People, I just don’t understand.
I initially passed over this Vocalion release because I wasn’t familiar with Michel Legrand. I believe I pulled up a quick sample on YouTube and decided I didn’t need yet another easy listening quad release from Vocalion Even though I knew (and liked) all but two songs from the titles. I have been buying most of the Vocalion quads that have been released because I wanted to support them with the hopes they’ll continue to release these quad disks at bargain prices.
Well, since this release, I’d heard that Michel Legrand had passed away and positive things about his arrangements etc. In addition there are these great comments/reviews on this site so I decided to order this disk.
I’ve just finished my first listen to this disk and I’m so disappointed, disturbed, and bewildered that I just have to post my opinion here. As I stated earlier, I know, and really like, most of the songs on this disk. I now feel that is probably the biggest issue I have with this release. If I didn’t know these songs, then I wouldn’t be so disturbed by these arrangements. Legrand will start a selection with one style, temple, instrumentation, and then a phrase later, completely change to another style, tempo, and so on. (Example - My Funny Valentine. My wife made the comment that he’s mixing it with Flight Of The Bumblebee!) I don't find this quirky or fun. I think it ruins a beautiful piece of music. He does this throughout the disk, over and over again. It left me believing that poor Michel Legrand must have been suffering from schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder! ...or perhaps I just missed the description that he’s a comedic arranger like Spike Jones, just not as good...
I also had problems with the quad mixing of this disk. The placement of the instruments were often so strange that it made me wonder if this is one of the disks that I hear other quadraphonicquad members suggest the channels are in the wrong order. Perhaps it would sound better, or make better sense, if you swapped the left rear with the right front etc... Personally, I really enjoy playful surround mixies where sounds are panned about the room and I like being “in the mix” vs “outside the mix“ facing the performers. After I started this disk, I had to check my AVR to make sure I hadn’t accidentally left “Audyssey - Dynamic EQ” turned on because the rear speakers sounded louder than the front speakers. I hadn’t...
I’m new to this forum so I just had to stop and search for the review guidelines that I’d seen posted and referenced before by JonUrban. I see I haven’t discussed the Audio Fidelity of this disk. I thought the instruments where recorded just fine. I didn’t notice any sort of un-intended distortion, compression, etc...but honestly, there were plenty of other problems I was having with this recording to distract me from focusing on the audio fidelity.
So following the voting guidelines...
30% Surround Mix: 1.5 there was plenty of sound mixed to the rear speakers. I’m just not sure they were meant for the rear speakers...
30% Audio Fidelity: 3 Fine. As far as I could tell...
30% Content: 1 I really like the songs on this disk, but I can’t stand the arrangement.
10% Over all package: 1.5 Until now, I hadn’t even looked at the liner notes. I see that he offers somewhat of an explanation for his arrangement choices... I just don’t care for them.
So for my vote the tally comes to 6.5 which is honestly more than I would vote for if I were to vote in this poll.
I really think I must be missing something and I don’t understand the overwhelmingly positive reviews for this disk listed above. I would have been so happy to have had these songs performed beautifully, in a great surround mix... I did want to express my opinion of this release as a possible future warning for the next unfortunate soul that is considering buying this disk. Going forward, without exception, I will have to thoroughly research and listen to an entire album before purchasing highly recommended disk again!