Gottschalk: A Night In The Tropics

"Called the 'Creole Chopin,' this 19th-century composer had a fascinating penchant for writing catchy and colorful pieces. Critic's Pick"
- Andrew Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 7/28/03

"...we can newly appreciate the best American composer of the period and a third New World original: Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Here, Naxos has furnished the premiere recording of Gottschalk's explosive orchestral show-stopper, 'Night in the Tropics' (1859), in something like its original version, with pulsating Cuban percussion and brigades of gyrating brass. Richard Rosenberg leads the Hot Springs Music Festival Orchestra in a performance whose 'Festa Criolla' rattles the roof. ...This is mandatory American repertory.
- "Old Sounds From the New World," New York Times (Joseph Horowitz) July 15, 2001

"If you know Gottschalk's unorthodox two-movement symphony A Night in the Tropics...hearing Richard Rosenberg's scrupulous new restoration will be akin to hearing Mussorgsky's Boris after living with Rimsky-Korsakov. Most obviously, the new edition respects Gottschalk's profligate timbral imagination, giving us a renewed appreciation not only of the impudent contagion of climaxes (40 separate wind and brass parts), but also of the score's subtler uses of instrumental resources. But Rosenberg has also taken seriously the details of Gottschalk's notation bringing his rhythmic daring into sharper focus-a special benefit in the exuberant dance of the second movement."
- International Record Review