With the Fourth of July right around the corner, this 3-CD set of American music is just the thing to put you in a patriotic mood. Of course, SONY could have easily titled this CD LEONARD BERNSTEIN’S GREAT HITS. All of this music has been available on various Bernstein CDs, but now it’s all in one handy package. AMAZON is selling this set for $14.99 which almost qualifies it for a BARGAIN OF THE WEEK. GRADE: A
PLAY LIST:
Disc: 1
1. Overture to Candide
2. Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; Prologue. Allegro moderato
3. Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; “Somewhere”. Adagio
4. Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; Scherzo. Vivace leggiero
5. Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; Mambo. Presto Listen
6. Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; Cha-Cha (“Maria”). Andantino con grazia
7. Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; Meeting Scene. Meno mosso
8. Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; “Cool” Fugue. Allegretto
9. Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; Rumble. Molto allegro
10. Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; Finale. Adagio 11. Prelude, Fugue and Riffs for Solo Clarinet and Jazz Ensemble; Prelude for the Brass
11. Prelude, Fugue and Riffs for Solo Clarinet and Jazz Ensemble; Fugue for the Saxes
12. Prelude, Fugue and Riffs for Solo Clarinet and Jazz Ensemble; Riffs for Everyone
13. Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion (after Plato’s “Symposium”); I. Phaedrus. Pausanias (Lento – Allegro) (Instrumental)
14. Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion (after Plato’s “Symposium”); II. Aristophanes (Allegretto) (Instrumental)
15. Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion (after Plato’s “Symposium”); III. Eryximachus (Presto) (Instrumental)
16. Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion (after Plato’s “Symposium”); IV. Agathon (Adagio) (Instrumental)
17. Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion (after Plato’s “Symposium”); V. Socrates. Alcibiades (Molto tenuto – Allegro molto vivace) (Instrumental)
Disc: 2
1. Chichester Psalms for Chorus and Orchestra; I. Psalm 108 (verse 2) & Psalm 100 (complete)
2. Chichester Psalms for Chorus and Orchestra; II. Psalm 23 (complete) & Psalm 2 (verses 1-4)
3. Chichester Psalms for Chorus and Orchestra; III. Psalm 131 (complete) & Psalm 133 (verse 1)
4. Songfest – A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra; Opening Hymn; To the Poem
5. Songfest – A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra; Three Solos; The Pennycandystore Beyond the El
6. Songfest – A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra; Three Solos; A Julia de Burgos
7. Songfest – A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra; Three Solos; To What You Said …
8. Songfest – A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra; Three Ensembles; I, Too, Sing America – Okay “Negroes”
9. Songfest – A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra; Three Ensembles; To My Dear and Loving Husband
10. Songfest – A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra; Three Ensembles; Storyette H. M.
11. Songfest – A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra; Sextet; If You Can’t Eat You Got To
12. Songfest – A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra; Three Solos; Music I Heard With You
13. Songfest – A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra; Three Solos; Zizi’s Lament
14. Songfest – A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra; Three Solos; Sonnet: What Lips My Lips Have Kissed …
15. Songfest – A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra; Closing Hymn; Israfel
16. Mass — A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers; 2. Hymn and Psalm: “A Simple Song” (Voice)
17. Nachspiel
18. Dream with Me
Disc: 3
1. West Side Story – Original Broadway Cast; Maria
2. West Side Story – Original Broadway Cast; Tonight
3. America
4. West Side Story – Original Broadway Cast; Somewhere (Ballet)
5. On The Town; Lonely Town (Excerpt)
6. On The Town; Lucky to Be Me (Excerpt)
7. On The Town; Some Other Time (Excerpt) 8. Wonderful Town; Ohio
8. Wonderful Town; A Little Bit In Love (Never Felt This Way Before)
9. Wonderful Town; A Quiet Girl
10. Wonderful Town; Conga!
11. Paris Waltz
12. The Best Of All Possible Worlds
13. It Must Be So
14. Glitter And Be Gay
15. I’m Easily Assimilated
16. Make Our Garden Grow

