On Stage

Just for fun, try playing this CD as a quiz for a musically knowledgeable friend. You can give one hint: the composer is well known. As the suite from the operetta The Bride Elect proceeds, you'll probably get guesses like Johann Strauss (during the opening waltz), Offenbach, or Victor Herbert. But when the concluding number, a march, arrives, the composer will be obvious. Sousa's operettas, if one judges from these orchestral selections, aren't highly original or even outstandingly tuneful. But they are good light entertainment, especially as played by this crack group of Slovak players under the direction of Sousa expert Keith Brion. Naxos's recording is as crisp and clear as the orchestral playing.