Scott Joplin Music

We listened to Ric Louchards 3 recordings over and over through 12 years of childhood. We have twins now 18. Ine a violinist whose just stopped playing, but still keeps her instrument handy in case, and the other a pianist who just won the district competition for the 2nd time. Now she's off to a small liberal arts womens college and will keep her piano going. I do give these recordings credit for being the backbone of our girls music careers and if you keep playing them over and over and over, they become such a part of yourself that when you play a piece from the repatroire it's like riding a bicycle after 10 years . The pieces are played in a beautiful way. Mr. L was a sSuzuki teacher ...maybe still is and the pieces seem to have a shining clarity. We've managed to have classical music be our music we are passionate about in the face of easier listening music for teens. From piano they both moved to Opera as well as violin and all Bass Violin music possible. All his music is a good investment in a childs music career, as a performer or as a listener.

I have owned this CD for several years and we listen to it often. It is pleasant, upbeat and excellent background for company dinners. I buy it for gifts for new parents.

There seems to be a mixup on AMAZON's webpage for this Scott Joplin CD. The song samples offered for WMP are not Joplin at all, but a much later jazz band.

In spite of this and the first review here, I purchased the disc. I'm quite familiar with the 1970-era Nonesuch issue of Joplin piano rolls, and thoroughly enjoy listening to him play, even if it's piano once-removed through this turn-of-the-century mechanical process.

One thing is clear-- Scott Joplin was a virtuoso, and nothing, not poor sound quality or slightly wrong speed playbacks of piano rolls, can obscure this fact.

Joplin only 'recorded' on paper piano rolls which should explain the quality of this recording.

I bought this CD...thinking that for [the price], I couldn't go wrong. Well, I think I did. I like the music itself a great deal; however, I still cannot recommend this CD. Why? At least two reasons: 1) The music is good, but it sounds so fuzzy on this CD that it's hard to listen to. It sounds like someone mastered it directly off of an original LP without bothering to clean up all the pops and hisses and other noise. I believe in atmosphere, but this is a bit much. I'd have liked it cleaned up a little bit, at least. 2) The (total lack of) care with which this CD was mastered shows itself in the fact that the track begin/end points in the disc's catalog do not match the actual song begin/end points, so switching tracks often puts you in the MIDDLE of a song rather than at the beginning. If you really want to hear the music, and this is the only CD available, then go for it. But it would be worth it to spend more and get a significantly higher quality recording if available.

Excellent CD! Arpin's slower-paced interpretations are a great change from the volumes and volumes of other ragtime pianists who rush their way through Joplin's work as fast as possible, and as stoically as possible. Yes, Arpin does a little improvisation throughout, but nothing worth calling the police over.

This album is chock full of musicality, learned interpretation, and beauty. Highly recommended.

I've been playing and performing Scott Joplin's piano music for about 6 years now, and I must say that I was very disappointed in this CD. John Arpin, who, according to the liner notes, is "recognized as the world's No. 1 ragtime pianist." If he is the worlds best ragtime pianist, then the state of ragtime performance in the world is in real trouble. I would suggest a re-naming of this album to "Fantasys on Joplin Rags, by John Arpin". I am familiar with all of Joplin's pieces on this disc, and Mr. Arpin performs them with little regard for the composers orginal intentions. He adds extra notes, makes chords fuller, changes the register of passages, adds parallel lines, and even repeats sections at his own will. Most of his added notes disrupt Joplin's intended inner voices and lines. Scott must be rolling over in his grave. Ragtime is not jazz, is not supposed to be improvised, yet Arpin improvises all over the place. And why, I ask? Just to show off, that he understands the chord structure and can make a chord fuller. Just to serve his own ego as the "No. 1 ragtime pianist in the world." And in doing so, he hit wrong notes and missed chords all over the place. Don't get me wrong, his playing is all fine (except WAY too slow, for my taste at least, in nearly every piece), and the result to the ear is nice, but it is NOT Scott Joplin, or what Scott Joplin intended.

This is life-enriching stuff played with feeling and finesse.A feathery touch and near-perfect left hand keep the music rolling merrily along, and coupled with beautifully recorded sound these discs are a delight. I need hardly add that as a two-fer it's also an incredible value. This music just makes you smile and feel glad to be alive,and that ain't all bad.

