A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(C) 2013 Signum Classics Records One of the (many) benefits of being an Amazon Prime member is that, in addition to getting free shipping on most of my Amazon orders, I also have access to Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Prime Music, two streaming services that allow me to watch or listen to many movies, Amazon Original Television shows (such as Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan ), and a wide selection of music albums, free of charge. Obviously, not everything on Amazon's video or music catalog is offered gratis, but I've been lucky enough to add some really cool albums to my Amazon Music queue thanks to my $119-a-year Prime membership. One of my more recent musical discoveries is Signum Classics' 2013 2-disc set The King's Singers: Great American Songbook, a 2-disc, 25-track collection of songs written between the 1920s and early 1960s by songwriters such as Cole Porter, George & Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler, Mack Gordon & Harry Warren, Richard Rod...

(C) 2012 Signum Classics Records On September 24, 2012, Britain's Signum Records released The Best of The King's Singers, a two-disc, 40-track compilation of a capella  performances by the current iteration of The King's Singers (Patrick Dunachie, Timothy Wayne-Wright, Julian Gregory, Christopher Bruerton, Christopher Gabbitas, and Jonathan Howard). As I wrote yesterday on my review of Gold, The King's Singers is a sextet of singers (two countertenors, one tenor, two baritones, and one bass) that performs choral compositions from various historical eras and genres without accompaniment. First formed by six choral students (five from King's College in Cambridge and one from Christ Church, Oxford) in 1968, several iterations of The King's Singers have performed in Great Britain, Europe, the U.S., and other countries throughout the world over the past half-century. Additionally, their recordings and concerts on DVD and other home media formats sell well, es...

Many years ago, my hometown of Miami (Florida) had a classical music station, WTMI-FM. Its location on the FM dial was 93.1, and although it did not have as many listeners as stations that played other formats (rock, adult contemporary pop, urban hip hop, oldies, country, or Spanish-language music), it had a loyal base of listeners. I ought to know; from the first time that I tuned in in the early 1980s to December 31, 2001, the sad day when it signed off the air to become Party 93.1, I was a member of that loyal base of listeners. In that two-decade span when I listened to South Florida's "classy and jazzy" radio station, I heard a wide array of compositions, composers, orchestras, and even some awesome solo acts that encompassed many musical genres. Most of the music I listened to was symphonic/instrumental, but every so often I'd come across singers such as Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Audra McDonald, and, of course, Luciano Pavarotti (either as a solois...

(C) 1996 RCA Victor When John Williams stepped down as conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1993 after 13 successful seasons, a young but experienced conductor and pianist, Keith Lockhart, was chosen as his replacement. Looking more like a college freshman than music director of one of America's most famous orchestras, Lockhart has proved to be just as adept and popular as Williams and the late Arthur Fiedler. Song of the Volga Boatmen RCA Victor’s 1996 album The Boston Pops Orchestra: Runnin' Wild: Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Play Glenn Miller is a collection of songs made famous by Big Band era orchestra leader Glenn Miller, whose civilian and later Army Air Force bands provided audiences with music to dance to (and love to) before and during World War II. Before his mysterious death in December 1944, Miller's band and featured vocalists gave the world such beloved swing standards as " In The Mood," "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," ...