After some initial resistance, it is difficult not to fall eventually under the spell of Johnny Morris’s very personal (and sometimes outrageous) descriptions and anecdotes which adorn the Saint-Saens Carnival of the animals. Of course the music doesn’t need any additional words (I have always found the Ogden Nash verses too facetiously clever by half); and this fine, intimate Czech performance, with a persuasive contribution from the two uncredited pianists, is most attractive in its own right. Morris’s gentle delivery and calculated, lazy timing of his own text (which nevertheless sounds quite spontaneous) is undoubtedly appealing. I think younger children will respond to his highly individual characterization of each animal (the Lion is for instance, ‘a lazy layabout’, who ‘lets the missus do the hunting’) and perhaps remember the musical association long past childhood. And I don’t think they will object in the least to Morris’s singing along in a quavery fashion with the Tortoise and in the Aquarium, even though he drowns the music! He opens with:R1 '9902013'