word_Harry

Three Little Words
$19.98
Great entertainment! The music, The dancing. Fred Astaire, Vera Ellen, even a few glimpses of Debbie Reynolds. Really nice to watch and hear. While the story line is not completely true-to-fact (isn't that what we expect from Hollywood?), the accompanying documentary in the Extras menu corrects some of the inaccuracies. Red Skelton is good also, and gets a chance at some comedy early in the film.

Harry Secombe Revisiting (Spoken Word)
$0.99

Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ
$16.99
Rarely has the emotional power and intensity of Mozart's Requiem been matched or even surpassed - not until Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ.

It is however of no less curiousity that surrounds this masterpiece of Haydn's towering genius; this version with chorus and soloists was by no means the first version of the work, which contrary to convention, began as a purely instrumental piece (and not choral) for liturgical purposes.

The genius of Haydn here is how uniquely different the results turn out to be when the music is put into different mediums and settings and the varying intensity of experience evoked with each setting.

The choral or oratorio version, the first dating from 1795, is probably the most powerful version; Haydn made some changes to the instrumentation and the score and of course adapted the voices, after hearing a lesser composer than himself arranged his original version for the chorus on his way back to Vienna. Also added was a wrenching Introduzione for winds and brass, which features a contrabassoon scored in his works for the first time - somewhat imitating the pipe organ - to great effect.

The unique and somewhat 'archaic' a capella addition before the main verses adds yet another dimension of pathos to the already sublime score.

For a truly unique 'twist' and appreciation of Haydn's skill with manipulating the orchestra to create special textural effects, listen all the way till the end of the work that culminates in an interestingly and dramatically effective scored "Il Terremoto" - strangely reminiscent of "Dies Irae" in Mozart's and Verdi's Requiems, yet with surprises in choral harmonization and orchestration that one would not quite expect.

I have no resevations in recommending the Berlin Akademie f���r Alte Musik (together with the Accentus chorus and soloists) as the only version of the work, which I think, scores perfection in all aspects. Simply to put it, there's no need to look for the same version of the work performed by another orchestra, chorus or set of soloists.

Listeners already familiar with Mozart's Requiem would take great spiritual solace in this masterstroke of Haydn's late years.

Word Is Out [VHS]
$14.95
I agree with everyone stating the historic importance of this movie. Tede Matthews, the red haired hurricane in the movie was my roommate and best friend when this film came out...He knew it was important then and would be so happy to know that the rest of us are finally catching up. Like so many artist from that time period, we lost Tede to AIDS in the early 1990's. At the same time that Tede was participating in the filming of 'Word is Out' and laying the foundation for many to come... I was singing my way into another historical project 'Walls to Roses: Songs of Changing Men on Folkways Records and now part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Inst. This album was recorded by a group of gay and straight men singing songs about Sexism. It is also the first of it's kind and this year we celebrate our 30th year anniversary. I am not writing this to take away from the movie discussion at hand but to lend support for the making of a DVD. Tede was right about the importance of this documentary and he was also right when he was quoted in 'Time' magazine when asked if he was a drag queen, he said, 'We are all born naked, therefore anything we put on is drag!'
love you Tede...sincerely,
Chris VonTanner
(aka Chris Tanner)