ORCHESTRAL MUSIC 3

Alasdair Malloy (solo typewriter), Catherine Moore (solo trumpet) & BBC Concert Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin

Leroy Anderson heeft zijn eigen unieke plaats in de Amerikaanse muziek veroverd - een componist, streng geschoold in de klassieke traditie, wiens platen de pop hitlijsten aanvoerden, een nauwgezet arrangeur van muziek, wiens eigen melodieën met inventieve precisie werden gemaakt. Hier, in de eerste complete cyclus van Anderson's orkestmuziek, heeft de Anderson familie verschillende stukken beschikbaar gesteld die de componist niet heeft uitgebracht, met een aantal eerste opnamen verspreid tussen de bekende en niet-zo-bekende titels. Volume Three bevat het beruchte muzikale juweeltje The Typewriter, waarin de machine wordt getransformeerd tot een onophoudelijk druk percussie-instrument, de smaakvolle en zielsbevredigende Suite of Carols for Brass Choir, en Andersons grootste hit, Sleigh Ride.

Anderson, Leroy:
 Harvard Sketches
 Melody on Two Notes
 Mother’s Whistler
 Old MacDonald Had a Farm
 Plink, Plank, Plunk!
 Promenade
 Sandpaper Ballet
 Saraband
 Serenata
 Sleigh Ride
 Suite of Carols for Brass Choir
 The Penny Whistle Song
 The Phantom Regiment
 The Syncopated Clock
 The Typewriter
 Trumpeter's Lullaby

Gershwin:
 Wintergreen for President

Willson:
 Seventy-Six Trombones

"This volume has its quota of favourites – Plink,Plank, Plunk!, Sandpaper Ballet, Sleigh Ride, TheTypewriter and The Syncopated Clock among them, though there are also several pieces never before recorded. Mother's Whistler especially is so immediately engaging that one can only wonder why. Though the charm of other pieces such as Melody on Two Notes may be less immediate, it is ultimately hardly less real. Of the rest, Harvard Sketches is a successor to the Harvard Fantasy that first attracted Arthur Fiedler to Anderson's gifts in 1936. Like Vol 2, this also has its share of Anderson adaptations, including one of his suites of carols – this time for brass – and three straight arrangements. Perhaps “straight” is not an apt description, though, in so far as Anderson was ever one to add his own distinctive twist. In Old MacDonaldHad a Farm he introduces some distinctly comical additional effects, while in Seventy-Six Trombones he cleverly highlights the debt Meredith Willson owed to the marches of Sousa. Performances are technically and interpretatively outstanding, with utmost fidelity to the style and tempi of Anderson's own recordings. Richard S Ginell's notes add to our appreciation of a composer too readily taken for granted."
Gramophone - Classical Music Guide 2010