LEROY ANDERSON (1908-1975)

 

Orchestral Music 3

 

Harvard Sketches (Lowell House Bells – Freshman in Harvard Square – Widener Reading Room – Class Day Confetti Battle) (1939)*; Melody on Two Notes (1966)*; Mother’s Whistler (1940)*; The Penny Whistle Song (1951); The Phantom Regiment (1951); Plink, Plank, Plunk! (1951); Promenade (1951); Sandpaper Ballet (1954); Saraband (1948); Serenata (1947); Old MacDonald Had a Farm (1947); Seventy-Six Trombones (Willson/arr. Anderson) (1958); Sleigh Ride (1948);  Suite of Carols for Brass Choir (1955); Wintergreen for President (Gershwin/arr. Anderson) (1932)*; The Typewriter (1950);  A Trumpeter’s Lullaby (1949);The Syncopated Clock (1945)

 

*World Première Recording

 

Alasdair Malloy (solo typewriter), Catherine Moore, (solo trumpet)

BBC Concert Orchestra / Leonard Slatkin

 

Leroy Anderson etched out his own unique place in American music – a composer rigorously trained in the classical tradition whose records topped the pop charts, a meticulous arranger of music whose own melodies were crafted with inventive precision.

 

Here, in the first complete cycle of Anderson’s orchestral music, the Anderson family has made available several pieces that the composer did not release, with some first recordings scattered among the familiar and not-so-familiar titles.

 

Volume Three includes the notorious musical gem The Typewriter, in which the machine is transformed into a relentlessly busy percussion instrument, the tasteful and soul-satisfying Suite of Carols for Brass Choir, and Anderson’s biggest hit, Sleigh Ride.

 

“Naxos's ability to come up with winning ideas at knock-down prices never ceases to amaze… everything here is easy on the ear and beautifully played. It all leaves a delightful aftertaste and excites anticipation of Naxos's next instalment.” Gramophone on Naxos 8559313 (Vol. 1)

 

Naxos 8559357