GREAT RECORDINGS phase 16

KERN/HAMMERSTEIN II: SHOW BOAT
Frederica von Stade · Teresa Stratas · Jerry Hadley
Bruce Hubbard · Karla Burns · David Garrison
Paige O’Hara · Robert Nichols · Nancy Kulp · Lillian Gish
Ambrosian Chorus · London Sinfonietta
John McGlinn

3 61543 2 (Angel: 3 61554 2) (3CDs)
Recorded 1987
Stereo/DDD
222 minutes

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‘This is a remarkable, inspired achievement, as significant for committing the American musical to disc as the Solti Ring was for opera 50 years ago. The performance and recording are quite magnificent and quite irresistible.’
(The Gramophone)
Gramophone Award, GB; Caecilia Prijs, Belgium

The extraordinary success of this recording derived above all from the dedication and enthusiasm of the conductor John McGlinn, whose devotion to the Broadway musical of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s has been a lifelong mission. As curator of the composer’s manuscripts, McGlinn was uniquely placed to plan and execute a recording that would reflect the real stature of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein’s masterpiece.

McGlinn’s CD compilation contains a version of this classic musical that is firmly rooted in what was played at the 1927 New York premiere and faithful to Hammerstein’s original script, plus a scholarly 12-track appendix of Kern/Hammerstein try-outs, variants and additions. And of course Show Boat is a treasure trove of wonderful songs, including ‘Ol’ Man River’, ‘Make believe’, ‘Can’t help lovin’ dat man’, ‘Bill’ and ‘You are love’.

In addition, EMI provided McGlinn with authentic-sounding musicians in the London Sinfonietta and Ambrosian Chorus, and a magnificent cast of singers, headed by von Stade, Stratas, Hadley, Hubbard and Burns, who were able to assume the equally authentic ‘style’ of the American musical theatre of the times in which the show is set.