PFM IN CLASSIC - DA MOZART A CELEBRATION

I had kind of high expectations of this album. I mean, look at all these fine music men - Mozart, Saint-Saens, Verdi, Rossini, Rimsky-Korsakov: would you expect anything but excellency? Especially when delivered by one of the most capable symphonic bands in the RPI realm, reinforced by no less than a whole symphonic orchestra!

Here is a problem #1: PFM and the orchestra .. they kind of play next to each other (seen it on the pic, folks!), but not really together? Problem #2: the musicians do deliver an adequate version of e.g. the Magic Flute, followed by an equally adequate piece of the PFM making .. fine .. only it's not clear what the thought process behind this sequence of musical pieces? What's the message/ What's the expected aesthetic effect upon the listener? Same pattern continues throughout the first 2/3 of the album: a classical piece, followed by a PFM symph piece; no connection and no logic in transition, it seems. .

But towards the end the things get even sadder: the classical/symph rock toggling is replaced by some benign, powder-faced, politically correct pop. As far as I am concerned, la forneria e chiusa. Three stars out of respect for the PFM's 1970s past.