This CD is the fourth volume in the Naxos
‘Leroy Anderson Orchestral Music’ series. Reviews of Volumes 1,
2
and 3
can be found on the site. There has also been a Favourites
disc. The present volume includes, as you can see from the
header, five world premiere recordings. Three of these are Anderson
favourites but with vocals. The Blue Tango - “… a thrilling
melody of love …” is just so as Kim Criswell so enticingly sings
“… hold me tight in your arms tonight …” She follows, in gentler
romantic mood with Forgotten Dreams: “… they keep returning,
the years of yearning, no matter how you try, forgotten dreams
won’t die …” She is joined by William Dazeley for the dazzling Belle of the Ball: “…it is
no wonder the whole world is under the spell of the Belle of the
Ball …” If my memory serves me well, both singers deliver these
songs appropriately in the style of the 1950s.
Leroy
Anderson’s orchestration adds sweet sentimentality to MacDowell’s
well-known To A Wild Rose. Another
premiere is the composer’s own hazy, lazy evocation of Summer
Skies prolonging the mood of gentle, genial nostalgia. The
fifth world premiere is of the complete Scottish Suite
in four movements: the first of which is the galloping/hunting-like
‘Bonnie Dundee’ which is succeeded by the charming waltz that
is ‘Turn Ye to Me’. The third movement ‘Bluebells of Scotland’ is a breezy,
almost baroque rendering of the famous tune; then it is all
processional pomp with snare drums beating a rather cheeky version
of ‘The Campbells Are Coming’.
Complementing the Scottish Suite, is the more substantial
and colourful six-movement Irish Suite, full of Irish
whimsy. Each movement has imaginative arrangements of six well
known ditties: a racy ‘The Irish Washerwoman’; a stirring and
affecting ‘The Minstrel Boy’; a perky and cheeky ‘The Rakes
of Mallow’; a breezy ‘The Wearing of the Green’ with interesting
use of string pizzicato; a lushly romantic ‘The Last Rose of
Summer’ with a lovely solo violin by Cynthia Fleming; and the
high-spirited ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me’.
Anderson’s less than venerable portrait of the great American
institute of learning; Harvard Sketches, originally
composed in 1939 and featured in Volume III of this Naxos
series, is revisited here in the 1950 revision. Renamed Alma
Mater, the same material is, if anything, saucier, its humour
broader and irreverent; yet there is an unmistakable vein of
nostalgic affection too - great fun. Interestingly, the final
ebullient ‘Class Reunion’ movement is very reminiscent of the
style of Anderson’s English equivalent, Eric Coates.
Christmas works were featured in Volumes II and III of this
Naxos series and this volume closes with Leroy Anderson’s glittering
concert overture, A Christmas Festival. Once again his
imaginative arrangements of popular Christmas
carols lifts them to an altogether different level.
This fourth volume may seem to be mainly something of a gathering
in of less well-known material and unusual, long-forgotten vocal
arrangements of a few favourite pieces. Nevertheless they are
delivered with such enthusiasm and joie de vivre, that
this latest collection is irresistible.
Ian
Lace
BBC Concert Orchestra/Leonard 
