Japan Release: Disney on CLASSIC


Dirk

Member
Hey there, Hi there, Ho there,

just a short update on two new releases from early October in Japan - the latest additions to the "Disney on CLASSIC"-series. I wanted to gave both of them rave reviews and had them pre-ordered, but having listened to them several times I just can't, too bad. Anyway, here in a bit more detail:

I. "Disney on CLASSIC - a Magical Night 2007 - Love is Giving - featuring Disney Princess - 5th Anniversary"

According to the cover that should be the CD title, but it actually is normally shortened to "Disney on CLASSIC - a Magical Night 2007". As in the past years this should be the CD with the release with great new instrumental versions of Disney songs. Unfortunately it is NOT this time. Instead what buyers get is a compilation with only 3 new tracks!
Here the tracklisting with some comments:

1. The Enchanted Fairy Garden from TDL's Fantillusion - the EXACT some recording as released on "Disney on CLASSIC - a Magical Night 2005". What is that all about?? The 2007 release is not a "best of", so this just annoys me.
2.-4. Disney Love & Ballad Acoustic Selection: Colors of the Wind, Love is a Song, Love Will Find A Way - the three new tracks to be found on the CD. As in the past years these "acoustic" recordings are great, very intimate recordings featuring Takashi Aoki and Kenichi Tsujimoto. Really enjoyed them. Glad that they looked for some more "obscure" material like "Love Will Find A Way" from Lion King II. GREAT. If there is a reason to buy this CD, its to be found in these three tracks.
4.-14. Heigh-Ho, Some Day My Prince Will Come, A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes, Reception At The Palace / So This Is Love, Do Your Hear That? / I Wonder, An Unusual Prince / Once Upon A Dream, Belle, Be Our Guest, Something There, Beauty and the Beast - all(!) 11 tracks are direct lifts from the original soundtrack releases, with the original vocals! Sorry, that is NOT what I would expect on a "Disney on CLASSIC"-release. Maybe the "featuring Disney Princess" on the cover should have been the clue, but with the majority of tracks dedicated to original material from OSTs with vocals, this is just another regular Disney compilation.

Over all result: disappointed. I hope they don't ruin the whole series. Especially for the 5th anniversary it would have been nice if they would have stuck to the concept of instrumental recordings isntead of basically making the release another Disney Princess compilation. Guess next year I need to wait for reviews before ordering.


II. "Disney on CLASSIC - a Magical Night 2006 - The LIVE"

I guess last year's two CD recording with a live recording of the concert must have been a success seing now a follow up release recorded in 2006 of last year's program. Once again it is a 2 CD release, with the first CD dedicated to various material, while the second CD contains a live performance of the material from an OST release.

CD 1 starts out with a live recording of the all-English version of "Sea of Dreams" - nice enough. Next up (after a Japanese MC track) is a really beautiful medley "The Memories of Walt Disney - The Prologue '1928 - 1953'" running 10:15. It features short(!) excerpts of When You Wish Upon a Star, The Second Star to the Right, Alice in Wonderland, I've Got No Strings, Some Day My Prince Will Come, Turkey in the Straw, Heigh-Ho, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, Casey Junior, Little April Shower and Waltz of the Flowers. The track is mostly instrumental, but includes some clapping along of the audience, the singers singing "Heigh-Ho" and some (not really well working) whistling. Still a great track by Brad Kelley!

Next up on CD 1 is the "Disney Love & Ballad Acoustic Selection" consisting of three tracks: The Second Star to the Right, A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes and Someday. Once again three great, intimate instrumental tracks. Great!

Following is (after another short Japanese MC track) a track entitled "The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" clocking in at 16:30. The track is a continuous performance of instrumental parts from the OST performed live at the concert - to be exact: The Blitz 1940, Evacuating London, Lucy Meets mr. tumnus, A Narnia Lullaby, To Aslan's Camp, The Stone Table, The Battle. The whole track continues without any break betweent he various segments, a bit like a suite but misses the closed off feeling of a suite. Nevertheless a good track.

The second CD features a live performance of the Aladdin soundtrack release. As last year with The Little Mermaid the CD features live recordings of the exact tracks as found on the official OST release (OK, obviously with the mangled lyrics on "Arabian Nights" in this case), just in the correct order from the movie. There isn't a single instrumental track extra. It is basically a live performance of the OST CD. The voices of the singers are OK to good, the orchestra does perform OK to good. But does one really need such a recording? It is up to everyone, but I can see it being a great souvenir / memory if you've been to the tour last year.

Unfortunately the listening experience especially on the second CD is diminished by the way it has been recorded. It all sounds as if there is a huge space between the vocals and the orchestra, seperating the two too much for my taste. A bit more work on the mix could have worked wonders here, to make the vocals sound less distant.


Anyway to sum it up: while the 2007 one CD release is only of interest for the three new tracks, the 2CD set with the live recording from 2006 (also released earlier this month) offers quite a bit of interesting material on the first CD (and an OK but no more 2nd CD). I would recommend only the latter release unless you are a big fan of the "acoustic" recordings from the prior "Disney on CLASSIC" releases.


