This fine disc is a good
compilation of Copland’s well known and unfamiliar works. It’s
part of EMI’s new
American Classics series. Other
issues include discs of Ives, Carter, Reich/Glass and
Bernstein. The aim of the series seems to be to combine
some of the composers’ most familiar works with some
pieces that will be new to most listeners. It helps
that most of the works on this disc are performed by
American artists who naturally revel in this music.
The most familiar work
here is the
Fanfare for the Common Man. Its appealing
simplicity has always made it Copland’s most popular
work, and it gets an appropriately unsubtle reading here. You
can’t really go far wrong with this piece, so suffice
it to say that the acoustics are just right. The drums
are arresting at the opening and the different brass
groups are placed so as to surround the listener. A
very effective performance.
Appalachian Spring is a much
more nuanced work and shows Copland the orchestrator
and nature painter to great effect. When he wrote the
ballet he had no story whatever in mind: it was only
later that the tale of the settler community in backwoods
Pennsylvania was matched up to it by his friend and collaborator
Martha Graham. Consequently Copland always laughed when
people told him that the music “sounded just like Spring
in the Appalachians”. Be that as it may, the music remains
charmingly evocative of the wide open spaces of the frontier
and the sparsely populated communities. No summary of
the ballet’s story is included, but you don’t really
need it to enjoy the atmosphere he creates. It is performed
with flair by Slatkin and the St Louis Symphony Orchestra.
They catch its folksy, homely charm in just the right
way, especially in the famous Shaker tune. Their broadening
out at the end of the piece is particularly beautiful.
El Salon Mexico is a, perhaps
surprisingly, successful attempt to assimilate Mexican
folk songs into a wider orchestral texture. The ever-changing
rhythm is unusual and unstoppable and helps the pieces
to move forward relentlessly. An unusual discovery.
The
Old American Songs are
just delightful in their own way and share
Appalachian
Spring’s ability to chime with our expectations of
traditional American folk culture, yet they do so in
a remarkably diverse number of ways.
The Dodger is
political satire, while
Long Time Ago is an old-time
love song, and
The Boatmen’s Dance and
I Bought
Me A Cat have all the care-free fun of a journey
with Huckleberry Finn. Bruce Hubbard’s versatile baritone
is perfect for these songs, adapting his approach to
match the different mood of each song. His rich tone
is perfect, the orchestra accompanies unobtrusively,
and everyone sounds like they are having a great time.
A really successful disc,
then, and a good introduction to Copland’s work. You
may not get
Rodeo’s hoe-down, but there is lots
here to enjoy and the songs are enough in themselves
to guarantee plenty of fun.
Simon
Thompson
see also review by Rob Barnett
Bruce
Hubbard (baritone) (Songs)
