Best Children’s Classics 50 / Various

Another release in EMI’s highly successful 50 BEST series, this 3-CD set contains 50 tracks of the most familiar and best-loved works for children, performed by many of the world’s leading instrumentalists, orchestras, and conductors. The first disc of this 3-CD set, CARNIVAL, explores popular works that stimulate the imagination of every child. Starting with the famous “Flight of the Bumble-Bee,” this disc also contains the magical Le Carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals) by Camille Saint-Saens, which musically illustrates a grand zoological fantasy of assorted animals. The second disc of this set, FANTASY, invites the listener to let his or her imagination run free while listening to some of the world’s best-loved descriptive music. The titles for this disk include such works as Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mussorgsky’s A Night on the Bare Mountain. The disc concludes with one of the most popular children’s pieces of all times, L’Apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), a piece by Dukas which was memorably brought to life by Walt Disney in the 1940 animated film, Fantasia. The third CD in this release, TOYS & DANCE, includes Rimsky- Korsakov’s lively “Dance of the Tumblers” from The Snow Maiden, Leopold Mozart’s delightful Toy Symphony, and some of the most popular character dances from Tchaikovsky’s ballet, The Nutcracker.