After enduring an annoying delay getting over the Rainbow Bridge to be admitted to Canada, I drove to Niagara-on-the-Lake. I picked up Patti and Phil Abbott at their bed-and-breakfast and we zipped over to St. Catherine’s to the Book Depot. Have you ever visited a bookstore where you needed a shopping cart? The Book Depot is a huge warehouse filled with remaindered books. I like it because British editions sometimes show up there for incredibly cheap prices. Both Patti and I did very well in the “bargain book” section where books were priced $2 a book. Irresistible! Then we had another annoying delay on the Rainbow Bridge to enter the U.S. I took Patti and Phil to lunch at Guy Fieri’s favorite restaurant from DINER, DRIVE-INS, AND DIVES: Pizza Junction. Phil and I ordered pizzas while Patti tackled the Philly cheese-steak sandwich. Then I took Patti and Phil to another remainder bookstore, The Book Outlet. More economic stimulus! When we picked up Diane, Patti and Phil got a tour of the Kelley Collection 2 (aka, The Bat Cave). You’d think Patti never saw 30,000 books in a basement before! We finally caught a break traveling back over the Rainbow Bridge (no delays) and we dropped Patti and Phil back at their B&B. We met up again later in Niagara-on-the-Lake for a quick snack (thanks, Phil!) before we attended the Shaw Festival’s wonderful play, An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde. Great conversation, great fun! Let’s do it again someday, Patti and Phil!

Scott Turow’s sequel to his best-selling Presumed Innocent perpetuates some of the same flaws as the original novel: too long, too static, and too derivative. In the original novel, Rusty Savich, is charged with murdering a woman he was having an affair with. The strengths of Presumed Innocent were the court room scenes and the cunning legal strategy. Innocent has court room scenes, but not enough of them. And Turow annoyed me with his “technique” of switching from first-person narration to third-person narration. Innocent plays with irony as Savich, now a judge and seemingly brain-addled, gets into another affair with a much younger woman, violates basic legal procedure by revealing a pending verdict to a defendant (who, not surprisingly, skips bail), and then is accused of murdering his bipolar wife. At least a 100 pages of this 400+ page novel could have been edited out. I wonder if Harrison Ford will play Savich in the movie version of Innocent. GRADE: C
(Thanks to the North Tonawanda Public Library for providing this book.)

Please Give is one of those “slice-of-life” movies. Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt play a couple who own a lucrative used furniture business in New York City. They have a cranky teenage daughter (Sarah Steele). In the apartment next door, a 90-year-old woman (Ann Morgan Guilbert) has sold Keener and Platt her apartment. They can take possession when she dies. The senior citizen is cared for by her granddaughters, Amanda Peet and Rebbecca Hall, who have their own complicated relationship. Keener deals with a compulsion to give money away to poor people and to volunteer. This movie doesn’t quite jell, but the fine performances make it worth watching. GRADE: B

When I read Rick Riordan’s first Percy Jackson novel, The Lightning Thief, I was unimpressed and stopped reading the series. Of course, the Percy Jackson stories garnered a strong following of teenage readers who thought the idea of a kid having the powers of the Greek gods appealing. Rick Riordan’s newest series novel, The Red Pyramid: The Kane Chronicles #1, features a brother and sister team who seek to rescue their archeologist/magician father from the clutches of the Egyptian god, Set. [SPOILER ALERT!] In fact, Carter Kane is possessed by Horus and Sadie Katie is possessed by Isis. [END OF SPOILER ALERT!] Plenty of magic, a globe-trotting journey, and sibling rivalry result. I found this 516-page book too long and too discursive. I’m sure The Red Pyramid will make a great movie with tons of CGI effects. You might want to wait for the movie version. GRADE: C+
(Thanks to the North Tonawanda Public Library for providing this book.)

Sebastian Junger, best known for The Perfect Storm, was embedded with a single platoon through their 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. Junger’s story of the dangers these soldiers faced every day should balance the bland reporting on our “progress” in Afghanistan. You get to know the soldiers on a personal level as Junger captures their hopes, dreams, fears, and nightmares. The soldiers cope with their stresses in various, dysfunctional ways. WAR should be required reading for everyone at the Pentagon and the State Department.

PBS must be running out of Miss Marple novels to film so they’ve turned to Miss Marple short stories. “The Blue Geranium” was published in The Tuesday Club Murders (aka, The Thirteen Problems) in 1932. A cranky hypochondriac, Mrs. Pritchard, is told by a fortune-teller that “a blue geranium means death.” And, sure enough, Mr. Pritchard then dies from a gas leak with a blue geranium nearby. Miss Marple investigates and solves the murder. Masterpiece Theater Mystery will be broadcasting “The Blue Geranium” tonight. I’ll be curious to see how a 12-page short story is puffed up to fill 90-minutes of television drama.

