Jan Vogler, Bill Murray – New Worlds (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Jan Vogler, Bill Murray – New Worlds (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:00 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © UMC – Decca Gold

This thoroughly offbeat release arose as the result of a chance meeting in 2013 between comic actor Bill Murray and cellist Jan Vogler, and it has the kind of spontaneity that background might imply. Some will buy it on the strength of Murray’s name, and you might sample sheer vaudevillian joy of his version of “It Ain’t Necessarily So”: it’s worth the purchase price all by itself. Murray’s Jeanie with Light Brown Hair…maybe not so much. But the attraction of the album is not the musical value of Murray’s singing or Vogler’s cello, but rather the variety of the program. Murray reads Walt Whitman and James Fenimore Cooper and Mark Twain, not to mention James Thurber, with classical chamber pieces as background, or solo. He’s actually quite an effective reader, achieving a vernacular American tone without a hint of cornball. He sings. Vogler plays instrumental pieces. The Thurber is framed by Ravel’s “Blues” movement from his Violin Sonata in G major, not so much because of a perceived similarity in attitude, but because the phrasing works in the organization of the piece. Henry Mancini’s Moon River breaks off for almost 15 minutes of Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, far longer than any of the other literary excerpts on the album, and for no very good reason. This damages the balance of the program as a whole, but it fits the program’s lively spirit. As you might expect from Murray, it’s a great deal of fun. – James Manheim

Tracklist:

1-01. Bill Murray & Jan Vogler – Saint-Saëns: The Carnival Of The Animals, R.125-The Swan / Blessing The Boats (02:49)
1-02. Bill Murray – Song Of The Open Road / Song Of Myself (03:41)
1-03. Jan Vogler – J.S. Bach: Suite For Cello Solo No.1 In G Major, BWV 1007-1. Prélude (02:29)
1-04. Bill Murray & Jan Vogler – Schubert: Piano Trio No.1 In B Flat, Op.99 D.898-2. Andante un poco mosso / The Deerslayer (05:30)
1-05. Bill Murray – Gershwin: Porgy and Bess-It Ain’t Necessarily So (05:13)
1-06. Jan Vogler – Piazzolla: Muerte del Angel (03:08)
1-07. Bill Murray & Jan Vogler – When Will I Ever Learn To Live In God (05:36)
1-08. Jan Vogler & Bill Murray – Mancini: Moon River / Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (15:58)
1-09. Jan Vogler & Bill Murray – Foster: I Dream Of Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair (05:46)
1-10. Bill Murray – Ravel: Sonata in G Major for Violin and Piano-2. Blues (Moderato) / If Grant Had Been Drinking At Appomattox (07:13)
1-11. Bill Murray & Jan Vogler – Bernstein: West Side Story-Somewhere (02:58)
1-12. Bill Murray & Jan Vogler – Bernstein: West Side Story-I Feel Pretty (02:02)
1-13. Jan Vogler & Bill Murray – Bernstein: West Side Story-America (02:32)

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