MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


 REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

 

Buy through MusicWeb for £9 postage paid.

Musicweb Purchase button

 


Aaron COPLAND (1900-1990)
Music for the Theatre (1925) [22:13]
Quiet City (1940)* [10:02]
Music for Movies (1942) [16:57]
Clarinet Concerto (1947/1948)** [16:36]
*Chris Gekker (trumpet); Stephen Taylor (cor anglais); **William Blount (clarinet)
Orchestra of St Luke's/Dennis Russell Davies
rec. 1988 (reissue of MusicMasters MMD 60162L)
NIMBUS NI 2522 [66:56]
Experience Classicsonline



It's been my great pleasure to review a number of Copland discs over the past two years, all of which have confirmed the composer's unassuming talent. The music on this Nimbus reissue dates from Copland's most productive period, which included Dance Symphony, Piano Concerto, Billy the Kid, A Lincoln Portrait, Rodeo and Appalachian Spring.

Fresh from his sojourn in Paris Copland was determined to carve out a career as a serious composer. As a calling card Music for the Theatre is certainly arresting; it's brimful of youthful energy and confidence, a heady mix of jazz, blues and competing rhythms. It would make an even greater impact here if the recording sounded crisper and more immediate. In his review Bob Briggs suggests cranking up the volume but that merely emphasises the rather dry, recessed sound. As for the performance I would have preferred a more varied and flamboyant response to this music, from the jagged opening and Stravinskian rhythms of 'Prologue' - shades of El Salón México - to the trenchant tunes of 'Dance'.

The recording is also a little muffled at times - listen to the drum thwacks in 'Dance' and the opening of Music for Movies - but in mitigation the dance rhythms are irresistibly sprung. The more inward 'Interlude' has some lovely moments, the slapstick of 'Burlesque' not as riotous as it can be. And if the latter has a parallel in the silent films of Mack Sennett, 'Epilogue' surely looks towards the unsettling world of German Expressionist cinema, so well captured in Marin Alsop's Naxos account of Dance Symphony (see review).

The music for Quiet City, written to accompany an experimental play by Irwin Shaw, is supposed to evoke a late-night urban landscape. Trumpeter Chris Gekker sounds suitably restless and, when required, plays with a quiet, singing line. Ditto Stephen Taylor, whose cor anglais is wonderfully warm and expressive. Here the distant, somewhat detached, balance seems much more appropriate; indeed, I wondered just how much of Quiet City can be heard in Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 2, 'Age of Anxiety', written nine years later.

As Copland biographer Vivian Perlis points out the composer had no qualms about writing for Hollywood. Music for Movies is a five-movement suite drawn from his three major film scores - The City, Of Mice and Men and Our Town. The opening of 'New England Countryside' celebrates rural life with simple, majestic music that looks forward to the ballet Appalachian Spring (1944). This enduring, homespun quality is reprised in the gentle, rocking figures of 'Barley Wagons', which is followed by the urban bustle and parp of horns in 'Sunday Traffic'. Meanwhile 'The Story of Grover's Corner' has a disarming dignity nicely captured by Dennis Russell Davies and his band. And if you think the playing has been a tad underwhelming so far then the catchy rhythms of 'Threshing Machines' will surely change your mind.

Before moving on to the Clarinet Concerto I must confess to some misgivings about the broader presentation of this music. Every now and then I longed for a more unbuttoned response to these scores, a little more brio and bounce. In terms of sheer elegance the first movement of the concerto - written for the legendary Benny Goodman - has seldom sounded so beguiling. Although Blount gives a low-key performance with an unshowy cadenza I found myself warming to his unassuming approach. No, it's not in the same league as Goodman's version for Copland - Sony 46559 - or Stanley Drucker's for Bernstein - DG 431 672 - but it's enjoyable nonetheless.

That last comment is true of this disc as a whole, but the playing and sound quality still leave something to be desired. Indeed, first impressions are of a much earlier digital recording, with an unfocused bass and bright treble. The unfolding Copland series from Naxos is particularly rewarding; I suggest you look there if you prefer a more immediate and spontaneous approach to this music.

Dan Morgan 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.