The Royal Opera Chorus / The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Richard Hickox Ralph Vaughan Williams: A Cotswold Romance / Death of Tintagiles - London Philharmonic Choir / London Symphony Orchestra / Richard Hickox Vaughan Williams: Hugh the Drover Vaughan Williams: The Pilgrim's Progress: A Bunyan Sequence Vaughan Williams: Sir John In Love ASIN: B00005M0ER Release Date: 2001-07-24

Tracks:

1. Act I: Orchestral introduction-What hoa, what hoa
2. Act I: Ahem
3. Act I: This is my father's choice
4. Act I: How now, what does Master Fenton here?
5. Act I: Vere is dat knave Rugby?
6. Act I: Episode
7. Act I: How now, mine Host of the Garter
8. Act I: I spy entertainment in her...
9. Act I: Wilt thou revenge...?
10. Act I: Love my wife? I will be patient
11. Act II: Orchestral introduction-Thine own true knight
12. Act II: Scene 1: Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more
13. Act II: Scene 2: Bardolph! Bardolph, I say!
14. Act II: Scene 2: Go thy ways, go thy ways, old Jack!
15. Act II: Scene 2: Sir, my name is Brook
16. Act II: Scene 2: Ha, is this a vision?

Tracks:

1. Act III: Scene 1 Interlude: Orchestral introduction-Yet hear me speak
2. Act III: Scene 1 Interlude: Fair and fair and twice so fair
3. Act III: Scene 1 Interlude: But listen, good mine Host
4. Act III: Scene 2: Orchestral introduction-When as we sat in Papylon
5. Act III: Scene 2: Yonder he's coming
6. Act III: Scene 2: Come, Master Ford
7. Act III: Scene 2: Orchestral-introduction-What, John! What, Robert!
8. Act III: Scene 3: Alas, my love, you do me wrong
9. Act III: Scene 3: Mistress Ford!
10. Act III: Scene 3: Ah!
11. Act IV: Orchestral introduction-Pardon me, wife
12. Act IV: Scene 1: There is an old tale goes that Herne the hunter
13. Act IV: Scene 1: Interlude
14. Act IV: Scene 2: Orchestral introduction
15. Act IV: Scene 2: The Windsor bell hath struck twelve
16. Act IV: Scene 2: Ah-Who Comes here?
17. Act IV: Scene 2: But till 'tis one o'clock
18. Act IV: Scene 2: Dance of the Fairies
19. Act IV: Scene 2: But stay! I smell a man of middle earth
20. Act IV: Scene 2: Nay, do not fly
21. Act IV: Scene 2: My heart misgives me
22. Act IV: Scene 2: Stand not amazed

Customer Reviews:

Pros & Cons for both versions.......2005-08-30

Boito took Shakespeare's Merry Wives, added a little Henry IV (e.g. the Honour Monologue) and shaped, moulded and cut them about to make a libretto that focused tightly on the Fat Knight and was absolutely perfect for what Verdi wanted. Out of it came one of the greatest of all comic operas.

With VW, you get something much closer to the Shakespearean original, teeming with richly drawn characters and all the variety of Elizabethan/Jacobean life bustling past. Falstaff is merely the primus inter pares among them, albeit a huge one. Out of it came a great comic opera. And one that has been too seldom performed, standing in the long shadow of its predecessor.

Vaughan Williams, who was a great admirer of the Verdi piece, knew that comparisons would inevitably be made. (He would also have included his friend, Holst's, At the Boar's Head as a real rival from the Falstaff canon.) But comparisons are invidious. The VW and the Verdi operas are not comparable, either in their intentions or in their music. And both should be allowed to co-exist happily as companion pieces, not as rivals as two great comic operas we're fortunate to have.

Perhaps I protest too much. But the Vaughan Williams is such invigorating, life-enhancing, often ravishingly beautiful stuff that I'd hate to see it slip off the end of the shelf. Verdi is lauded as the great tunesmith, but how many tunes from Falstaff can you recall - Nanetta's last act aria, perhaps, a couple of snippets of Fenton, the final fugue maybe, or Sir John's 'Quand'ero paggio' which is so brief an aria that its original singer had to record it three times in succession to fill a 78 side. Perhaps that's why Falstaff is so badly represented on 78's compared to the other mature Verdi operas. Great music, yes, but singalongaFalstaff had, in his mature operas, ceased to be the composer's intention.