Mr. Arpin brings Joplin to life in this two disc set of Joplin's most famous music. The musicianship is magnificent, and the sound quality fantastic. I ran across this at a chain music store, and delighted at the price, grabbed it up. It was one of a few select Joplin recordings. I am very happy with it. It is on constant repeat at the office providing a very pleasant background to my constant typing. My fingers actually bounce along the keyboard with the music - oh how grand it would be to be able to play these pieces as John Arpin does. He is a wonder pianist, putting much feeling into the music. What more is there to say, just get this collection, sit back and absorb the expression of a great ragtime composer.

If Ragtime was a horse race, Mr. White would win by a neck. Reminds me of JoAnn Castle ripping through Maple Leaf Rag, in a hurry to get to the next Geritol commercial, no doubt. What's your hurry? The beautifully soulful Nightingale Rag Mr. White delivers in under 3 minutes, most every other recording I own it's over 4 minutes, and George Tingley takes more than 5. Oi vey! Ragtime is NOT a Lindy Hop.

Benjamin Loeb's is the most beautiful rendition of Scott Joplin's music I have heard. I wish more recordings by him were available.

Scott Joplin (1868 -- 1917)was the greatest composer of the uniquely American music known as ragtime, which flourished from roughly the last decade of the Nineteenth Century to about 1920. Ragtime is a music of fusion. It combines strong African American components,in its rhythmic complexity and syncopations, with the format of the American march and popular song. Joplin's ragtime, in particular, combines elements of classical music with a distinctively American strain. It was one of the first of an ongoing series of attempts by Americans to create an American musical idiom which combined the classics with African American themes. On one side, ragtime helped give rise to jazz and to the blues. On the other side, in its lyricism and commitment to a written score (rather than improvisation)ragtime has become an American classic, and deservedly so.

This is the second volume of Joplin's rags and other piano music released by Naxos, following an earlier CD by Alexander Peskanov a few years ago. The pianist is Benjamin Loeb, an enterprising conductor and pianist from Texas, who has received a doctorate from Juilliard and who currently is the Associate Condutor of the El Paso Symphony among many other endeavors. Loeb performs this music masterfully and with a twinkle in his eye. The tempos are well-paced -- he avoids the temptation to play too fast or to drag -- with strong rhythmic inflections and moments of songlike reflection. He uses the pedal fully without overdoing it and blurring the melodic lines.

The CD includes 16 selections, ranging from Joplin's earliest piano work, "The Crush Collision March" of 1897, to his latest, the posthumously-published "Reflection Rag: Syncompated Musings" of 1917. Most of Joplin's rags date from his years in Missouri (before 1908). A small number were composed while he lived in Chicago and did some itenerant performing, while the remainder date from the composer's final years in New York City where he was preoccupied with work on his opera, "Treemonisha". Many people think of ragtime as highly rhythmical and flashy (along the lines of the "Maple Leaf Rag" not included on this CD), but much of Joplin's music is restrained and introspective.

For the past several years, I have played much of Joplin on the piano. It was refreshing to gain new insights from Loeb's playing on music that has become familiar to me. (There is no better way to get a feel for any music than by trying to play it.) Thus the pieces I enjoyed included the "Weeping Willow" a rag with a lovely swinging theme, part of which was later cribbed in the popular song "Swanee". I also enjoyed the delicate "Gladiolus Rag" which I studied relatively recently, and "The Chrysanthemum, "an ambitious piece which Joplin styled an "Afro-American Intermezzo." Among Joplin's later works included on this CD, "Scott Joplin's New Rag" is a challenging piece with modern chromatic passages. "Swipsey" is an early Joplin work, one in which he collaborated with his student, Arthur Marshall. There are two pieces on this CD which require the pianist to accompany himself by stamping his foot: the "Rag-Time Dance" and "Stoptime Rag". Joplin's "Breeze from Alabama" is known to musical scholars for some highly imaginative harmonic writing between its stanzas. Of the works on this CD that I hadn't known before, I enjoyed "Eugenia," a rag with a highly delicate, melodic theme. I hope to try to learn it.

I am pleased that Naxos is returning to the Joplin rags as part of its American classics series. The earlier volume by Pleskanov received mixed reviews, but this CD by Loeb is all that could be wished. I look forward to what I assume will be a third volume with the remainder of Joplin's piano music. While Joplin was the leading composer of ragtime, there were two other excellent composers of music in this genre who are now, unfortunately, known primarily to ragtime afficianados. Naxos could make another valuable contribution to the discovery of American music by recording the rags of Joplin's contemporaries and friends James Scott and Joseph Lamb.

Robin Friedman