Conductor Leonard Slatkin has recorded Aaron Copland's much-loved Rodeo before, with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for Angel in the early 1990s. That recording was quite popular in its day, but this new collection of four dance pieces, representative of Slatkin's late-career flowering in Detroit, is at least its equal. One advantage is the inclusion of the little-performed Dance Panels (1959/1962), a transitional work between Copland's populist manner and his full-scale capitulation to modernist diktat. Slatkin ...
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Conductor Leonard Slatkin has recorded Aaron Copland's much-loved Rodeo before, with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for Angel in the early 1990s. That recording was quite popular in its day, but this new collection of four dance pieces, representative of Slatkin's late-career flowering in Detroit, is at least its equal. One advantage is the inclusion of the little-performed Dance Panels (1959/1962), a transitional work between Copland's populist manner and his full-scale capitulation to modernist diktat. Slatkin actually makes a good case for it here, with vigorous rhythms cutting through the extended harmonies piled atop the composer's characteristic infectious tunes. Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony also do very well with Rodeo. Slatkin fills in a lot of the musical spaces with small details that add spiky, angular rhythms, reserving the full payoff for the final Hoe Down movement. El Salón México also receives an attractive performance, with only the Danzón Cubano of 1942 lacking something in...
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