Beethoven's Wig: Sing Along Symphonies Review

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Beethoven's Wig: Sing Along Symphonies ReviewI am a 33 year old woman who has been a classical music lover for virtually my entire life. I found 'Beethoven's Wig' quite by accident while browsing on Amazon, and after listening to the snippets provided, I was laughing so hard that I knew I had to buy it. What a wonderful way to get young children interested in music! And of course, it's not only for children. I actually bought this as a present for my mother, who has been a classical music lover HER whole life (and who would [be so upset] if I revealed her age), and she was tickled pink by it!
It's actually an old tradition to mate "fun" lyrics to classical music in order to make the music easy to learn. My mother tells me how she learned 'Morning' from the 'Peer Gynt Suite' as 'Morning is dawning/And Peer Gynt is yawning/Under a statue of Grieg', and I myself know two crazy versions of the 'Soldier's Chorus' from 'Faust'. Richard Perlmutter here is a worthy successor to this tradition. Here he makes up wonderful lyrics for 11 well-known classical pieces. These lyrics are wildly imaginative, hilarious, and clearly well thought-out. Many of the tracks include musicological or biographical details about the composers involved.
The absolute highlight is the 'Pizzicato' from Delibes' 'Sylvia', where Sylvia leaves the faucet 'drip, drip, dripping' and tons of havoc in her wake. Perlmutter even manages to weave in an ad for a plumber here! His version of Offenbach's 'Can-Can' is tons of fun and will no doubt start you dancing, and in 'Just for Elise', her piece is stolen by Maurice from Greece in his valise and they call the police and go to the Justice of the Peace. The title track brings out the 'bigness' of Beethoven's Fifth, if not it's seriousness, and the disc ends explosively with Tchaikovsky's cannonball blowing up the concert hall. ('That was the beginning of POP music!')
Most importantly, after all the "Silly Symphonies" are done, each musical excerpt is played straight, so the listener knows what it really sounds like in concert (or can sing along themselves if they wish).
The booklet is delightful as well. Not only is it filled with whimsical illustrations (especially the cover with Beethoven's ever-expanding wig), but also suggests musically related activities for children (such as finding a picture of each composer, comparing the composers with modern musicians, etc). It also has "quizzes" at the bottom of each page about the composers, and even I didn't know some of the answers! (Offenbach hired a famous American composer to play violin in his orchestra. Who was it? John Phillip Sousa!)
Like many other music lovers, including some who have reviewed this disc, I am also very worried about the "dumbing down" of classical music in order to make it more popular and, of course, to make the record companies lots of money. I am delighted to report that this is nothing of the sort. For one thing, Perlmutter's lyrics are simply too sophisticated and intelligent, to the point where they might help kids with English and writing skills. Not only that, they teach good musical lessons about the virtue of practice ('Hey, Guitar Teacher'/Bach's 'Bouree') and families making music together ('Harmony'/Schumann's 'Merry Peasant'). Not to mention that the Perlmutter's version of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2 lists just about every major composer who ever existed. And how many 'dumbed down' versions of classical music help listeners learn the kings and queens of England?
I do, however, have two reservations on the 'popularization' front which are enough to make me take off the fifth star. One is that the pronounciations of the composers' names is consistently 'American', and thus usually incorrect, i.e Wolfgang pronounced with a W instead of a V, Schu-MUHN for Schu-MAHN, BOTCH-erini instead of BACH-erini, and the most galling, VUR-di instead of VEHR-di. Still, the disc will get children interested enough in classical music to eagerly learn the correct pronounciations later, and I know plenty of serious music lovers who get them wrong. My other slight reservation is the total time of the disc is only 34:50. I realize that many young children won't have the attention span for a longer CD, but it would have been nice such a short disc were budget price, .... Despite these qualms, I think that buyers with children under 6 or 7 will be happy to add the fifth star back.
Of course, 'Beethoven's Wig' presents ONLY the fun, lighthearted side of classical music, and not its seriousness or magnificence. However, I've always thought that humor and fun were some of the best tools for learning ANYTHING; laughter is a great memory aid. There were actually one or two pieces on this disc which I didn't know all that well, and now I'll never forget them. I think the appreciation for depth and grandeur WILL come, especially for children whose parents are music buffs. I have no doubt that this CD will start many children on this happy (and meaningful) journey.Beethoven's Wig: Sing Along Symphonies OverviewThis delightful collection features catchy lyrics set to the greatest hits of classical music, including \Franz Liszt the Famous Pianist" (from Hungarian Rhapsody) and ""Please Don't Play Your Violin At Night"" (from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik). The orchestral performance of each classical piece is also included without vocals.Genre: ChildrensMedia Format: Compact DiskRating: Release Date: 5-MAR-2002"""

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