Fiedler Encores

One of the last century’s great popularisers of art music, who introduced the names of Mozart and Strauss to millions, Arthur Fiedler recorded for several labels during his half century as music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Here are two Decca albums, reissued and compiled together for the first time on a single, generously filled (79-minute) CD. ‘Fiedler Encores’ was a 1978 album of substantial works somewhat belying its title, and displaying Fiedler’s gifts as a fiery, sympathetic interpreter of core-classical repertoire: included here are the roistering Finlandia of Sibelius and the equally fervent nationalism of Smetana in ‘Vltava’ from Ma vlast. The remainder of the album covers a still wider range of repertoire, encapsulated by the original title of the Decca LP (also recorded in Phase 4 stereo), ‘The Two Sides of Fiedler’. There are charming classical miniatures by Dvorak (two Slavonic Dances), Mendelssohn (the Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and balletic extracts from Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and Verdi’s Aida. The disc is rounded off in style by smooth arrangements of film and popular music, the kind of hits that kept the crowds coming to Boston Pops concert, with Fiedler the ever-genial bandmaster, throughout the postwar decades. John Williams’s themes for Spielberg’s Jaws and Star Wars; a swoony instrumental version of Sondheim’s ‘Send in the clowns’; and even songs by Streisand (Evergreen) and Neil Sedaka (Love will keep us together).

Tracks

1~1~Sibelius: Finlandia, Op. 26 No. 7
1~2~Smetana: Vltava (Má Vlast)
1~3~Dvorák: Slavonic Dance In C Major, Op. 46 No. 1
1~4~Dvorák: Slavonic Dance In C Major, Op. 72 No. 7
1~5~Mendelssohn: Wedding March (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
1~6~Humperdinck: Pantomime (Hänsel Und Gretel)
1~7~Verdi: Ballet Music From Aida
1~8~Chopin: Polonaise No. 3 In A Major, Op. 40 No. 1 'military' (Orch. Glazunov)
1~9~John Williams: Theme From 'star Wars'
1~10~Stephen Sondheim: Send In The Clowns (A Little Night Music)
1~11~John Williams: Theme From 'jaws'
1~12~Barbra Streisand: Evergreen
1~13~Neil Sedaka: Love Will Keep Us Together (Arr. Richard Hayman)

Details

Format: CD
Artist: The Boston Pops Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler
Release Date: 16 February 2018
Genre: Classical Music
Label: ELOQUENCE / DECCA
Distributor: Universal Music