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CD Review

… such stuff as Dreams…

A Lullaby Album for Children and Adults

Disc 1 - Short pieces and excerpts by:

• Schumann, Kabalevsky, Schubert, Bartók, Mozart, Beethoven, Grieg, Ravel, Debussy, Brahms, Satie, and Mendelssohn

Disc 2:

• Franz Schubert: Impromptu in B Flat Major, Op. 142, #3
• Wolfgang Mozart: Sonata in A Major, K. 331
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata #30 in E Major, Op. 109

Carol Rosenberger, piano
Delos DE3230 2CDs 63:13, 62:04

Carol Rosenberger has been issuing a number of recordings over the past decade or so on Delos with a children's slant: several with "theme" ideas like Perchance to Dream, and the Prokofieff Music for Children. This one, while containing music that is fairly direct and quite soothing (shades of the many chant recordings!), lives up to its title of appealing to both children and adults by juxtaposing the simple with the noble (Kabalevsky's Dance on the Lawn precedes a snippet from the B Flat Major Schubert Impromptu), and the delightful with the serene (two of Brahms' Op. 39 Waltzes – #2 and 15 – are followed by his Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118, misprinted in the booklet and on the back cover as Op. 18).

And disc two, as you can glean from the headnote, contains three works not exactly for children. Each, however, is excerpted in a tranquil (read "fitting") passage on the more mellow disc one. So, inclusion of the full work on the second disc is most logical, and perhaps most educational to those younger listeners whose appetites might become whetted by the tempting morsels offered on the first disc. Also, potential listeners, young or old, can take disc two as a kind of antidote to the mesmerism induced by the first. The Beethoven sonata, for example, serene and noble though it can be (especially in the finale), is quite vigorous and rugged in spirit.

As for the performances themselves, Rosenberger not unexpectedly opts for a dreamier more tranquil approach to the music here, so that, for example, the Schubert Impromptu is the slowest and most laid back I know of. Her timing of 13:10 compared with, to cite just a few examples, Anievas' 11:42, Perahia's 10:55, and the splendid Uchida's 11:57, puts her in a class almost by herself. Her Beethoven, too, most notably in the finale, is slow, as well. Perhaps she reined in the tendency to show the music in a more assertive light, thereby keeping it close to the album's theme. In any event, she makes a good case for her approach, though I would prefer Brendel/Philips in the Beethoven Sonata and Uchida/Philips in the Schubert. The performances of the twenty-two selections on the first disc are uniformly well played.

The sound is slightly hazy throughout, perhaps deliberately so (in keeping with the "dreaminess" theme), and Rosenberger's pedaling makes noticeable swishing sounds here and there. The notes are informative, though pronunciations for "Debussy" and "van Beethoven" are erroneously given in the "Young People's Notes" as Deh bu SEE instead of Deh boo SEE, and as vahn BAY toh ven instead of fun BAY toh ven. This set, by the way, is specially priced. In sum, a mostly relaxing set for adults, an educational one for children.

Copyright © 1998, Robert Cummings