Scott Joplin Music

Marvin Hamlisch brought back to the public consciousness the musical career of Scott Joplin, though the movie is set about three decades after ragtime had run its course in American pop culture. But the music fit the mood of the con game and the soundtrack spent 41 weeks on the Billboard 200 album chart, peaking at number one in 1974.

The foundation piece is The Entertainer, which appears in orchestrated and piano versions and in a medley with Rag-Time Dance. Pine Apple Rag also appears in two versions, as its own track and as a medley with Gladiolus Rag.

The 13 tracks are perfect and there is a wonderful timelessness to the music.

I bought this albumm on a whim, not having heard it for many years....the last time it was vinyl on a record player...but with great speakers!! It is as good as I remember. The music is tremendous, the atmosphere great and the arrangements of each track are simply fabulous. The quality of the sound deserves a mention too....excellent.
In a word or nine, this CD is well worth adding to any collection.

The CD exceeded my expectations. I expected an average-quality sound from an older recording (since the movie The Sting was quite old). But the music quality is superb! The bass and treble are perfectly mixed and you can hear every sound, from the high-pitched clarinets to the tuba and bass-drum.

Rarely is a record so aptly named. There are only 13 songs on it, two of which are repeated twice and one, three times! You wind up with less than 25 minutes of unduplicated music out of the 80 minutes a CD can hold. I would say $6's worth. OK, the music is fine, but at a $12 (list) price, this is definitely a fine argument for "pirates" who say they'd rather rip off the record companies than the other way around.

Listen to the samples of this CD and compare them to others. A full brass band performs Joplin fantastically. If you just want to hear Joplin's works on piano, this isn't for you. The bold, crisp blare of the band just blows you away. However, there is a downside. This is a movie soundtrack (The Sting). So, not all of the music is composed by Joplin. But, the Joplin tracks are performed so well it makes this CD is a "must buy." Listen to the samples and compare. Wow, this CD is great.

In 1970 after 40 years Fiedler and the Pops left their long time label RCA for Deutsche Grammaphone. In the last six years of his life Fiedler made 12 albums for them, none have ever been released to CD (except for the Disney music in 1994)until now in the 5 double CD collection The Fiedler Legacy with album notes by Fiedler's daughter Johanna. This set, the first in the series, includes much of the music Fiedler recorded for the Bicentennal in 1975 and 76. The first disc opens with Fiedler's signature piece, Sousa's Stars and Stripes, and includes music by Copland,Ives,Gershwin (his Second Rhapsody which Fiedler premiered with the composer as soloist in 35) and Bernstein including a special orchestral suite of music from Bernstein's Mass arranged for Fiedler by the composer himself in 1976.The second disc includes the complete 1974 album of orchestral ragtime music that Fiedler made after the popularity of the movie The Sting brought it back.This side also includes the Newton Wayland arrangement of Variations on the Varsity Drag with Wayland on piano,three Leroy Anderson favorites,a medley of Richard Rodgers waltzes and three more Gershwin pieces including the orchestral arrangement of his three piano preludes. A great tribute to American music performed by a great American musician who knew many of these composers personally. A great addition to any music lovers CD collection.