What Are You Listening To? August 2023

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Nelson Riddle - The Untouchables (TV soundtrack 1960)

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Vinyl Spin of the Day, the actual album my mom picked up in the bargain bin at Alpha Beta Supermarket some 60 plus years ago. Mono, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

After supplying titles like "Tender-Ness", "Dauntless-Ness", "Reckless-Ness", "Wistful-Ness", "Dejected-Ness" and "Suspenseful-Ness", Riddle can almost be forgiven for adding another track called "Eliot Ness". However, the pulsing, jazzy music more than atones for his linguistic sins. The sound derives from the big band jazz of the fifties (think Verve-era Basie) rather than to the Roaring 20's.

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Bewitched-ness
 
^ That looks strangely interesting. How is it?
Discovering this album is a bit like stumbling across a trunk full of vintage costume jewelry in your grandmother's attic. There are no weighty diamonds here, but rather a trove of colorful gems from another century.

Zandonai was a contemporary of Ottorino "Pines and Fountains Of Rome" Respighi, so we would expect to hear melodic string pieces on the lighter side. The Spettro Armonico Chamber Orchestra does deliver those. Zandonai was a versatile composer, with output ranging from opera to sacred to symphonic, even motion picture soundtracks. Six of the thirteen selections here are his rearrangements of earlier works by Bach, Handel, Mendelssohn and the like for strings. But the "surprises" include a dance for 4-handed piano and a delightful mazurka for piano and guitar :oops:. There are also four beautiful romantic songs arranged for voice, harp and strings.

To answer your question, as long as you are not expecting Teutonic bombast I think you will find this one a fascinating glimpse into Italian life before the World Wars.

:4.5: on the Sam-O-Meter.

Alas, not on Spotify. :vic:
 
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