Advertisement

Surprising Copland Sampler From Sony

Share
<i> Herbert Glass is a regular contributor to The Times. </i>

The first volume of Sony’s long-awaited Copland Collection (46559, 3 CDs, mid-priced) is devoted to compositions from the years 1936-48 in recordings made between 1963 and 1976 by CBS, mostly in England with the composer conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra and London Symphony.

Its value is unquestioned, but there are signs of hasty assembly.

Sony fails to list among the contents on the front cover the set’s largest single component, the magnificent Third Symphony, and there’s no way of knowing until you’ve opened the package that this “Appalachian Spring” is not the original chamber version--which could just as easily, and preferably, have been included--but the usual full-orchestra suite.

The abundant pleasures include Benny Goodman’s incomparably vital solo in the Clarinet Concerto; Henry Fonda’s calm, convincing (if harshly recorded) recitation of “A Lincoln Portrait,” a score which takes on particular dignity under the composer’s leadership; the hilarious “Danzon Cubano”; engaging performances of the Dance Episodes from “Rodeo” and “Billy the Kid,” and a delectably soused “El Salon Mexico.”

Advertisement

Outstanding among several lesser known works is a snazzy little a cappella piece--sung by the New Conservatory Chorus--called “Las Agachadas” (The Shake-down Song).

That Third Symphony is, alas, an example of “composer conducting” at its most cautious, turgid and ultimately deadly. Fortunately, there are superb recordings of this work from other sources, notably the sprawling, almost Mahlerian Bernstein/New York Philharmonic version (Deutsche Grammophon) and the more tautly inflected, even more gripping one recently arrived from Leonard Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony (RCA).

Good news for anyone who missed the enchanting orchestral suite from Copland’s “The Tender Land”--with the Boston Symphony playing its heart out for the composer--when it appeared in RCA’s short-lived Papillon series: It’s back, sounding better than ever, on a comparably inexpensive RCA Gold Seal CD (6802), coupled as before with the composer-conducted (the BSO again, and spectacular) “Appalachian Spring” suite and a so-so Ormandy-Philadelphia “Billy the Kid” suite.

We may not really need them, but at least there’s plenty of life--with typically alert playing and clean, forceful sonics--from Gerard Schwarz and his Seattle Symphony in the standard suites from “Billy” and “Rodeo” (Delos 3104).

Also present, in keeping with the program’s “Out West” title, is Ferde Grofe’s “Grand Canyon” Suite, a beneficiary of Schwarz’s clarifying, uncondescending treatment but still a load of candy-coated (pop)corn.

Schwarz and Seattle, turning away briefly from the gutsy Americana--Piston, Hanson, Diamond--that happily continues to be the staple of their recording diet, offer a program of American music imbued with foreign spirits and a softer, more traditionally Romantic outlook (Delos 3099).

Advertisement

Particularly welcome is the suite “Through the Looking Glass,” after Lewis Carroll, by composer-critic-academic-radio personality Deems Taylor (1885-1966).

The score is stylistically reminiscent of Debussy, not the impressionist master but the younger, Wagner-infatuated (with sidelong glances at Massenet, too) composer of “Printemps,” particularly in its opening and closing numbers. The best of “Looking Glass” is addictively pretty, and it is shown in the most attractive light possible by Schwarz and his charges.

The remainder of the program showcases another American dreamer, one with more of a taste for the exotic, the short-lived (1884-1920) Charles Tomlinson Griffes.

Several of his studies in fragrantly mystical orientalia are heard, including the cleverly orchestrated “Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan,” with its suggestions of Scriabin, and “The White Peacock”; Poem for Flute and Orchestra; Three Tone Pictures, and the deliriously quaint “Bacchanale.”

Griffes’ pieces are charmingly musty evocations (to these ears) at once of armchair traveling and Isadora-like dancers, being ever so interpretive in their yards of billowing, gossamer chiffon.

By all means make the acquaintance of “The American Romantic,” a program by the pianist Alan Feinberg (Argo 430 330).

Advertisement

It begins with some lovely lyric bits by Amy Beach, proceeds to varied charmers by Gottschalk, including his flagrantly grandstanding inflation of “God Save the Queen,” and concludes with a substantial helping of music, including touching hommages to past composers, by New Jersey-born (in 1928) Robert Helps, himself an important interpreter of American piano music.

Feinberg’s playing, within the framework of Argo’s stunningly lifelike sonics, is powerful, richly colored, intensely dedicated.

Advertisement