By Request

Bought the vinyl disc when this first was released. Was and remains one of my favorite classical albums.

This is an excellent recording of significant (and COOL) music! It does not appear to have the Enhanced features. I really wanted the score on "Pompous Circumstances" that was described on wendycarlos.com as part of the Enhanced package. :-(

If you love synthesized music you must have this one. The best of the very best. Perfection. If you just love music try it! Inventive and lively.

Walter/Wendy Carlos has been a bright star in my record collection. I own this record in vinyl. The re-mastering CD was everything I had hoped for, and more.

The dawn of electronic music. A must have for anyone. Wendy is phenominal. I have this on vinyl and the CD brings forth a much greater amount of subtleties.

Now, with so many electronic musical instruments, it is fun to listen to one of the origanals.

As the Ultimate Carlos Fan and an analog synthesist, I was elated to discover that By Request, which I've had since it appeared on vinyl, was at last available on CD. I'm happy to report that it is just as good now as it was almost three decades ago. That's right--three decades!The music on this well-remastered CD still shines even though songs like "What's New Pussycat?" are no longer in vogue. The CD is a hodgepodge of various tunes from Bach to Beatles supposedly requested by listeners after The Well Tempered Synthesizer was released. The result may only only be mildly interesting to the occasional listener, but to followers of electronic music, it's like rediscovering a lost gem.The three dances from The Nutcracker aren't particular standouts by Carlosian standards, nor are some of the other selections. Suffice it to say of the album that when it is good, it is very very good, and when it is bad it is merely good. Here are random notes on some of the more interesting pieces:"Dialogues" and "Episodes" are early piano/synth pieces in the academic style. They will NOT appeal to some listeners, but they are well composed and extremely well performed, given the difficulty of creating electronic music back then."What's New Pussycat?" of Bacharach fame is another early Moog piece that is about as "Moogy" as Carlos has ever gotten. The Moog waa-waa filter cliche normally shunned by Carlos is here put to playful use in a chorus of drunken cats. I can't listen to this piece without smiling at the obvious good humor and sense of fun behind it."Geodesic Dance" remains one of my all-time favorites and appears here in all its modernistic glory. The piece is beautifully composed and full of the spatial and dynamic subtleties that set Carlos' analog work leagues above the rest. It ranks with "Timesteps" and "Country Lane" from the later Clockwork Orange album as thoroughly competent and quintessentially Carlos.The CD's Big Finale, of course, is "Pompous Circumstances," a playful send-up of the Elgar classic performed in a wide variety of styles. Once again, Carlos' talent as a composer and consummate synthesist shine through, along with a dose of good humor. It's a pastiche, but not without it's serious moments, which might be why it's such a satisfying work.Given the extreme difficulty and tedium of recording on a monophonic analog synthesizer--where changing a sound means striking a patch that may have taken hours to create and starting all over again--it's a wonder that the outcome could sound so good. But Carlos is a perfectionist and it shows on this album as it does on all of the Moog works. I confess that Carlos' digital music sounds flat and mundane to me and doesn't stand up to repeated listening. The analog works, for all their difficulty, continue to sound fresh and spirited. My request for Wendy's next "By Request" album would be to do another one like this--all analog.

This is NOT a review of her music, which is wonderful. It IS, however, a review of the prices of her recorded works. I've loved her music ever since SOB1, and would like to replace it and several others. Due to being on a fixed income now, I can't do that. So , come on Wendy. At least be dead before you charge that much. Not only here on Amazon, but everywhere.

LPレコードの待ちに待った復刻。LPには入っていなかった　POMPOUS　CIRCUMSTANCES　も入っている。アナログ単音シンセの懐かしい音。

Finally, almost 30 years after the original vinyl version, the lovingly re-mastered CD is here. The original LP was created tosatisfy demands from listeners and provide a mix of synthesized classics (Bach, Tchaikovsky and Wagner), realisations of popular songs, vintage pre-Moog Carlos and contempoary original Carlos pieces.It is the latter which provide the two most fascinating pieces on the CD. "Geodesic Dance" is short, highly rythymic, exciting work which ranks as one of Carlos' best. It has a very modern feel but is melodic - a lot happens in the three and a half minutes. The longer "Pompous Circumstances" is based on Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1" and is a series of variations on that theme in a number of styles. Unfortunately, the estate of Sir Edward felt that this was taking a rise out of the great man's "Enigma Variations" and banned the Carlos track from appearing on the UK pressings. The artwork for the present CD cheekily includes a "Banned in Britain!" logo. "Pompous Circumstances" represents the ultimate in Carlos' analogue (Moog) compositions and showcases her knowledge of musical styles - including a very energeticBach-like fugue and an atmospheric avant-garde "orchestral" variation with realistic percussion effects. American musical styles include the Sousa-like introduction and a Scott Joplin-plays-Elgar passage. The composition ends with a "2001" variation, perhaps a nod to Stanley Kubrick with whom Carlos worked on "A Clockwork Orange" and was to work with again on "The Shining".The other pair of Carlos originals date from the early 60's and are for piano and electronic sound. Set against the later pieces they sound primitive but have a wistful, romantic quality.Also included are realisations of short dances from Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" which represent the ultimate in Carlos' realisations of classical music. One of the first multi-track Moog realisations "What's New Pussycat?" is included and displays Carlos' humour at its most warped with mewling cats and a very loud and discordant bass appearing from nowhere.The two Bach tracks have already appeared on recent CD releases, although at the time of release of the original vinylwere not otherwise available. So if you already have the Bach CDs the value of this release is devalued a little - especiallysince there are no bonus tracks.However, if you like Carlos' original compositions from "Clockwork Orange" then that is reason enough to obtain this CD.

Great to savour this music again! However, in the vinyl era, Wendy was a Walter for some reason! The only irritating thing about the disc is the "stereo test tones", which were the first track on the vinyl but near the end of the disc!

Love this:)