Maestro Classics Review

My family has had the opportunity to receive two music products from Maestro Classics. Including The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Casey at the Bat to listen to from The Homeschool Review Crew.

Are you looking to add some classic music instruction to your home or school? Look no further than Maestro Classics. This company has several classic music CD's to choose from. We've had the opportunity to listen to the ones below.

I personally love classical music and so does my husband so when I had the opportunity to review from this company, I was excited to see what they offered and to share classical music with my children. I was not disappointed. You not only get to listen to the performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra but you get much more as I describe each CD below in detail.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

 The first CD collection we listened to was this above. Since I was unfamiliar in how to use the CD, I decided to just pop it in and press play and go from there.

 The Sorcerer's Apprentice is an orchestral piece that contains a story, written by French composer, Paul Dukas. The symphony, recounts the tale of a sorcerer’s apprentice who is trying to get out of a day's work, decides to try his hand at casting a spell upon a broomstick. The broomstick does his work, while the apprentice decides to take a nap, but things go terribly wrong for the apprentice. You will find out the ending when you listen for yourself..

The CD includes 7 parts. In the first part you will listen to almost 12 minutes of the story "The Sorcerer's Apprentice narrated by Yadu with the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing the classic piece in the background. The second part includes almost 5 minutes narration of "About the Story". The history of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, including the story and the musical piece.

The third part is a small portion of the classic piece called "March of the Brooms" with the fourth part discussing "About the Music".

The fifth part is "The Sorcerer's Apprentice played without any narration. The last two parts include an opportunity for you to PLAY along with your own household objects with the Kitchen Percussion.

A 24 page activity booklet is included with the CD, which includes a biography of Paul Dukas, information on pitched percussion instruments called "Meet the Mallets", sheet music, games like dot to dot, crossword puzzle, kitchen percussion play along as well as biographies of the conductor Stephen Simon, his wife Bonnie Simon, Executive Producer and Narrator, Yadu.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is for ages 6 +.


 Total Duration: 41:25 Minutes

Casey and the Bat

Casey and the Bat is a poem by Ernest Lawrence Thayer written in the 1860's. It didn't get any recognition until comedian William Hopper memorized the poem from a newspaper clipping and performed it over 10,000 times.

The CD includes 11 parts. The first part is the performance of Casey and the Bat with narrator Yadu, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The second part is "About the Poem". A discussion on how the poem was written, who wrote it and how it became famous. The third part is a small piece of the orchestra performance called "The Casey March".

The fourth part is "The Cabin in the Wood". A performance of the song with the orchestra playing. It then plays just instrumental. This part goes along with part five, Flight of the Rabbit which is a short story in music.

The sixth part is a Casey a la Suzuki. Very beautifully played. Before listening to Casey and the Bat again, you will hear the narration of "About the Music" from composer Stephen Simon. Here you will learn more about certain parts of the music.

The next two parts help you prepare for the final track Casey Tango.

A 24 page activity booklet is included with the CD, which contains the complete Ernest Thayer poem, facts about baseball, games, puzzles, word search, sheet music, and more.


Casey at the Bat is for all ages

 Total Duration: 35:00 Minutes

You can purchase these products at Maestro Classics as a download for $9.98 as well as a music CD for $16.98.

Don't stop with just listening to the CD and enjoying the activity booklet provided in your packet. Go to their website and you will find an array of things in addition to this great CD. If you are a homeschool family like we are, they have a wonderful section on how to use this CD as part of a unit study. You can check out this website at the Homeschool Music Curriculum Guide section.

Here you will find additional resources to add History, Science, Language Arts, Geography, Art, Music and Math. This wonderful resource is available for all the CD's they have to offer including the two above. We plan on finishing some more information through the links provided and gain more information pertaining to the two CD's we received. It's such a wonderful resource for those interested in a unit study approach to teaching.

If you are looking for more information about Maestro Classics,  you can check out other crew members reviews of this product in the banner below. Just click it and it will take you to a list of others that have had the opportunity to view this product in their homes.

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