VA - Big Box of Broadway (2018)

The Vanguard Recording Company's treasure-trove of historic recordings has been reissued at bargain prices in a series of digital releases. After enjoying several releases of classical music and a release of American ragtime, I decided to explore this new "Big Broadway Box". I was glad to have the opportunity to explore some of America's achievements in music.

This Big Box of Broadway consists of 87 tracks and about five hours of music. It includes orchestral performances of overtures and songs by Rogers and Hammerstein, orchestral music by Leonard Bernstein arrangements for piano and small combo of music by Jerome Kern and Cole Porter, and a further collection of Porter's songs for voice and piano. The material has all been previously released on LP or CD but none of it has been made available before in digital format. Some of the performances had become difficult to find, thus enhancing the value of this compilation in making the music accessible. With a few small glitches, the sound quality is high.

With so much enjoyable material in this box, the collaboration between mezzo-soprano Joan Morris and pianist William Bolcom was special and the highlight of the collection. Morris and Bolcom, husband and wife, taught at the University of Michigan for many years and performed and recorded a great deal of American popular song. Their collaboration in this box on 26 songs by Cole Porter is a joy. Porter did not orchestrate his songs, and the piano-voice scoring is how he wrote them. The music is tart and popular but still has almost the feel of art music. Both Morris and Bolcom clearly love this music and the collaboration between them has an intimate feel. There are many familiar songs beautifully performed in this box, including, "In the Still of the Night", "Night and Day", "Begin the Beguine", "Love for Sale" and more. It is a delight to have It is a gift to have the Morris/Bolcom performances of Porter alone. This is the only vocal material presented in this "Big Box of Broadway". I would have loved more but am more than pleased with the contents of the box.

Still, there is more to the box. George Feyer (1908 -- 2001) was a European born and trained classical pianist who became famous for his recordings of popular music. His double CD sets with a back-up jazz combo of the music of Cole Porter and Jerome Kern for Vanguard, are included here. The recordings are fresh, lively and thoroughly enjoyable. I enjoyed having the combo version to go with the lovely performance of Porter's songs by Morris and Bolcom. The arrangements of Jerome Kern's songs, including works such as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Old Man River" "Can't Help Loving that Man of Mine", and "I've Told Every Little Star" among many others,are also highly idiomatic and appealing. .

The highlight for me of the orchestral works in this box was a recording of Leonard Bernstein's Orchestral scores and dances from "West Side Story" "Candide" and "On the Town" performed by Carl Davis conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. They offer excellent, lively performances of Bernstein's beloved orchestral scores. Bernstein made a famous recording of this music, but Davis' reading captures the spirit of the music in its own right. Eric Kunzel,(1935 -- 2009) the "Prince of Pops" conducts arrangements of songs by Rogers and Hammerstein and George Gershwin. The recordings offer a delightful way to hear these works.

This box offers the opportunity to explore a great deal of American Broadway music at a trivial price. America's artistic accomplishment, including The Great American Songbook, sometimes is undervalued. Vanguard has done a service in preserving these fine recordings and making them available.

Robin Friedman