Classical CD's produced for children

[Jim MacDaniel]

One of my favorite family records when growing up was #Peter and the Wolf (Bernstein's, I think). For starters, I would like to purchase this piece on CD for my boy Aidan -- does anyone out there have any favorite performances that are on CD?

Additionally, I am interested in learning what other Classical CD's are out there that were produced for children. Do you have any suggestions to look into? (No Baby Einstein please -- I know their intent is to make the music more accessible for small children, but my wife and I both find those electric keyboards annoying. # )

[John Craton]

There is a wonderful collection of pieces that appeal to children in a CD called — appropriately enough — Classical Music for Children: A Toddler's Introduction to Classical Music. You can find it at CD Now, where it lists all the selections included on the album. Another nice collection is Ben's Birthday Present - A Classical Music Adventure for Children.

As for individual pieces that tend to be well-liked by most youngsters (you didn't mention how old Aidan is), the list is quite extensive. Among those that come readily to mind are: A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten; 12 Variations on "Ah! Vous dirai-je maman" (otherwise known to most Americans as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star") by W.A. Mozart; Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony; Schumann's "Scenes from Childhood" and "Album for the Young"; "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by Paul Dukas; "Ma mere l'oie" (Mother Goose) by Maurice Ravel; "Une semaine du petit Elfe Ferme-l'œil" (A Week of the Little Elf Shut-Eye) by Florent Schmidt; "Parade" and almost anything else by Eric Satie ... the list could go on and on. My kids (when they were kids) even liked some of Schubert's piano sonatas and would ask me to play "that violent one," for instance, as they would describe them in terms they identified them with. Really the important thing is just to expose them to music of all kinds. Some pieces are written specifically with children in mind, but even "serious" pieces often can captivate a young mind.

Good luck on your endeavor!

[Eugene]

My kids, when very young, liked Grieg, especially the orchestral arrangements that comprised the Lyric Suite, op. 54 and, of course, the incidental music from Peer Gynt. #Perhaps a bit on the odd side, but my kids also really liked Arvo Part's cello concerto "Pro et Contra" that combines serialism and avant-garde noise making with rococo-style cadences (I think kids just like fast, loud, and chaotic for the simple joy of fast, loud, and chaotic).

I personally like Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. #However, like Winnie the Pooh, Britten's Guide always struck me as much more like what British parents wished children would like than what children actually like.

Programmatic stuff is always good, especially stuff that is pretty obviously sonically descriptive: storms, animal noises, etc. #Biber's Sonata Represetativa is full of oddly executed animal noises on the violin and ends with a "Musketeer's March"; Manze (1994. Harmonia Mundi, HMU 907134.35) and Il Giardino Armonico (1998. Teldec, 3984-21464-2) have made excellent recordings of it. #The latter also made an excellent recording of late baroque and rococo devilish music called, appropriately enough, La Casa del Diavolo (2004. Naive, OP 30399) with one of the most amiable devils I've ever seen on the cover. #There is a decent recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons with each movement introduced by Patrick Stewart narrating translations of the verses Vivaldi wrote to set the music's mood (Roth, Arnie, Patrick Stewart & Musica Anima. 1995. The Compleat Four Seasons. American Gramaphone L.L.C. AGCD801.). #Check out Beethoven's 6th symphony, "Pastorale", op. 68 and Ghost Trio, op. 70, no. 1. #Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, op. 14 is a good one. #Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals works very nicely as do some of his tone poems like Danse Macabre, op. 40 (if you're feeling like a taste of Halloween). #My daughter has always loved Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an exhibition. #There are heaps more romantic and post-romantic program music. #I'm rather fond of Hovhaness' lushly ambient works; check out recordings of And God Created Great Whales; Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints, op. 211; symphony no. 46 "To the Green Mountains", op. 347 (which includes an excellent "Mountain Thunderstorm" that opens with an effervescent droplet and rapidly builds to downpour in sheets); and symphony no. 50 "Mount St. Helens", op. 360 (which includes a thunderous portrayal of the volcano's explosive eruption followed by quite a bit of lava sparkling, bubbling, and marching down the mountain's remains). #In similar vein, Philip Glass' The Canyon is good minimalist fun. #To introduce at least a little pluck, Koshkin recorded some of his own programmatic guitar solos (Koshkin, Nikita. 1998. The Prince's Toys: Koshkin Plays Koshkin. Soundset Recordings, SR 1011); Usher Waltz (after Poe) is probably the most famous, but I think Rain is the coolest of the lot and very effective, thunder and all.

I'm pressed to think of classical mandolin recordings I think would appeal to kids. #Neil Gladd recorded Aubrey Stauffer's groovy Storm at Sea, but that's only available commercially on LP. #The Nashville Mandolin Ensemble's All the Rage (1998. New World Records, 80544-2) might work for its frequent ragtime feel and golden era American cheesiness. #The Melonious Quartet's Au Sud de la Mandoline (1998. L'Empreinte Digitale, ED 13088) is good fun, especially their arrangement and performance of Frank Zappa's King Kong.

[John Craton]

To follow up on Eugene's list of program music (always great fun for most kids), don't forget Ferde Grofé's "Grand Canyon Suite." I haven't listened to it in ages, but I remember being very fond of it when I was young. Smetana's "Moldau" is also quite nice for younger ears.

I also forgot to mention a delightful collection of songs about cats included on an album called "Classical Cats." Most kids love animals, and these are really wonderful for all ages. I hope it's still in print.

Sometimes there's just no predicting what will strike a child's fancy. The first classical recording I remember being totally captivated by was Beethoven's violin concerto! That probably wouldn't appear on anyone's list of things most likely to appeal to children.

