Description
During the late 1990s, Dudley turned from jazz to classical music, began performing many concerts, and explored much of the classical repertoire. In addition to his solo orchestral performances, Dudley toured internationally with his two-piano partner, Rena Fruchter, performing shows of music he had written, as well as the classical selections. He played Mozarts Piano Concerto No. 21, along with Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue, on many orchestral programs. During a three-year period, he programmed several narrative works, including the two on this CD. On rare occasions, he assembled his own performing ensemble and conducted and narrated from the keyboard. These two rare performances were only recently discovered in the tapes Dudley left in his personal collection, intending to produce them on CD. Larry Gelbart provided his own riotous adaptation of the narration to Peter and the Wolf. The Ogden Nash narration has Dudleys personal comedic stamp. In this CD, you will hear laughter that would best be experienced in the hall. However, in the opening of Carnival, what Dudley described as apparently the only gag features the two pianists mock-tuning the instruments, using a very oversized tuning wrench. In the Tortues movement (Turtles), you will also hear laughter unrelated to the words--the tempo gets slower and slower and Dudley falls asleep at the piano.