It’s been seven years since Sarah McLachlan’s last new CD. Too long! Laws of Illusion shows Sarah in fine voice. I love all the songs, especially “Don’t Give Up On Us.” I have all of Sarah McLachlan’s CDs, I’ve seen her in concert three times, and if she’s touring within driving distance of my home, I’ll go listen to her again. This isn’t so much a review as a product announcement. GRADE: A
PLAY LIST
1 Awakenings 4:08
2 Illusions Of Bliss 3:53
3 Loving You Is Easy 3:03
4 Changes 3:44
5 Forgiveness 3:49
6 Rivers Of Love 3:54
7 Love Come 3:33
8 Out Of Tune 3:51
9 Heartbreak 4:07
10 Don’t Give Up On Us 3:37
11 U Want Me 2 4:07
12 Bring On The Wonder 2:56
13 Loving You Is Easy Acustic / Version 3:36
14 Love Come Piano Version / Version 4:04

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Published in 1878, Anna Katharine Green’s puzzler was admired by plenty of contemporary writers, including A. Conan Doyle. Penguin Books recently reprinted a new edition that brings this classic to a new audience of mystery readers. Horatio Leavenworth, a wealthy retired merchant, is murdered. He was shot in the head in his library and the evidence at the inquest shows that no one could have left the victim’s locked Manhattan mansion before the discovery of the body the next morning. Suspicion falls on the dead man’s nieces, Mary and Eleanore, only one of whom stands to benefit from their uncle’s violent death. Everett Raymond, a junior partner in a New York law firm that had Leavenworth as a client, teams up with the official investigator, Ebenezer Gryce, to discover the truth. More than just a locked room mystery, The Leavenworth Case was ahead of its time in the use of investigative techniques and indirection in the use of circumstantial evidence in the delightfully clever circuitous plot. Michael Sims’ informative Introduction puts this mystery novel in its social and historical context. This classic is well worth reading.

Elvis was at the height of his powers in 1970. On Stage February 1970 captures Elvis in a Las Vegas performance. This 2-CD Legacy Edition is completely remastered and sounds great. Some obscure songs show up here. Have you heard Elvis sing “Mystery Train” before? I hadn’t. How about “Proud Mary” or “Funny How Time Slips Away”? This collection features Elvis at his best. Don’t miss this one!
PLAY LIST:
DISC ONE:
1. See See Rider 3:06
2. Release Me 3:11
3. Sweet Caroline 2:43
4. Runaway 2:46
5. The Wonder Of You 2:34
6. Polk Salad Annie 5:33
7. Yesterday 2:27
8. Proud Mary 2:47
9. Walk A Mile In My Shoes 2:59
10. Let It Be Me 3:39
11. Don’t Cry Daddy (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, February 18, 1970, Dinner Show) 2:38
12. Kentucky Rain (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, February 16, 1970, Dinner Show) 3:20
13. Long Tall Sally (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, February 18, 1970, Midnight Show) 1:32
14. The Wonder Of You (Rehearsal – Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, February 18, 1970, Afternoon Rehearsal) 6:57
DISC TWO:
1. Blue Suede Shoes 2:05
2. Johnny B. Goode 2:20
3. All Shook Up 2:07
4. Are You Lonesome Tonight? 3:15
5. Hound Dog 1:53
6. I Can’t Stop Loving You 3:19
7. My Babe 2:10
8. Medley: Mystery Train / Tiger Man 3:45
9. Words 2:45
10. In The Ghetto 2:56
11. Suspicious Minds 7:45
12. Can’t Help Falling In Love 2:12
13. I Got A Woman (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Dinner Show) 2:39
14. Medley: Jailhouse Rock / Don’t Be Cruel (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Dinner Show) 3:22
15. Heartbreak Hotel (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Dinner Show) 2:19
16. Baby, What You Want Me To Do (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Dinner Show) 3:32
17. Reconsider Baby (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 23, 1969, Midnight Show) 3:17
18. Funny How Time Slips Away (Live At International Hotel Las Vegas, NV, August 25, 1969, Dinner Show)