Euphoric Sounds [Import]

William Bolcom is the best ragtime pianist alive. You'll play this CD over and over. It's not just that he's so good technically--he interprets the rags beautifully. My favorites are "The Ragtime Dance" (the introduction is almost majestic) and the "Magnetic Rag." And then there's the "Maple Leaf Rag," so familiar yet so special....If you're going to buy one ragtime album, this is the one to get.

This is a one of a kind! I have owned this for about ten years, and still enjoy it as much as when I found it! Mr. Bolcom does indeed convey that special touch and rhythm that we Joplin lovers think sounds just as he would have played. Note: I did not know I was a fan of Joplin until discussing "The Sting" (movie) with a professionl pianist. Even if you think you don't like ragtime, this is one to own!

Why can't Amazon get this album title right? It's "Euphonic Sounds," not "Euphoric," and the title is taken from track #14, well played by William Bolcom. All of the selections are worth listening to, and Bolcom's original licks, mostly in the repeats, are very much in the style of the early 20th-century as heard in historical recordings of Jelly Roll Morton and others.

I question the speed of several pieces--"Searchlight Rag" is an example. Yes, Scott Joplin famously wrote "It is never right to play `rag-time' fast" in his note to "Leola," but does that mean it has to be draggy? Maybe the worst example is the waltz "Bethena." Waltzes were popular dances at the turn of the century--e.g., "The Band Played On"--but no one could dance to the exaggerated slowdowns at the ends and even in the middle of sections of "Bethena" as Bolcom plays it. And that's too bad, because his phrasing is mostly right on. But the dance character is lost, so it comes across as a tone poem in the style of Chopin instead of the great American waltz.

Still, this is with Joshua Rifkin's album one of the best recordings of Scott Joplin's piano music. It is chronologically organized, starting with "Original Rags" in the late 1800s and finishing with Joplin's last published rag, "Magnetic," of 1912.

Bolcom is a better pianist than Rifkin for this musical style, and Bolcom also established himself as a ragtime composer--I recommend his "Graceful Ghost" rag which fuses sophisticated chromatic broadway harmony with genuine ragtime character.