Music for Grownups Reviews: Frankie Valli, Gustavo Dudamel
By: Ricahrd Gehr | Source: AARP.org | 2008-07-22
Richard Gehr is a veteran music critic based in New York City. His reviews for AARP.org appear every Tuesday; his columns on Thursdays.
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
"The Motown Years"
Hip-oSelect.com/Motown
Although the chart success they enjoyed in the 1960s later eluded them, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons created some of their richest, most sophisticated music from 1972-75. That period marked a stint with Berry Gordy's Motown label. It began with Valli and the Seasons' "Chameleon," released in 1972, which responded to a new generation of adult-oriented singer-songwriters. The album had a symphonic prelude, future British-soul hit "The Night," and the hippie-riffic "Touch the Rainchild." Valli's dubiously titled 1975 solo album, "Inside You," contained an intriguing hodgepodge of driving Motown rhythms, tunes borrowed from Broadway and the movies, and another version of "The Night." Not just for collectors, "The Motown Years" spotlights another facet of the world's most successful doo-wop group.
Gustavo Dudamel/Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela
"Fiesta"
Deutsche Grammophon
In this recording, the 27-year-old future conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has led his hometown orchestra to produce some of the most exciting classical music I've heard in ages. All eight composers, with one exception, are from countries south of the U.S. border. And by the time the orchestra reaches the ecstatic, concluding movement of Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera's ballet suite, "Estancia," prodigy Gustavo Dudamel has dissolved the boundary separating classical and dance music. Dessert consists of a live version of the ensemble's already legendary take on Leonard Bernstein's "Mambo" from "West Side Story," which can be enjoyed here in all its colorfully choreographed glory.
"The Motown Years"
Hip-oSelect.com/Motown
Although the chart success they enjoyed in the 1960s later eluded them, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons created some of their richest, most sophisticated music from 1972-75. That period marked a stint with Berry Gordy's Motown label. It began with Valli and the Seasons' "Chameleon," released in 1972, which responded to a new generation of adult-oriented singer-songwriters. The album had a symphonic prelude, future British-soul hit "The Night," and the hippie-riffic "Touch the Rainchild." Valli's dubiously titled 1975 solo album, "Inside You," contained an intriguing hodgepodge of driving Motown rhythms, tunes borrowed from Broadway and the movies, and another version of "The Night." Not just for collectors, "The Motown Years" spotlights another facet of the world's most successful doo-wop group.
Gustavo Dudamel/Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela
"Fiesta"
Deutsche Grammophon
In this recording, the 27-year-old future conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has led his hometown orchestra to produce some of the most exciting classical music I've heard in ages. All eight composers, with one exception, are from countries south of the U.S. border. And by the time the orchestra reaches the ecstatic, concluding movement of Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera's ballet suite, "Estancia," prodigy Gustavo Dudamel has dissolved the boundary separating classical and dance music. Dessert consists of a live version of the ensemble's already legendary take on Leonard Bernstein's "Mambo" from "West Side Story," which can be enjoyed here in all its colorfully choreographed glory.
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