Leroy Anderson - Frederick Fennell conducts the music of Leroy Anderson

Information

Composer: Leroy Anderson

1. Belle of the Ball
2. Horse and Buggy
3. The Waltzing Cat
4. Blue Tango
5. Summer Skies
6. Song of the Bells
7. The Typewriter
8. The Syncopated Clock
9. The Girl in Satin
10. China Doll
11. Saraband
12. Fiddle-Faddle
13. Sleigh Ride
14. Serenata
15. Promenade
16. Chicken Reel
17. Phantom Regiment
18. Jazz Legato
19. Jazz Pizzicato
20. Plink Plank Plunk
21. The Bluebells of Scotland
22. The First Day of Spring
23. Song of Jupiter

Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra (1-14)
London "Pops" Orchestra (15-23)
Frederick Fennell, conductor

Date: 1956-1964
Label: Mercury

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

Sentimentality, romance, and a sense of humor–all of these things characterized Leroy Anderson’s music, attributes that somehow went missing from much of American classical symphonic repertoire during the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s (except for Bernstein and a few others). And although there’s always an important and enduring place for the more profound, timeless works, there’s also one for music that immediately recalls the sound and sensibility of a period and effectively captures its popular mood. Anderson’s music did exactly that, and if you don’t respond with smiles and toe-tapping enthusiasm when you hear Horse & Buggy, Blue Tango, Summer Skies, The Girl in Satin, China Doll, or Serenata, then you are probably beyond the reach of this light-hearted but seriously entertaining fare, and are sadly disconnected from the schmaltz and slightly tacky but still delightful pleasure of The Waltzing Cat and such classics as The Typewriter, Fiddle-Faddle, The Syncopated Clock, and the still wildly popular Sleigh Ride.

Although the Boston Pops pretty much owned many of these pieces, Frederick Fennell and his Eastman-Rochester Pops (and unnamed London orchestra that plays on nearly half of these 23 tracks) did a more than respectable job, enhanced by the unsurpassed audio engineering of the Mercury Living Presence team–Wilma Cozart, Harold Lawrence, and C. Robert Fine. If you already own the excellent original CD release of this program, and you intend to continue to play it on your regular stereo system, then you won’t find substantial improvement with this new SACD incarnation, which offers these performances for the first time “in their original 3-track versions”. But for SACD aficionados, by all means, get your hands on this and enjoy a renewed appreciation for this label’s integrity and foresight 50 years ago to spare no effort to capture and preserve performances in the manner that its name proclaims–“living presence”. A treasure! [12/9/2005]

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/m/mrc75694a.php
http://www.allmusic.com/album/release/fennell-conducts-leroy-anderson-mr0002668814
http://www.amazon.com/Frederick-Fennell-conducts-music-Anderson/dp/B0000057KV

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leroy Anderson (June 29, 1908 – May 18, 1975) was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. John Williams described him as "one of the great American masters of light orchestral music". Anderson's musical style employs creative instrumental effects and occasionally makes use of sound-generating items such as typewriters and sandpaper. For his contribution to the recording industry, Leroy Anderson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1620 Vine Street.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leroy_Anderson
http://www.leroyanderson.com/

***

Frederick Fennell (July 2, 1914 – December 7, 2004) was an internationally recognized conductor, and one of the primary figures in promoting the wind ensemble as a performing group. He was also influential as a band pedagogue, and greatly affected the field of music education in the USA and abroad. Conducting the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and various other groups, Fennell recorded many of the standards of the wind band repertoire and was one of America's most-recorded conductors. Nearly all of Fennell's Mercury recordings were reissued on compact disc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Fennell

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!