Classics from Hollywood to Broadway

Classics from Hollywood to Broadway is a curiosity, a collection of songs by Robert Wright and George Forrest, all based on themes by classical composers. In 1936 these two young men, barely out of their teens, were working in the music department of MGM when they were sent for by the studio head and asked to create a new score for the studio’s biggest stars, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette Macdonald.
 
The result was Maytime and the pair went on to adapt, co-opt and borrow from composers ranging from Grieg (Song of Norway) and Rachmaninov (The Anastasia Affair) to Saint-Saëns (Dumas and Son).
 
Of them all, and if you don’t count ‘The Donkey Serenade’ to Friml’s music that was featured in something called The Firefly, the only bona fide hit since Maytime has been their Kismet, which is naturally the best represented here. Well, if operatically, sung by soprano Melanie Holliday and baritone Steven Kimbrough, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra is conducted by Peter Falk.