Customer Reviews

Orchestral Works

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Leonard Bernstein is still the one to look for on Rodeo, but unfortunately, he never made a recording of Lincoln Portrait, which came as a shock to me, since he was probably the greatest interpreter of Copland's music. Fortunately, I found this recording with the great statesman Adlai Stevenson giving an emotional reading accompanied by the great Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. If you're looking for Lincoln Portrait, this is the CD to look for. Look to Bernstein for Rodeo.

This is probably the best performance of the Copland "Lincoln Portrait" available on recordings. Stevenson reads Lincoln's wonderful prose with both dignity and intensity, and Ormandy's pacing (and the solo wind and brass playing of the Philadelphia Orchestra musicians) is impeccable, capturing completely the melancholy and darkness of the opening without being bombastic in the more overtly patriotic passages.

In my mind there is only one conductor who "owns" the music of Aaron Copland and that is Leonard Bernstein. However, since, Maestro Bernstein never redorded (as far as I know) Copland's "Lincoln Portrait", I would suggest this recording by the outstanding Eugene Ormandy with Senator Adlai Stevenson as narrator. It's a quite passionate homage to our most beloved president.

Comparison for Lincoln Portrait: William Warfield/David Effron/Eastman Phil. Orch (Also very good but out of print and only ever released on LP)

For the most part, this is an excellent CD, with great performances throughout. Of note is Andre Previn's moving, wonderful account of the Red Pony suite, bringing out much more of the work's excitement than Copland's own more measured, standard reading. Unfortunatly, the dance episodes from Rodeo are a dissapointment. First, there are only three instead of the customary four episodes, and, even stranger, a large part of Buckaroo Holiday is cut towards the beginning. For the other works on this CD though, this is a fine purchase.

A valuable yet extremely inexpensive Copland disc, it collects some important Ormandy and Previn recordings along with somewhat less valuable ones by Lane. The set kicks off with that venerable chestnut Fanfare for the Common Man, conducted for maximal effect by Ormandy. This is the original version, with opening timpani and gong; Bernstein, by contrast, in his 1966 recording, plays the revised orchestral version incorporated into Copland's Third Symphony. Lane's Rodeo, presenting only three of the four "Dance Panels," follows, and it's indeed the weak point of the disc, both for being incomplete (no "Corral Nocturne") and because it pales by comparison with others, particularly Bernstein's definitive account. Lane's reading of the underrated Outdoor Overture -- a whole likable, extroverted piece -- proves more worthwhile, in large part because there are fewer competitors here. This 1961 recording holds up well against the composer's own from a few years later, although I prefer the more succinct revised ending Copland used in his own recording. Next comes the highpoint of the disc for me -- Previn's recording of the approx. 23-minute suite from the film "The Red Pony," one of Copland's essential evocations of American life. This was recorded in 1963 with the St. Louis Symphony, when Previn was still mainly known as a jazz pianist and Hollywood composer/arranger. It's a vibrant and powerful recording -- well ahead of the versions by Copland himself and Slatkin -- and shows why major orchestras such as the LSO would be so eager to snap Previn up a few years later. He did not disappoint, producing a tremendous recording of Walton's First Symphony, classic Rachmaninoff and Vaughan Williams cycles, some great Shostakovich symphonies, and much more. This Red Pony, which anticipates those glories to come, has a verve on a par with Bernstein's contemporaneous recordings of Copland, and since Bernstein never recorded this piece, it serves as a great complement to his invaluable Copland legacy. Finally, we end with a classic recording of some hoary Americana, A Lincoln Portrait, with Ormandy again and narrator Adlai Stevenson -- twice Democratic contender for the presidency, twice beaten by Eisenhower, and later Ambassador to the United Nations under JFK. After the sly allusions to "Camptown Races," Stevenson brings a declamatory nobility to the narration that eludes even screen icon Henry Fonda in his recording with the composer. Here we have a true statesman conveying the wisdom of perhaps our greatest. All-in-all this is a fine disc and a good supplement to classic recordings from the same era by Bernstein and Copland himself. I'd give it five stars but for Lane's truncated, lackluster Rodeo.