Ray Conniff In MoscowRay Conniff In Moscow

  1. Ray Conniff In Moscow
  2. Hurry Not (or: Don't Be In A Hurry)
  3. Melodie (or: Melody)
  4. A Little Prince (or: The Little Prince)
  5. The Song Of Gena's Crocodile (or: A Song Of Ghena, Crocodile)
  6. Horses, The Beasts (or: Sings Songs By M. Blanter)
  7. Moscow Windows
  8. The Birch Sap
  9. A Happy Day (or: The Happy Day)
  10. Moments (or: Momentary)
  11. I Won't Come Back To You (or: I'll Not Come Back To You)
  12. It Will Never Repeat (or: It Never Happens Again)



This album was reissued on CD in 1999 (music boheme CDBMR 907078 / Medlodiya MEL CD 60 00453).

Ray wrote the arrangements for this album in September 1974 and recorded them in Moscow in December 1974. There were at least 10 different pressings of this album.

Many additional photos from the studio sessions will eventually be added to this page.


Arrangements by RAY CONNIFFRay Conniff
MOSCOW CHAMBER CHORUS
Artistic Director Vladimir M'nin
VOCAL QUARTET "ULYBKA". "MELODIYA" ENSEMBLE
Artistic Director Georgi Garanian
CONDUCTOR RAY CONNIFF
Recording engineers: Ray Conniff, Victor Babushkin
Operator: Stepan Bogdanov
Sound producers: Tamara Chernova, Igor Vagin
Editor Vladimir Ryzhikov


Original LP liner notes: Ray Conniff

Ray Conniff arranged his famous ensemble about twenty years ago. The peculiar combinations of musical instruments and human voices, original arrangements of well-known melodies made by Ray Conniff brought great world-wide success to the ensemble.
The programme we are presenting now was recorded in December, 1974, in the USSR Disc Recording Studio. Moscow. It includes the songs written by Soviet composers with the single exception of a dance-music piece composed by Ray Conniff that gave the title to the disc.
Being interviewed in Moscow Ray Conniff told that the melodies of Russian and Soviet composers were frequently performed in concerts of his ensemble and the audience always gave them an enthusiastic welcome. Therefore when he was invited to come to Moscow and to record a complete programe incorporating the songs written by Soviet composers he was delighted. He mentioned that in this work he was helped by his knowledge of the Russian music which he loved ever since he was a boy when he took his lessons in piano playing. While arranging the music composed by the Soviet colleagues of his, he wished to grasp the specific features of Russian songs. Ray Conniff said it would be for the listeners to decide if he had succeeded.
At home Ray Conniff recorded more than fifty long-playing discs. In Moscow he worked for the first time with the Soviet performers — "Melodiya" Ensemble, singers of the Moscow Chamber Chorus, "Ulybka" Vocal Quartet.
Ray Conniff said that in the USSR he had met very talented musicians, real professionals. Never in his career had he seen the singers so willing to work and so selfless in their devotion to art.
Ray Conniff remarked that he had always been a very severe judge of his own recordings. Only very few of his numerous discs really satisified him. He expressed the hope to see the results of his collaboration with Soviet artists in Moscow approaching the top level reached by him so far in his work. He said he would be proud to have his name placed alongside the names of splendid Soviet musicians. — G. Skorokhodov

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