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I've found it, at last!   September 7, 2002

Along with "The Wurst of PDQ", this is the CD to buy.


Short, sweet and satisfyingly funny   October 29, 2000
  10 out of 10 found this review helpful

This is another classic member of the P.D.Q. Bach collection by Peter Schickele, on which the good Professor takes us on a journey through P.D.Q.'s writing for different milieus.

The first item is the "Missa Hilarious," which purists are advised to avoid at all costs - if this weren't offered in the spirit of good clean fun, I am sure many would find it offensively blasphemous. Even so, I cannot help chortling at such moments as the "Gloria," in which the words aren't quite those that one would expect... The customary array of weird and wacky musical instruments required for P.D.Q. Bach's music is here as well, and puts the finishing touches on the comic effect.

"Echo Sonata, for two unfriendly groups of instruments" is equally amusing - and pokes fun at the trends of contemporary music making along the way whilst being short and digestible. Also digestible (just about!) are the Three Christmas Carols that end the programme: "Throw the Yule Log on, Uncle John" is perhaps a bit predictable, "O Little Town of Hackensack" doesn't work as well as it might have done (although that may have something to do with the tune employed- very different that the classic tune I'm used to as a British cathedral singer), and "Good King Kong looked out" is an absolute blast, with its tongue-twisting vocal sound effects, catchy rhythm and melody, and the surprise appearance of... well, that wouldn't be a surprise if I told you!

Also on the programme is one of Peter Schickele's own pastiche works: "Eine Kleine Nichtmusik," which is a justly famous and side-splitting re-composition of Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" with added woodwind and brass parts. Whether you laugh or scoff at this, it is undeniably a prime example of the fact that Peter Schickele really is an accomplished and learned musician- only someone with a deeply-honed musical background could pull off a spoof like this in such a way that it actually works.

Though it's just forty minutes long, this disc is very amusing. P.D.Q. Bach's portrait could not have been painted much better than this...


Mozart would have liked this one   July 7, 2000
  2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I spent a long time looking for this! Some P.D.Q.Bach output is frankly poor slapstick - no doubt funny in concert, but it doesn't wear well on disc. However, I can forgive all for the `Eine Kleine Nichtsmusik': a delight to any classical music fan with a sense of humour. As far as I can make out, the strings play Mozart's `Eine Kleine Nachtsmusik' pretty straight, while the brass and wind play anything else from the concert repertoire which harmonizes even vaguely. The result is deliciously outrageous (the sudden fanfare from `Petrushka' is wonderful) and occasionally sublime (however did he spot that `I Dream of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair' goes with the slow movement?). Here, at least, Schickele has achieved the high level of some of the Gerard Hoffnung music festivals. The `Echo Sonata' is also fun - a simple idea, nicely executed. The `Missa' is OK (especially the Gloria and the hippy Sanctus), but some of the performers (and more so in the carols) have perhaps not realized that musical humour needs to be performed with style, not just bashed through, or the impact of the contrast (serious music vs. joke) is lost.

(Of other P.D.Q.Bach offerings, my favourite is `Iphigenia in Brooklyn'.)


Missa Hilarious... was   March 1, 2000
To those of you who've studied music history and the classic formation of the Masse, this album will be particularly poinient. To those who haven't, it's just plain fun, from the Angus dei to Gloria, it'll have you in stitches