Round-Up (UltraHD CD review)

Frankie Laine, vocals; Erich Kunzel, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. FIM LIM UHD 062 LE.

Of the approximately 17,586,312.47 recordings Erich Kunzel made in his lifetime, mostly for the Telarc label, Round-Up, an album of Western music, was among his better efforts. Maestro Kunzel and his Cincinnati Pops Orchestra present a series of tunes mostly made famous in Western movies and television, with a few traditional Western ballads and a supply of Western sound effects (cattle, coyotes, guns) thrown in for good measure. It’s really quite a lot of fun, especially when remastered in such exemplary fashion by the folks at LIM (Lasting Impression Music, a subsidiary of FIM, First Impression Music).

And then there’s the presence to consider of singer Frankie Laine on the album as well, doing up a few of the songs for which we knew him so well. When Telarc first released this album I couldn’t help remembering the time Mel Brooks was looking for somebody “like Frankie Laine” to sing the title song for Blazing Saddles, and somebody said, Why not Frankie Laine? Laine answered the call, not knowing at the time that Brooks’s movie was a parody. Anyway, Laine, famous in the Forties and Fifties for hits like “Mule Train,” “Cool Water,” “High Noon,” “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,” “3:10 to Yuma,” “Rawhide,” and “Blazing Saddles,” recreates some of them here. He was in his seventies by the time he did the album but still in pretty good form. After all, his career spanned some seventy-five years, starting about 1930 and continuing until a final performance in 2005. I heard him in concert around the time of this album, and he was still a belter.

Round-Up contains twenty tracks, starting with a few Western sound effects and segueing into Rossini’s galop from William Tell so familiar to fans of The Lone Ranger. As usual, Kunzl handles the music with competence though not with any particular vividness. The William Tell is not a performance for the ages and does not generate the kind of excitement that, say, Muti, Gamba, Maag, Reiner, or even Norrington do.

But then it's on to more-conventional Western material with things like The Magnificent Seven, which fare better. Here, Kunzel seems more at home, and the piece comes off with great bravado.

Among my favorite items on the program is an all-too-brief anthology of TV Western themes that includes "Bonanza," "Rawhide" (with Laine, naturally), "Wagon Train," and "The Rifleman."  Another memorable selection is from How the West Was Won, in which Kunzel makes the most of the music's epic sweep.

Other notable tracks include a "Hoedown" of familiar Western dance tunes, the main theme from The Big Country, a suite from The Furies, and a choral-orchestral medley of "Ti Yi Yippee Ay," "Shenandoah," "Red River Valley," "Home on the Range," and "The Streets of Laredo."

Finally, Laine reprises a couple of his megahits, "High Noon" and "Gunfight at the OK Corral," always welcome; and Kunzel does good work with highlights from the underrated Silverado.

Be aware, however, that some of this music takes a moment to get used to, played as it is by a big symphony orchestra. We may recall most of these songs done with smaller studio orchestras or in any case much less weighty accompaniment. But I think anyone already used to Kunzel's way around a Hollywood tune will find most of delightful. And if some of these simple melodies sound too overblown for your taste, well, at least I’ve forewarned you.

Telarc producer and engineer Robert Woods made the album at Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio in September 1986. LIM producer Winston Ma and engineer Michael Bishop remastered the recording using UltraHD 32-bit processing in June 2013. The Telarc sound was already pretty good, and the LIM remaster and transfer take it a step further. In a comparison with the original Telarc disc, the LIM sonics appear marginally crisper, better defined, with a slightly greater sense of hall ambience, air, space, resonance, depth, tautness, and overall transparency. The dynamics seem to have a tad more punch as well, but that may be because of the aforementioned characteristics. Naturally, there is a strong, deep bass and a glistening, extended treble.

Incidentally, there are some gunshots on the disc that might not do your speakers any favors if you play them too loudly. Just saying'.

Of course, all of this audiophile improvement comes at a hefty price, but understand that your money also buys you a handsome, glossy foldout case, bound notes, and an inner sleeve with a static-proof liner.

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For more than 20 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2022 Accord EX-L Hybrid I stream music from my phone through its adequate but not outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through the phone into a Vizio soundbar system that has tolerably nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence. And finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technology that enables us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.


Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio

Contact Information

Readers with polite, courteous, helpful letters may send them to classicalcandor@gmail.com

Readers with impolite, discourteous, bitchy, whining, complaining, nasty, mean-spirited, unhelpful letters may send them to classicalcandor@recycle.bin.

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa