Journal Sunday, February 12, 2012

Post-Dispatch: Rifkin's "Baroque Beatles" Classic "Still a Lot of Fun ... Give It a Listen"

Musicologist-conductor-pianist Joshua Rifkin’s The Baroque Beatles Book, featuring Baroque-era arrangements of the Fab Four’s Top 40 hits, was among the earliest releases on the then year-old Nonesuch label in 1965 and remained a cult favorite in the catalog over the decades. Now, for the first time, it has been reissued on CD, and, all these years later, says the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "It’s still a lot of fun."

Sarah Bryan Miller, the Post-Dispatch classical music critic, describes the album as "entertaining (and rife with music in-jokes) and brilliantly illustrative of how Baroque composers used their material." She goes on to praise as "nicely done all around" the performances, by the musicians assembled for the project as the Baroque Ensemble of the Merseyside Kammermusikgesellschaft.

"Give it a listen," Miller recommends. "Better yet, put it on when you’ve got unsuspecting company, and wait to see the light of recognition dawn."

Read more at stltoday.com.

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