Editorial Reviews

The Classical Kids series has for years been the pinnacle of the child's-introduction-to-the-great-composers genre. Superlative albums like BEETHOVEN LIVES UPSTAIRS,MOZART'S MAGIC FANTASY, and TCHAIKOVSKY DISCOVERS AMERICA have each woven a dramatic story line - based on real events in the composers' lives, embellished with fictitious interactions with child protagonists -- with musical scores of the maestros' own masterworks. The results have been uniformly enthralling, and the same goes for SONG OF THE UNICORN. It marks a pair of firsts for the Classical Kids label The Children's Group: the series' first celebrity narrator, Jeremy Irons and its inaugural enhanced CD. The plot eschews history for myth, in this case an Arthurian fantasy about a pair of royal children who venture forth to find the legendary unicorn, whose powers can save their ailing queen mother. Their quest is joined by the sorcerer Merlin, who helps them overcome all manner of setbacks, in particular the hostile machinations of King Arthur's supernaturally endowed sister Morgan le Fay. The music is a pastiche of pre-Baroque music, including traditional English songs ("Greensleeves"), Gregorian chant, Celtic songs, medieval dances -- and a look into the future of music with Bach, Beethoven, and more. Narrator Irons's elegant British diction adds considerable authenticity to the proceedings. As for the multimedia aspects of the disc, kids can remix one of the compositions, using authentic medieval instruments; print original illustrations to color (children can email their creations to The Children's Group, and they'll be posted in the label's online art gallery); view Middle Ages tapestries, monasteries, castles, and unicorns with live links to the Net; and more. We've come to expect nothing but the best from Classical Kids, and SONG OF THE UNICORN continues that tradition. Moira McCormick, Barnes & Noble

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