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/ News

No-Guilt Trip: Barbra Streisand Releases More From The Vaults on "Classical Barbra"

January 2, 2013 By Joe Marchese 5 Comments

Classical BarbraNobody’s gonna rain on Barbra Streisand’s parade.  Earlier this year, the Columbia Records artist earned her seventh consecutive Top 10 entry and 32nd overall Top 10 disc with Release Me, a collection of previously-vaulted material spanning her entire career.  Streisand embarked on a series of sold-out concert dates in support of the album, and has just seen the big screen release of The Guilt Trip, a comedy in which she stars opposite Seth Rogen.   Though a second volume of Release Me was promised, it appears that another album containing previously-unissued music will precede it.  It's being reported that, on February 5, Sony Masterworks will reissue 1976’s Classical Barbra in a remastered edition containing two previously unissued bonus tracks.

Though recorded in 1973, Classical Barbra was first issued in 1976 between the Rupert Holmes-produced Lazy Afternoon LP and the soundtrack album to A Star is Born.  It couldn’t have been more different from those projects, however, as its twelve tracks were drawn from the European classical repertoire of composers including Claude Debussy, Carl Orff, George Frideric Handel, and Robert Schumann.  The entire album was crafted under the direction of Claus Ogerman, the German-born producer, arranger and composer who had previously worked on the concert stage with Streisand as well as on the Stoney End LP.  (In addition, his arrangement of Jimmy Webb’s “Didn’t We” can be heard on Release Me.)  Ogerman brought to the table his wide-ranging experience with artists ranging from Bill Evans and Lesley Gore to Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim, and also composed the album’s closing track and sole original composition, “I Loved You.”  (Its lyrics were adapted from Alexander Pushkin’s poetry.)  Streisand was at her most virtuosic on this collection, singing not only in English, but in French, Occitan, German, Italian and Latin.  Ogerman’s symphonic backdrop lushly supported Streisand’s vocals.

There's much more after the jump!

Francesco Scavullo took the album's striking cover photograph.  For the notes, no less an eminence than Leonard Bernstein wrote, “Barbra Streisand's natural ability to make music takes her over to the classical field with extraordinary ease. It's clear that she loves these songs. In her sensitive, straightforward, and enormously appealing performance, she has given us a very special musical experience."  Bernstein wasn’t the album’s only fan.  Classical pianist Glenn Gould favorably reviewed the album in a 1976 magazine and later commented that “Streisand is extraordinary.  I don’t know of any other singer, with the exception of [operatic soprano] Elizabeth Schwarzkopf who has impressed me as much.”

Yet, two pieces composed by Franz Schubert were left off the finished album when Classical Barbra was released in 1976.  Both of those compositions, “An Sylvia (To Sylvia)” and “Auf dem Wasser zu Singen,” have both been restored for the upcoming CD edition.  The latter was performed in a much more comedic rendition by Streisand on her Barbra Streisand and Other Musical Instruments television special, also from 1973.  It’s been said that an orchestrated version of Ogerman’s “I Loved You” was also recorded for the album, but that recording will not be included.  In its place, a piano-and-voice version was chosen to close out the album.

Upon its release, Classical Barbra placed at a none-too-shabby No. 46 on the Billboard 200.  While the album fell short of the artist’s higher berths for her pop material, it was an impressive showing for an album of classical music.  It was eventually certified gold, with over 500,000 units sold.  Though Classical Barbra has long been available on CD, this release marks its first expanded overhaul.  Thirteen-time Grammy-winning producer Steven Epstein has overseen the remastering for the new edition.

The upgraded and remastered Classical Barbra arrives in stores from Sony Masterworks on February 5, 2013 and can be pre-ordered below!

Barbra Streisand, Classical Barbra: Expanded Edition (Columbia Masterworks LP M-33452, 1976 – reissued Sony Masterworks, 2013)

  1. "Beau Soir" (Debussy)
  2. "Brezairola - Berceuse" (Canteloube)
  3. "Verschwiegene Liebe" (Wolf)
  4. "Pavane (Vocalisé)" (Fauré)
  5. "Après un Rêve" (Fauré)
  6. "In Trutina" (Orff)
  7. "Lascia ch'io pianga" (Handel)
  8. "Mondnacht" (Schumann)
  9. "Dank sei Dir, Herr" (Ochs)
  10. "I Loved You" (Ogerman)
  11. “An Sylvia (To Sylvia)” (Schubert) (previously unreleased)
  12. “Auf dem Wasser zu Singen” (Schubert) (previously unreleased)

Categories: News Tags: Barbra Streisand

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Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

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Comments

  1. Robert says

    January 2, 2013 at 9:00 am

    Here's some food for thought. Early last year when Streisand resigned with Columbia; there was a rumor that part of her new contract consisted of three re-issues. Could this release be the first of three? I think so. I'd love to see expanded versions of her French album, Je M'appelle Barbra and her concert in Central Park from 1968. Both albums are far from complete.

    Reply
    • Frank Anders says

      January 3, 2013 at 6:42 am

      ...if you are right with the "three re-issues" from the new contract; my choice for other two albums would be the same - I would love to listen to the whole concert '68!

      Reply
  2. Mark I. says

    January 2, 2013 at 6:04 pm

    Joe, once again, you don't disappoint with the Streisand disc news. Your research and knowledge about the subject is ever-impressive. I look forward to this reissue and others coming down the pike.

    Reply
  3. bjs1984e says

    January 3, 2013 at 8:53 am

    Thank you for that informative good news. Very well written and researched. There's much more to discover in Barbra Streisand's music catalogue than Broadway and Pop. Glenn Gould was very right in his statement that there is no other singer with the exception of Mdme. Schwarzkopf who can impress so much!

    Reply
  4. Doug R. says

    January 3, 2013 at 9:16 pm

    Glad this is getting reissued...it's an album that should be rediscovered by fans and newbies.

    There are some gems in Ms. Streisand's catalog that should be restored and expanded. "A Happening in Central Park" comes to mind...an event that was absolutely butchered when it came time for an LP release.

    Hopefully Sony will finally treat her catalog with respect. (And cancel this idea of a silly duets album.)

    Reply

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