Cinderella Flac

Cinderella returned from their self-imposed exile in late 1994 with Still Climbing, a gritty record that shows them building upon the bluesy hard rock of Heartbreak Station. Arguably, it boasts a more consistent song selection and tougher sound than Heartbreak, yet radio and MTV were resistant to the band's classic good-times-and-hard-rockin' attitude and the record disappeared soon after its release.

Of the major works of Sergei Prokofiev, none (apart perhaps from Peter and the Wolf) have become so well loved by a wide audience as the ballets Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet. From the stage productions, to the orchestral suites, to the piano versions, many of these pieces are universally recognised.

Prokofiev arranged excerpts from his ballet Cinderella for solo piano as three separate suites: the Three Pieces Op. 95, Ten Pieces Op. 97, and Six Pieces Op. 102. Here Olli Mustonen fashions his own extended suite that starts with Op. 95 intact, continues with Op. 97 reordered minus one piece, and concludes with three of the Op. 102 selections. In the main, Mustonen’s amazingly worked-out pianism toes the fine line between brilliant individuality and irritating self-absorption. In Op. 97, for instance, the pianist brings remarkable crispness and élan to the frolicking triplet figurations throughout Fairy Spring and the Grasshoppers and Dragon Flies, and rubs our noses in the Autumn Fairy’s dissonant accents. At times, however, interpretive tics transform the music’s rhythmic profile and thematic resourcefulness into mannered mush. The Op. 95 Pavane is a case in point.

The fairy tale story of Cinderella has always inspired the great theater composers. Rossini's delightful 'La Cenerentola' is an operatic staple while Prokofiev's 'Cinderella' is a fixture on the ballet stage. After the 1940 premiere of 'Romeo and Juliet,' Prokofiev was immediately commissioned to write another ballet for the Kirov. Work on 'Cinderella' was set aside during some of the darkest days of the Second World War but Prokofiev returned to the work and completed it in 1944.

Extended Versions is a live album by American hard rock band Cinderella. It was recorded on July 21, 2005 at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut and released in 2006 by Sony BMG. The album was re-issued in 2009 by Frontiers Records in Europe and Japan under the title Live at the Mohegan Sun, with bonus tracks and a different cover. Gary Corbett was previously a touring keyboard player for Kiss and Paul Stanley.