MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

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


CD 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

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS
Download: Classicsonline

 

Leroy ANDERSON (1908-1975)
Orchestral Music - Volume 3
Harvard Sketches* (1939) [
4:49]
Melody on Two Notes* (1966) [
1:55]
Mother’s Whistler* (1940) [
3:30]
The Penny Whistle Song (1951) [
2:38]
The Phantom Regiment (1951) [
3:09]
Plink! Plank! Plunk! (1950) [2:49]
Promenade (1951) [2:47]
Sandpaper Ballet (1954) [3:18]
Saraband (1948) [3:36]
Serenata (1947) [3:54]
Old MacDonald Had a Farm (1947) [3:16]
Seventy-Six Trombones (Willson arr. Anderson) (1958) [2:57]
Sleigh Ride (1948) [2:47]
Suite of Carols for Brass Choir (1955) [11:42]
Wintergreen for President (Gershwin arr. Anderson)* (1932) [1:25]
The Typewriter 1 (1950) [1:43]

A Trumpeter’s Lullaby 2 (1949) [3:08]
The Syncopated Clock (1945) [2:26]
Alasdair Malloy 1 (typewriter); Catherine Moore 2 (trumpet)
BBC Concert Orchestra/Leonard Slatkin
rec. The Colosseum, Town Hall,
Watford, UK, 12-14 April 2007
* World premiere recording
NAXOS 8.559357 [61:49]

 

Experience Classicsonline


This CD is the third volume in the Naxos ‘Leroy Anderson Orchestral Music’ series - see reviews of Volumes 1 and 2; there has also been a ‘Favourites’ disc issued. As you can see from the header, the present volume includes four world premiere recordings.

 

The curtain-raiser, is Anderson’s less than venerable portrait of the great American institute of learning; Harvard Sketches begins with ‘Lowell House Bells’, its dignity soon blown away by the cheekiness and japes of ‘Freshman in Harvard Square’ and the goofiness that intrudes on the calm of ‘Widener Reading Room’ then the chaos that is ‘Class Day Confetti Battle’. Melody on Two Notes, the second of the premieres, based on a simple G and D tune, is an attractive little melody with a nostalgic glow. Mother’s Whistler has an engaging impish quality; it seems such a shame that this bright little bonbon with its quirky interruptions - including, one imagines, a dog barking and somebody kicking a bucket - should have been withdrawn by the composer. The fourth premiere is an exuberant and bombastic arrangement of George Gershwin’s Wintergreen for President - that cheekily lampoons all political ambitions.

 

Interestingly the Gramophone Classical Music Guide chooses to ignore Leroy Anderson completely, not so its rival Penguin Guide. Neither does Maestro Leonard Slatkin; he is no stranger to the music of Leroy Anderson for he recorded an album of his music with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for RCA between 1993 and 1995. (09026 68048 2) that included many of the composer’s most popular tunes such as Blue Tango, The Syncopated Clock, Sandpaper Ballet and The Typewriter. Then and for the releases in this splendid Naxos series, Slatkin delivers smiling, unabashed performances full of joie de vivre.


There are yet more Leroy Anderson favourites to be found in this album including: The Typewriter, a huge Anderson hit, that had another unusual sound effect - the inclusion of an actual typewriter as a percussion instrument; The Penny Whistle Song one of Anderson’s catchiest tunes with the flutes given some of the most endearing material; The Phantom Regiment with its march tune that stirs and haunts; and Plink, Plank, Plunk! another bubbly, witty tune for plucked strings. A wonderful Anderson tune and a popular hit, the Sandpaper Ballet reminisces over old vaudeville acts when dancers sprinkled sand on the stage during their routines. A Trumpeter’s Lullaby is another lovely piece with the slow lullaby theme contrasted with a much more lively and colourful Latin central episode. The Syncopated Clock is another firm favourite with woodblocks depicting a clock that sometimes ticks on the wrong beats – and it has three terrific melodies in its short two minute span! Serenata is yet another unforgettable Leroy Anderson hit with its sinuous romantic Latin hedonism. And then there is that other terrific, joyful Christmas celebration that is Sleigh Ride with its merry horses’ hooves patterns and whip-cracks.

 

Additionally, Promenade is a bracing walk, a little pompous but jaunty and memorable. Saraband begins in stately seriousness but high jinks intrude before long. The amusing Old MacDonald Had A Farm begins ostentatiously but soon degenerates into a cacophony of farmyard imitations and cheeky syncopations. Anderson’s arrangement of Willson’s Seventy-Six Trombones adds glamour and colour to the original and Sousa gets a look-in!

 

The concert’s most substantial item is another Suite of Carols, this time for brass choir; Volume II of this series included a suite for String Orchestra. The Suite of Carols is imaginative writing of a high order lifting the usual arrangement of these popular yuletide songs to an altogether different level.

 

As with Vols 1 and 2 of this Naxos series, Slatkin delivers all these tuneful Leroy Anderson hits in uninhibited performances full of joie de vivre. Altogether, the three volumes that comprise this series must figure in my Recordings of the Year list.

 

Ian Lace

 

see also Review by John France


 
 





 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos 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.