As for mandolin works, maybe the Hoffmann and Hummel concertos would be good starters, but like Eugene I'm not aware of much that's been written for the instrument that targets children. My own "Six Pantomimes for Two Mandolins" has a definite childlike quirkiness to it, but it hasn't yet been recorded. (I hear rumors that Richard Walz may be recording it within the next year or so, but not yet.)

Also (changing direction again), don't forget Carl Orff. And being an opera fanatic, I would be remiss if I didn't also mention that genre. Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel is a natural, as is Mozart's Magic Flute. As a youngster, I also loved Purcell's The Fairy Queen — but maybe I was an odd child (I'm definitely an odd adult!). I recall also being totally taken with Bach's Mass in B Minor too, as well as nearly all baroque organ works. Strange, that, since now I really don't care much at all for organ music, but as a child I was enthralled by it.

Gee, these childhood reminiscences are fascinating to me ... to bad I'm probably boring the Café with all these ramblings. But I guess it's for a good cause.

[Neil Gladd]

As for mandolin works, maybe the Hoffmann and Hummel concertos would be good starters,

I wouldn't expect either of those to hold the attention of a child (and the Hoffmann concerto can just barely hold my attention.) I think either the Vivaldi concerto or the Beethoven Sonatine in C would be better choices as they are shorter and livelier.

I would bet that a lot of people of my generation (and older) got their first classical music exposure from cartoons. Every episode of Mighty Mouse was a mini-opera, and there was lots of classical music in the Warner Brothers cartoons (Bugs Bunny in The Barber of Seville and What's Opera Doc, to name the most famous two.)

How about Disney's Fantasia?

[John Craton]

At the risk of reiterating the obvious (that I was an odd child), the Hoffmann and Hummel concertos were the first classical mandolin works I ever heard and were what enamored me of the instrument. I don't remember exactly how old I was when I first heard them, but I know I was still rather young. Just goes to show you can't always predict what a child will like. (I never cared much for "Peter and the Wolf," for instance, though most children do enjoy it. Further proof of my oddity, I suppose.)

[aero_space]

I would play what you like. I don't think there is a real diffence between adults and children in musical taste and this dicussion seems to make that point. I liked the Bartok String Quartets when I first heard them. The first hearing of Berg's "Wozzeck" still sticks strongly in my mind. The "Godfather" and "Mandolin Wind" and "Maggie May" were what got me to play Mandolin.

[John Craton]

I would play what you like. I don't think there is a real diffence between adults and children in musical taste

Very well put. I was in my teen years before I first heard Wozzeck, but I fell in love with it at first hearing. I once knew a small child who was absolutely fascinated by Debussy's "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune," which is probably one of the last works I would have predicted a small child to like. Bully for kids!

[Plamen Ivanov]

What`s the story about "Peter and the Wolf" and Bernstein?

There are two CDs by Simon Mayor called "Lullabies With Mandolins" and "The Musical Mystery Tour Albums". Simon Mayor and Hillary James make serious efforts in popularizing the mandolin among children.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Update: I recently located this CD at Amazon featuring the classic version of Carnival of the Animals narrated by Noel Coward, which is a family favorite on my wife's side of the family -- so now we can retire their well-past-its-prime orignal vinyl copy.

[Mark Levesque]

I remember purchasing some cassettes of this series when my boys were very small, the Vivaldi was a hit with them:
http://www.pinehillmusic.com/HTML/classicalkids.html

[Arto]

You never know what the kids like... One classical music commentator here mentioned a friend of hers, who had got Rigoletto opera DVD as a Christmas present for her 1-year old child. It was obviously meant to be a joke, but the kid fell totally in love with the DVD, looked it three times a day and would have looked it even more if the parents could have taken it... Wierd fat figures in strange clothes wobbling along and singing. Better than Teletubbies!

Arto

[SternART]

Neil mentioned Disney.........Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice was played to great effect by Mickey.

[Neil Gladd]

When I was a tot, I really liked my parent's LP of the Offenbach Can Can music.

[groveland]

Call me a pedestrian.

The most hauntingly beautiful children's CD to-date: "The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends" composed by Colin Towne, sung by Miriam Stuckley, St. Alban Abbey's Boy's Choir, London Filmworks Orchestra... A mood to literally last a lifetime. We introduced my daughter to it at perhaps 3 years old, and here it is, over 9 years later, it's in steady rotation on her iPod. (And mine.)

Hard to acquire nowadays, but worth it.

[Eugene]

OK, you're a pedestrian.

[Bob A]

My smaller grandkids have often enjoyed the two Animusic DVDs; little therein that is classical, but for combining incredible computer animation with reasonably interesting music, they're worth a look. And it's this kind of thing that will serve to introduce kids to music in future, I suspect. THey're to computer kids what Disney's Fantasia was to the movie crowd. Except, of course, they can be played on demand, over and over again, as opposed to an overwhelming but regrettably brief movie experience.

I suspect there's a lesson in that which could be mined by those who fear the demise of so-called classical music; if you want it to last, it has to be imprinted on impressionable young minds, repeatedly, in a visually arresting format. Remember Saturday morning cartoons? Remember how much classical music formed the background score? Fortunately the good classical stuff is off copyright, but most recorded performances are still protected, I assume.

[John Bertotti]

Mickey Mouse The Sorcerers Apprentice! Was always captivating to me as was the Nut Crackers Suite. And of course Peter and The Wolf which my son just had me read to him because he found my old books. Wow books from the 60 and he loves them too. A lot of old Disney had some very good music I am not sure if it was actually classical or not but it sounded that way to me and it was good.