Yours

Dirk
 

almandot

Member
thanks for the review. I've been turned off about buying those cds from the getgo just because i usually only want 1 track from them heh. Like last year's was sea of dreams but i couldn't go spend the money just for that one thing. For all the itunes haters out there, that would've been an itunes track purchase without question. :p
 

cschurr

Member
Ok guys I have a question (surprise, surprise!) what is type of music in this series? I've been eye balling them on amazon.com and if they are instrumental types I might consider adding them to my *want list*

Thanks again guys!
 

almandot

Member
imagine going to the hollywood bowl to see an orchestra play some of your favorites from the theme park and buying the souvenier cd. that's pretty much what it's like. they include singers on most songs that would usually have lyrics
 

Dirk

Member
Well ... it is a grand orchestra called "Never land Orchestra" which consists of members of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra performing Disney classics. The majority of the material though is NOT from the theme parks but the Disney features. Most of the tracks are instrumental versions if you are excluding the "The LIVE" releases 2005 and 2006 (and obviously the new 2007 release I reviewed above). In fact that is what made the series so special until this year's release: they took the popular SONGS and rerecorded them as instrumentals, bringing in a vocalist only for two or three songs per CD. The trend to direct lift songs from OSTs to the "on CLASSIC"-releases started only with the "2006", for which songs (including vocals) from the Aladdin OST where lifted. But even considering those the "2006"-release had mostly instrumental recordings. In addition to the full orchestra pieces (which also performed some nice suites on the first releases based on the big animated hits of the 90s) there is something called "Love & Acoustic Selection" which features really beautiful new versions of songs redone with a very small selection in subtle ways (without vocals again). For me the highlight of the recordings. Basically I would recommed the series (with the exception of the new 2007 release) to anyone who loves Disney music and is looking for great instrumental versions.

The two "The LIVE" releases though ("2005" and now "2006") are different though. They are pretty much souvenir releases of the concert tours, being 2-CD-sets live recorded at the concert tour of the according year. The first CD usually features a selection of instrumental tracks as performed at the concert with one or two songs with vocals thrown in. The second CD is in both releases dedicated to the live performance of an OST, meaning they performed all tracks as found on The Little Mermaid OST CD release / the Aladdin OST CD release live WITH vocals. I personally enjoy these releases for the first CD but...


Yours

Dirk
 

gurgi

New Member
So, are there 3 "Disney on Classic" CD's and 2 "D.o.C. - The Live" CD's in total ? Is that correct ? Help me out here, Dirk.

THANKS !
Bart
 

Dirk

Member
HI gurgi

here is what I know - I tried to add an indicator for those tracks which include sung vocals, but as I did it of my head I am not 100% sure I got all of them:

1. "Disney on Classic" - released 2001 - don't have it in my collection (yet )

2. "Disney on Classic - a Magical Night 2004 - Believe in Love" - released 2005, featuring MSEP, Aladdin Suite, Lion King Suite, Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, It's a Small World

3. "Disney on Classic - a Magical Night 2005 - Dreaming Forever" - released 2005, featuring The Enchanted Fairy Garden (from Disney's Fantillusion!), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Disney's Love & Ballad Acoustic Corner (Love's First Kiss, Reflection, Feed the Birds, When She Loved Me), Illuminations: We Go On [with vocals], The Little Mermaid (Part of Your World, Happy Ending) [with vocals]

4. "Disney on Classic - a Magical Night 2005 - The LIVE" - released 2006, featuring on CD 1 The Enchanted Fairy Garden, Suite: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of teh Black Pearl, Disney's Love & Ballad Acoustic Selection (Love's First Kiss, Feed the Birds, Reflection, When She Loved Me, A Whole New World), Illuminations: We Go On [with vocals], on CD 2 the live performance of the OST of The Little Mermaid [with vocals]

5. "Disney on Classic - a Magical Night 2006 - Trust Your Heart" - released 2006, featuring Sea of Dreams [with vocals, all in English though], Little April Shower, Alice in Wonderland, Casey Junior, Disney Love & Ballad Acoustic Selection (The Second Star to the Right, A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes, Someday), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (The Blitz 1940, Evacuating London, Lucy Meets Mr.Tumnus, A Narnia Lullaby, To Aslan's Camp), Aladdin (Arabian Nights, One Jump Ahead, A Whole New World) [with vocals]

6. "Disney on Classic - a Magical Night 2006 - The LIVE" - released 2007, see above

7. "Disney on Classic - a Magical Night 2007 - Love is Giving - featuring Disney Princess - 5th Anniversary" - released 2007, see above


You can also find all of these CDs online at HMV.co.jp at this link: http://www.hmv.co.jp/search/index.asp?keyw...n+classic [no, I don't get anything from HMV.co.jp, but this link shows all of the CDs, so I thought it might be helpful].


Yours

Dirk
 

JoeInJpn

Member
Oh Joe I visited your site for the first time about a week ago. Man, A+++++++ it is fantastic! ;D
Thanks alot schurr. My site is going through a re-design, so updates have been minimal lately. However, the Christmas and New Year's events are coming so keep visiting the site for now. I hope to have the new site up by next April, in time for TDR's 25th Anniversary.

JoeInJpn
http://www.jtcent.com
 

JoeInJpn

Member
Great - Have Fun ... and tell us afterwards how it was ... I wonder whether this year's program is as light on instrumental performances without vocals as the CD.
Thanks Dirk. I'll check out for that. Since I'll be meeting Brad Kelley, the arranger and conductor (as well as Tokyo DisneySea's pre-opening Music Director), I can ask him directly. :)

JoeInJpn
http://www.jtcent.com
 

gurgi

New Member
THANKS A ZILLION Dirk !!! Nice for me to know that I own No. 1, 2 & 3 from your list. I'll definetely be ordering the rest later this month...
Great "Disney on Classic" discography ; thanks again Dirk !

Take care,
Bart
 

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