Customer Reviews

Out West! Tone Poems of the American West- Copland / Grofe

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

 

 

The Seattle Symphony and Maestro Schwarz do a marvelous job on this classic masterpiece. They almost, but not quite, make up for the low quality recording. DELOS recorded this cd in the Opera House in Seattle 10 years ago. At the beginning of the "Sunrise" and "Painted Desert" movements the music is barely there and unless you have high quality playback equipment the accompanying noise almost overpowers the music. The same can be said of the horn echoes at the beginning of "Sunset." Playback on better equipment yields far better results but it seems DELOS would have known to "hold the microphones a little closer."

"Billy the Kid" and "Rodeo" are exceptional, particularly the familiar, "Hoedown".

The Seattle Symphony is magnificent as always. I would love to hear them do The Grand Canyon Suite live, WOW! I believe this performance should be considered "definitive." If only...

This is one of those sad attempts to create some audiophile excitement with an totally impractical dynamic range. There is even a warning on the back that the gunshots in Billy the Kid can harm your speakers! The secret to this is to record most of the music at such a low level that you can hardly hear it, so you have to crank up your volume control, and then they can let loose with those ear-shattering and speaker-blowing effects. Why? I'm reminded of Monty Python's "spring surprise" candy.

I can't say I'm at all impressed with the performances, either. Soporific is the easiest way to describe them. My mind completely wandered off during "Sunset".

Track down a copy of Paul Whiteman conducting the Grand Canyon Suite. That's the way it should be done.

My review is mainly just to second the other review. Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony do a fine job with these pieces. It is so unfortunate that the recording level was set so as to make for a lack of presence. The engineers did pick up bass drum and timpani very well, and a system with a good subwoofer will really bring them out--it's just that the faithful reproduction of percussion is somewhat jarring because they come out great but everything else is still too distant. For the performances on this CD plus the low price I paid I can recommend it; just be prepared for less than
perfect sound.