Recess! Media

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Have you ever heard Little Jack Horner performed with such elegance before? That’s Jon Garrison and Michael Riley singing James Hook’s setting of that old Mother Goose favorite from a new CD called “Mother Goose and More.” It features Julie Andrews, Peter Schikele (of P. D. Q. Bach fame) as the narrators who lead us through this delightful collection of works for children, and in the spirit of childhood. Proceeds from the sales of this recording go to the UNIFEM anti-violence trust fund. UNIFEM is the United Nations Development Fund for Women. On the CD, there’s a short version of “The Nutcracker,” with Ms. Andrews narrating and the Three Flute Moms Plus One playing Tchaikovsky’s rich holiday treat. You’ll find orchestral music from Corelli, Bach, and Bartok. But the biggest slice of this delightful souffle belongs to Maurice Ravel’s “Mother Goose Suite.” Each movement of this series of musical reveries accompanies the retelling of one of the fairy tales of Perrault (pronounced “pear-o”) and other French fabulists. It’s dreamy stuff, just the thing for a cold winter evening around the fire, listening . . . . to a story:

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