This Royal Philharmonic Masterworks album does a nice job of programming an assortment of Aaron Copland's splendid orchestral works without falling into the all-too-frequent pitfall of assailing listeners with a barrage of short excerpts. In fact, with the exception of the "Hoe-Down" from Rodeo, the works heard here are complete. The album opens with the instantly identifiable Fanfare for the Common Man before continuing on to some of the most brilliant uses of American folk idioms in his music. The claims that the album ...
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This Royal Philharmonic Masterworks album does a nice job of programming an assortment of Aaron Copland's splendid orchestral works without falling into the all-too-frequent pitfall of assailing listeners with a barrage of short excerpts. In fact, with the exception of the "Hoe-Down" from Rodeo, the works heard here are complete. The album opens with the instantly identifiable Fanfare for the Common Man before continuing on to some of the most brilliant uses of American folk idioms in his music. The claims that the album cover makes regarding the performance quality are, however, overstated. Nothing here is "performed with a rarely heard abandon," nor are the individual performances certain to "excite and thrill over and over." Instead, what listeners get is a safe, solid, yet unimaginative reading of these great works. There are no glaring technical issues to be found, but there's also little excitement. The Fanfare lacks in grandeur, Appalachian Spring is not as serene and still as it could be, and...
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