Review: Maestro Classics

My boys and I love listening to story CDs while driving. I have many of the Classical Kids CDs and we've really enjoyed listening to them. So we were all pretty happy to check out the Maestro Classics CD that I was given as part of the TOS Homeschool Crew.

Members of the crew were sent a copy of the Tortoise and the Hare CD ($16.98). While this is a very familiar story to many children, Maestro Classics does a wonderful job of making it new while also exploring the elements of an orchestra and music.

The CD comes with seven tracks on it. Track #1 is the story in its entirety - 20+ minutes. However, there is another 30+ minutes on the CD after this! There is a short segment (track #2) in which the story is discussed including the origins and how they expanded it to fit the 20 minutes. My favorite track though is track #4 in which the composer and conductor of the music discusses why and how he wrote the music to go along with it. He talks about all the little things he added to the music to help enhance the story. At this point most folks would want to listen again in order to pick out those little things. Well, Maestro Classics adds the entire story as track #5 so that you can immediately listen to the whole story again and pick out all the things that had just been pointed out to the listeners by the conductor/composer.

The other titles include:

Peter and the Wolf

The Story of Swan Lake

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Casey at the Bat

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

Juanita the Spanish Lobster

Juanita la longosta espanola 

There are samples of both Swan Lake and Peter and the Wolf on the website. Be sure to check those out if you are still unsure.

My boys and I really enjoyed this CD and I do plan to pick up some more. We live in such a rural part of our state that it takes us at least 60 minute round-trip to drive to the grocery store. Church is a 20 minute drive - one way. We always have the radio on but sometimes they want to listen to a CD. These are great for those moments as they add a great way to study music and I can count it as "car-school."



*Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review. All opinions shared are my own. TOS Crew Members are given the product free of charge in exchange for our unbiased opinion of the product.