This is a somewhat strange collection, highlighted by William Warfield’s classic account of the Old American Songs. Aaron Copland was a good but seldom outstanding conductor of his own music, and these performances have neither the discipline nor the verve shown by Bernstein (and countless others) in this repertoire. In Appalachian Spring, the composer’s recording of the complete original chamber version is much to be preferred to the LSO’s somewhat heavy and less than rhythmically snappy offering (or try Copland’s excellent and sprightlier BSO version for RCA). The same applies to Rodeo, which can be found far more sympathetically rendered by both Lenny and, for example, Dorati (Decca). Nor are these recordings very special sonically, being both shallow and hard-edged, something that no amount of remastering can change.
The bonuses really aren’t important: an excerpt from Billy the Kid offers nothing of interest divorced from its original context, and I detest the “Third Symphony version” of the Fanfare for the Common Man heard in isolation, which of course is not the Fanfare for the Common Man at all but rather the introduction to the finale of the Third Symphony. If Copland had wanted it played out of context, he wouldn’t have rewritten it as another piece, but the fact is that neither Copland nor Bernstein recorded the definitive Fanfare, so here we are. In short, you can do better rather easily, even at mid- to budget price.
