The sticker on the front of this disc proclaimed that it won the 1957 Grammy Award for Classical Music. I assume they meant the Offenbach, though that was not completely clear. As it is, that says more about the nature of such awards than it does this recording. While there is nothing wrong or bad about it, there just isn't a lot I can praise. I can think of other versions of Gaite I prefer, most notably Arthur Fiedler's recording on RCA. I can think of other classical compilations of snippets I prefer (any of Stokowski's from around this same period). Still, as I said, it isn't bad. The recording sound is, as usual for the FDS series, excellent. The performances are good. Despite my reservations, this would make a very good intro disc to give a novice investigating classical music.
Copyright © 2000, Robert Stumpf II