In Sir John in Love, on the other hand, the tunes just pour out one after the other. Which are genuine folksongs and which are VW originals is often hard to tell without a score in front of you (where the composer comes clean). Just listen to the way Dr. Caius' 'Vray Dieu d'Amour' takes over the orchestra or how 'Lovely Joan' (the tune in the trio of the famous Greensleeves Fantasia) heralds Mistress Quickly's arrival and 'Greensleeves' in situ is even lovelier than in the Fantasia. But then listen to the gorgeous tune that accompanies Ann Page's entrance, the wonderful melody for Ford's plea for forgiveness from his wife or the magical chorus that accompanies the arrival of the real bride and groom in the final scene. Those are all VW originals and great ones, to boot.

Choosing between the two performances of the piece on disc, it's a question of swings and roundabouts. This Chandos recording with Hickox at the helm benefits from his direction - a bit tauter, a little more spring to the rhythms than Davies and the choral contributions are as polished as you'd expect from a seasoned choral specialist. The Chandos recording, too, is a bit more up to date in terms of sound, a bit fuller and richer. EMI, on the other hand, probably has the superior cast with the likes of Robert Tear, Felicity Palmer, Helen Watts and Robert Lloyd seeing off their Chandos counterparts. Honours between the two Falstaffs are more even. Neither is ideal in the part. Herincx has the 'fatter' voice: Maxwell on this recording is the more characterful. But a piece like the madrigal that Sir John sings before Ford/Brook's arrival needs more warmth and more steadiness than either of them provide (would Bryn ever consider it as a partner to his Verdi Falstaff?).

It's a tough choice between the two versions. Choose the EMI for the cast (including, by a short head, Herincx's Flastaff). Choose this Chandos set for the conducting, the chorus and the more modern sound.

Five for the work ,for Hickox at least four stars!.......2001-11-09

(Here my review for Davies - EMI "British composers" recording
of this masterwork.)
If you feel that Verdi has beautyfull music but it has a too much thick blood, and you think that beauty must be tensed by reason; You are looking at the right composer.
This opera or musical drama (in the wagnerian sense, cause it is a romantic comedy) makes a very whole unit, the "areas" and the recited-sung recitatives are in funtion of the "dramatic" momentum and inerce of the work. It's incredible how pleasently quick this work is heard, and yes it's very entretaining (I know that's not necesary a virtue for an opera, but here it is).
The music, well, is gorgeous as might be expected from V.W., transitions are well sewn, and the traditonal folk songs add a dash or elizabethian romanticism.
The cast is strong, Hendrix is very suited for the rol, but you may fantacised how well this rol will be portrayed now by Bryn Terfel, It's sad that Hickox not thinck (or did he?)of this in his new recording of this opera (perhaps Chandos not provide him with the budget that Abado's can manage for his new DG. Falstaff recording).
Maybe Langridge will sound more youthfull than Tear, but that is a small detail. Hellen Watts it's spicy and perky Mrs. Quickly, and Gerald English Caius' is is excellent!
Davies captures V.W. orchestration very well with a ADD recording that will cause envy in this days, and the price, is to laugh about.
Treat you and buy this forgotten treasure!

Sir John's love is more impressive the first time around.......2001-08-05

While I generally agree with the review of Ahmed Ismael, I must give the nod to the earlier EMI recording, which has greater depth and spread to the sound. Chandos engineers have practically placed the voices in our laps with a resultant loss of orchestral detail. The work is, of course, lovely but if the ear is fatigued by the sound the myriad beauties cannot make their full effect. If one adds to this the fact that the EMI is a midprice reissue the choice becomes even more clear. Bravo to Hickox and company but no standing ovation this time.

Five stars, but not the only choice........2001-07-26

Vaughan Williams's comic "Sir John in Love" is one of those true opera rarities--an opera whose highlights become more impressive as the music progresses. Indeed, the true highlight of this opera is its final "Windsor Forest" scene in Act IV, where all the action is resolved, and everyone gets their "just desserts."

If this were the first recording of the opera available, it would be easy to recommend it to any VW (or opera!) enthusiast--the orchestral details are abundant and vividly present, the choral contribution is alive and infectious, and the vocal parts are well-presented and clear. However, there is in additional recording, in EMI's British Composer series, conducted by Meredith Davies. While many comparisons are stacked in the new version's favor, there are a few shortcomings that prevent an absolute recommendation.

