Copland: Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid Suite, etc. [Enhanced]

Aaron Copland (Composer), Eugene Ormandy (Conductor), Eduardo Mata (Conductor), Philadelphia Orchestra (Orchestra), Dallas Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Eugene Ormandy, Eduardo Mata
• Composer: Aaron Copland
• Audio CD (October 12, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B00001R3MR
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #417,560 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Ballet For Martha: Appalachain Spring - The Philadelphia Orchestra

2. Billy The Kid: Suite: Introduction: The Open Prairie - The Philadelphia Orchestra

3. Billy The Kid: Suite: Street In A Frontier Town - The Philadelphia Orchestra

4. Billy The Kid: Suite: Mexican Dance And Finale - The Philadelphia Orchestra

5. Billy The Kid: Suite: Prairie Night: Card Game - The Philadelphia Orchestra

6. Billy The Kid: Suite: Gun Battle - The Philadelphia Orchestra

7. Billy The Kid: Suite: Celebration: After Billy's Capture - The Philadelphia Orchestra

8. Billy The Kid: Suite: Billy's Death - The Philadelphia Orchestra

9. Billy The Kid: Suite: The Open Prairie (Reprise) - The Philadelphia Orchestra

10. Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes: Buckarro Holiday - Dallas Symphony Orchestra

11. Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes: Corral Nocturne - Dallas Symphony Orchestra

12. Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes: Saturday Night Waltz - Dallas Symphony Orchestra

13. Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes: Hoedown - Dallas Symphony Orchestra

14. El Salon Mexico - Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Rodeo, February 7, 2007

By 

Lori Guess (Fells Point MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Copland: Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid Suite, etc. (Audio CD)

Have only heard Rodeo, but it's worth the price of the CD. Clean, crisp, balanced, rhythmic, brassy. The only recording I've ever heard where the oboe solo in the Hoedown has presence and doesn't sound like the oboist was playing offstage.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finest Apallachian Spring EVER, January 6, 2012

By 

Daniel J. McGarigle (EL SEGUNDO, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Copland: Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid Suite, etc. (Audio CD)

Eugene Ormandy draws Appalachian Spring's sounds out of the great Philadelphia Orchestra like no other conductor has ever performed this Copland warhorse. Countless conductors and orchestras have offered up this piece in as many textures as you will find in the hundreds of cloths from the looms of the world. Some performances have sounded like burlap, others like thick cotton, others like damask, still more like linen, denim, corduroy, carpet and towel. But this Ormandy-Philadelphia performance is like a heavy silk brocade, rich, sumptuous and thick with sounds that come only rarely from orchestras whose players and sections play so gorgeously together as to give us sounds unheard in the vast sea of mediocre performances of this piece. Listen to the entrances, the unisons, the harmonies, partnerings, contrastings, shadings among and across players, voices and sections ( especially the woodwinds and the strings ) and you'll hear the orchestral art in its highest form. Play this performance for any musician or conductor whom you know and just watch how they react to this one. So far, this one is the performance for the ages.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Copland, July 15, 2003

By 

Michael B. Richman (Portland, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Copland: Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid Suite, etc. (Audio CD)

There is not a lot to get excited about in this RCA "High Performance" reissue of the works of Aaron Copland. The Ormandy pieces have been available on CD before (not sure about the Mata though), and the remastered sound does not offer any new revelations when comparing the "Billy the Kid" Suite here to its earlier incarnation on RCA Gold Seal (which includes performances conducted by Copland himself -- a better buy!). In general Ormandy's recordings for CBS from the late 1950s and early 60s (now widely available in the Sony Essential Classics series -- I have written numerous reviews), are much better than his later recordings for RCA from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Even though the Philadelphia Orchestra still shines, there must have been something more fun about doing it the first time around for Ormandy. Mata, on the other hand, is clearly a rung below Ormandy and his performances are quite honestly second rate. With so many other classic Copland titles available, many with the conductor himself or the next best thing, Leonard Bernstein (sometimes the composer even preferred Bernstein to himself!), why would you settle for this CD?