CD Reviews

The Brian Setzer Orchestra

Wolfgang’s Big Night Out | Surfdog

By TED DROZDOWSKI | November 19, 2007

3.0 Stars

The former Stray Cats guitarist pulls into town with his annual holiday show this Friday, trailing the reissue of his two Christmas albums and Live Christmas Extravaganza (Surfdog) DVD. But his new disc of mostly instrumental tunes inspired by popular classical-music themes is way more fun. There’s a zaniness to his totally unzipped playing, which transforms Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik into the finger-popping title track and busts out Road Runner–speed solos on “Honey Man,” a rockabilly bonfire fanned from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee. Setzer sexes the “Hall of the Mountain King” episode from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt music into “One More Night with You,” a lustful anthem with lusty guitar playing. There’s even an acoustic nylon-string twist on Beethoven’s Für Elise dubbed “For Lisa.” Sure, this is a lowdown take on uptown music, but Setzer’s standards stay elevated through all the high jinks.

Brian Setzer Orchestra | Orpheum Theatre, 1 Hamilton Place, Boston | November 23 | 617.931.2000

Related: Bach beat, John Harbison plus 10, Operatic oboe, More

Topics: CD Reviews , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Edvard Grieg, More

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