Customer Reviews

American Classics: Fanfare for the Common Man / Barber Adagio / Appalachian Spring / West Side Story

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This compilation CD has some of the best recordings of these pieces on the market today.
David Zinman and the BSO do a remarkable job with the Symphonic Dances; compared to the Berstein and NYP recording it's played cleaner and better, the recording quality is much higher, although I think the interpretation award will have to go to Lenny on this one.
This is the best recording of the Barber Adagio, hands down. I own 5, and have heard many more, but Dorati and Detroit just play it more colorfully and beautifully than anyone else. The ensemble is perfect, and the recording quality is stunning.
My one complaint is the Fanfare for the Common Man. It's just not clean; I've frequently wondered why the Detroit Brass just didn't do another take.
All in all, this is a wonderful disc for a wonderful price.

A time of tragic separation or deep healing; a solitary figure in his twilight years contemplating human existence. Read into it what you will, Barber's "Adagio for Strings" shimmers with poignancy in this richly textured, resonant reading by Dorati and company. Detroit's strings reach for the heavens when called for, and their pacing throughout is flawless.

At the other extreme, Zimmerman and Baltimore romp through Bernstein's delicious "Overture to Candide", extracting all its juiciness and doing justice to the characters in Voltaire's farcical satire. Lenny couldn't have done much better.

My only qualm about this CD is that no one at Penguin thought about placing time codes within the packaging, leaving mobile listeners to figure out whether they have enough time to enjoy a given track before they confront the tollbooth or grocery store. Otherwise, consider this a wonderful assortment of fine American performances.