The Majestic Marches

Orchestral marches recorded by The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of its distinguished Music Directors Lorin Maazel and George Szell; former Resident Conductor Louis Lane, and guest conductor Rafael Kubelik.

　THE MARCH is one of the most popular types of music in Western civilization. Originally designed "to promote orderly marching of a large group, especially soldiers," it has become the source of a vast procession of delightful concert music. Since the 16th century, composers have taken pleasure in utilizing the regular one-two meter of the March as a foil for rhyihms of great variety and imagination.
　Marches can be ceremonial and majestic, lively and vivacious, solemn and even funereal. They can inspire emotions of patriotism, recall or underline festive public occasions, celebrate this or that holiday, and even satirize some characteristic of prideful strutting. They can be serious or humorous, deeply moving or vigorously inspiriting. This recording brings you a fine sampling of the limitless and invariably enjoyable literature of the March, as performed by a great symphony orchestra.

We wish to thank Mrs. George Szell for permission to include her late husband's performances, and Lorin Maazel, Louis Lane and Rafael Kubelik for allowing their performances to be included. This recording was manufactured by Telarc Records for the 1981 WCLV/Cleveland Orchestra Marathon 12,

Technical preparation for this recording: Robert Woods and Jack Renner
Illustrations: Artworx by Hemsoth
Recording coordinators: Stephen Klein and Klaus G. Roy
Severance Hall photograph: Alex Thiel
Jacket design: Shirley Clark
Four-color separations: R. E. May, Inc.

The recorded performances of the music of Bizet and Berlioz were provided courtesy of Telarc Records, the works of Tchaikovsky and Elgar courtesy of Epic Records; music by Kodaly, Mendelssohn and Prokofiev courtesy of Columbia Records; Beethoven work courtesy of DGG, and the Gould work courtesy of TRW.