Edward Johnson writes…
Tchaikovsky … From “The Seasons” …
Lang Lang, piano …
Georgii Cherkin, piano and arranger, with the Classic FM MTel Orchestra, conductor Grigor Palikarov …
Neeme Jarvi and the Detroit Symphony play Alexander Gauk’s orchestration …
Frank Sinatra sings “April in Paris” …
Al Jolson sings “April Showers” impersonated by Larry Parks in ‘The Jolson Story’ …
At the suggestion of Leonard Slatkin…
A non-musical item for April 1st … In 1957 on that very day for BBC’s ‘Panorama’, Richard Dimbleby reported on a Swiss family harvesting an excellent spaghetti crop from local spaghetti trees. This broadcast remains a remarkable entry into April 1st legends …
Here’s another BBC April Fools … Flying Penguins! …
Memo to Colin … Please add your own April suggestions!
Okay, thanks Edward. I can offer a musical equivalent to spaghetti trees and flying penguins…
… namely Mykola Ovsianiko Kulikovsky’s Symphony No.21 in G-minor (1809)
St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra [sic]/Yuri Serov; in fact, composer and music was entirely the creation of Mikhail Goldstein (1917–1989), although it seems to have fooled Mravinsky…
Goldstein also wrote Borodin’s Cello Sonata (in B-minor).
And there was the classic EMI release, “Celibidache Adagio”,
Bernstein: Overture to Candide
Glinka: Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla
TT: 75 minutes.
It’s a disc rarely out of my player and remains available on Warner Classics, its XL label.