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SITE RATING:  5/10 SITE REVIEW:  Originally released on Premiere Records (XM-S1), and anonymously credited to Kurt Von Baum and the Homburg (sic) Symphony, this department store promotional album has been sonically cleaned up and reissued on CD-R and mp3 format by ReDiscovery Music, who also did a little detective work as well in order to discover the original culprits.  Based on their research, the identity of the director is former Jersey City Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra conductor J. Randolph Jones, who died in 1982 at the age of 72.  ReDiscovery Music has mastered this release from the original reel tape masters, so it sounds excellent, probably better than the original LP issue, but what about the performance?  There's no copywright date present on any of the LP sleeves, but I would guess by the fidelity and style of performance that this recording hails from the late-1960s/early 1970s, with little in the way of baroque stylings evident, but tempos are generally quicker than those found in the 1950s to mid-1960s.  Everything is sung and played with great Victorian vigor, and the unnamed choir sings with a ham-fisted emphasis that in nevertheless unified and in tune - this isn't some thrown-together group - perhaps, if this in fact the Jersey City Philharmonic Symphony, a symphony chorus was used in the recording as well. The soloists are similarly unnamed, which is probably for the best - the alto, soprano, and tenor soloists acquit themselves well, if not with any particular subtlety, but the bass soloist is far too "basso-profundo" for my tastes.  More a curiousity than an essential listen, I found the mystery behind the recording of more interest than the recording itself.

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