Portrait of P.D.Q. Bach by by Harris Poor, Loren Glickman, P.D.Q. [pseudonym of Peter Schickele] Bach

Portrait of P.D.Q. Bach

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Portrait of P.D.Q. Bach

Features

Composer: P.D.Q. [pseudonym of Peter Schickele] Bach

Conductor: Peter Schickele

Performer: Harris Poor, Loren Glickman, et al.

Label: Vanguard Records

Catalog Number: 79399

Audio CD (January 25, 1990)

Number of Discs: 1

Reader Reviews
I spent a long time looking for this! Some P.D.Q.Bach output is frankly poor slapstick - no doubt funny in concert, but it doesn't wear well on disc. However, I can forgive all for the `Eine Kleine Nichtsmusik': a delight to any classical music fan with a sense of humour. As far as I can make out, the strings play Mozart's `Eine Kleine Nachtsmusik' pretty straight, while the brass and wind play anything else from the concert repertoire which harmonizes even vaguely. The result is deliciously outrageous (the sudden fanfare from `Petrushka' is wonderful) and occasionally sublime (however did he spot that `I Dream of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair' goes with the slow movement?). Here, at least, Schickele has achieved the high level of some of the Gerard Hoffnung music festivals. The `Echo Sonata' is also fun - a simple idea, nicely executed. The `Missa' is OK (especially the Gloria and the hippy Sanctus), but some of the performers (and more so in the carols) have perhaps not realized that musical humour needs to be performed with style, not just bashed through, or the impact of the contrast (serious music vs. joke) is lost. (Of other P.D.Q.Bach offerings, my favourite is `Iphigenia in Brooklyn'.)

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