Anderson: Orchestral Music, Vol. 2 (CD review)

Leonard Slatkin, BBC Concert Orchestra.  Naxos 8.559356.

American composer Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) was primarily a miniaturist who created tiny, descriptive tone poems that perfectly encapsulated a time, a place, or an event.  When you listen to his work, you say to yourself, "Wait.  I know that.  Did he write that, too?"  There are sixteen pieces of music on this disc, the longest lasting twelve minutes, most of them lasting no more than four or five minutes, and you marvel at the man's ingenuity and sense of fun.

Of course, many of Anderson's most-famous works are on Volume 1, but there are still enough good things left over to fill out this budget-priced Naxos disc.  Some of the music is more serious than others, of course.  Things like "Song of Jupiter," for instance, is a rearrangement of Handel by way of Elgar, while other pieces flirt with familiar jazz idioms, like "Jazz Legato" or "Jazz Pizzicato."  But mostly his works are little showpieces, and you'll instantly know them when you hear the first few notes.  Pieces like "Horse and Buggy," "Whistling Kettle," "Home Stretch," and "The Waltzing Cat" are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

Leonard Slatkin performs these pieces with the BBC Concert Orchestra, and he does a fine job with them, even if he doesn't quite match Frederick Fennell for sheer élan on the old Mercury recording of more than half a century earlier.  The Slatkin performances are competent without being absolutely riveting.  The sound, too, is good without being top drawer.  It lacks a little something in transparency and dynamic impact, but, again, my comparison was the old Mercury recording, which is hard to beat by any standards.

JJP