1812 Festival Orchestra, Op. 49 by Tchaikovsky (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: 1812 Festival Orchestra, Op. 49

Composer: Tchaikovsky

Conductor: Antal Dorati

Orchestra: Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, University of Minnesota Brass Band

Year: 1958

Number of discs: one

Label: Mercury Records

Collection: Brenner / Gessner

Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned it

Buy it on Amazon: $189.00

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

This music often accompanies fireworks at American Independence Day celebrations, and though I’m an opponent of American independence now, I grew up supporting it, so I’ve heard this a lot. The famous part is one of probably fewer than 20 pieces of classical music that I can whistle from memory.

What I expected

The famous part is actually only a small bit of the overture, so I expect it to be kind of like a record where there’s one good song among a dozen mediocre songs.

What it was actually like

The 1812 Overture itself took up part of side A, with the rest of side A and all of side B devoted to an extended explanatory narration that I didn’t consider interesting or necessary at all.

The main thing that stood out to me about the overture was how much of it I recognized – not just what I considered “the famous part,” but lots of different parts that were longer than musical phrases, but shorter than song length.

I also forgot how many bells were in it. A lot of bells were in it. The bells were interesting, but the cannon were fantastic.

Overall, the quality of the recording was not spectacular – it sounded pretty muffled – and side B was fairly scratchy and kept skipping, so I couldn’t make out all of it.

Grade

4/5: would listen again