Where Hickox succeeds over Davies is particularly in the portrayal of Anne Page and her several suitors. Susan Gritton sings more effectively than Wendy Eathorne, while both Daniel Norman (Slender) and Adrian Thompson (Caius) seem more plausible as suitors than Bernard Dickerson and Gerald English, respectively--although overall English makes a more vivid Caius. However, there is no question that Mark Padmore is the better Fenton: as well as Robert Tear sings for Davies, I can't shake the impression that he is wooing an Amazon, and not the girl-next-door Anne.

While the supporting cast is marginally to markedly superior for Hickox, with the Fords and Pages are fairly evenly matched between the two performances, the one clear victory of the Davies version is a significant one. As the title character, Donald Maxwell's Falstaff is no match for Raimund Herincx, either in characterization or in vocal quality. Additionally, the EMI set benefits from a superior recording--there's more of a sense of a performance in a real space, which adds an extra dimension to the rather static performance as presented by Hickox. Occasionally, Hickox also omits some dramatic effects (such as gasps from the onstage characters in Act III and laughter from the chorus in Act IV) which adds to the sense that this is only a "recording" and not a "performance."

All in all, there is much to recommend the new version, but confronted with a choice between this set and the Davies set on EMI, personal taste will have to suffice in choosing between them. [You may want to sample them both before buying either.]

Average customer rating: A garage band with roots The Charms grow up

Pussycat Manufacturer: Red Car ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music Glam | Classic Rock | Styles | Music Similar Items: So Pretty Charmed I'm Sure Strange Magic One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This Kinks (The Ultimate Collection) ASIN: B000CAFCGA Release Date: 2005-05-17

Customer Reviews:

A garage band with roots.......2007-02-21

This is a band that has done their homework. To me - at least - a lot of todays so called "Garage Bands" sound like they listened to a couple of cds from 60's &/or 80's new wave bands, they just don't have much bases to draw from. The Charms sound like a band that really loves this kind of music.

cdbaby has new copyies the bands 3 CDs.

The Charms grow up.......2006-04-20

On their third release the Charms put it all together. There is simply not a bad song on this cd. It stands up to...no, it REQUIRES repeated playings!! The song writing is excellent-lyrically and musically. The distintive farfisa is still there but guitar player Joe Wizda steals the show-nothing flashy, but a brilliant rocking presence throughout. Singer Ellie Vee has found her voice and what a voice it is, sexy and sultry or peeling the paint off your walls. "Red cherry lips-that's what I talk about you with" is the opening line of the disc and from there it jsut gets better....you won't be disappointed if you buy this cd!

Average customer rating:

Now Listen: Best of Ross Wilson Ross Wilson Manufacturer: Shock Music Oz ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music ASIN: B000260P9I Release Date: 2005-03-14

Tracks:

1. Eagle Rock
2. Baby Let Me Bang Your Box
3. Come Back Again
4. Hi Honey Ho
5. Teenage Blues
6. I'll Never Smile Again
7. Living in the Land of Oz
8. Fugitive Kind
9. State of the Heart
10. Cool World
11. Chemistry
12. No Time
13. Come Said the Boy
14. Primitive Love Rites
15. Bed of Nails
16. Slave to My Emotions
17. Same as Me
18. Touch of Paradise
19. Louie Louie
20. You're Good for Me
21. You've All Got to Go
22. Gentle Art
23. Virgins
24. Woman of the World
25. Love Is the Law
26. Make It Begin
27. Hard Drugs
28. Mood
29. Love Shock
30. Primal Park

Album Description

Australian male vocalist. Shock. 2001.

Album Details

The Most Comprehensive Anthology from Legendary Australian Singer/Songwriter and Lead Singer of Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock. Ross Wilson is also Known to Millions of Children (And Parents) around the World as "King Mondo" of the Wiggles Fame.

Rock Music:

1. Oil Tan Bow
2. On My Mind [CD-single] [Enhanced] [Import]
3. On Your Radio [Box set] [Import]
4. Phew [Import]
5. Pocket Rock [Import]
6. Princessa Remix Collection [Import]
7. Reality [Import]
8. River Sessions [Import]
9. Rokk in Reykjavik
10. Santa Mental [Enhanced] [Import]

Rock Music