Recorded July 1, 2001 by Janine Schwab
at St. James UCC
in Havertown
Joanna Arnold, accordion
Mike Ciul, tenor
Download avemaria.mp3 (1.4M)
Some musicians I know turn their noses up at this saccharine favorite based on Bach's Prelude #1 from the Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1.
They say the "original" has a fine melody cleverly embedded in its structure. I agree with that.
They say that Gounod's overlaid melody ruins the subtleties of the prelude by treating it like just a bunch of arpeggiated chords.
Well! That may be true, but I don't have a problem with it. The original (midi) is still easy to find and listen to (and learn... it's quite a good piano piece for beginners), so I don't see how anyone's missing out on anything.
But what do I know, I don't even have a master's degree. My background is as much rock as classical, and as far as I'm concerned, this Italian wedding standard is a damn good cover.
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