While American composer
Leroy Anderson's music has never suffered for enthusiasm in concert halls, recordings of his work significantly declined in the digital era over that of LPs; record companies were satisfied to reissue the older recordings again and again. One of the best digital recordings of
Anderson was The Typewriter: Leroy Anderson Favorites recorded by
Leonard Slatkin and the
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for BMG. This title still appears to be in print as
Slatkin returns to the scene of the crime with Naxos' Leroy Anderson: Orchestral Music I, included in Naxos' American Classics series. While it does share a few titles in common with the earlier release, more than half of the disc consists of material that
Slatkin did not explore in the BMG title. At least one piece, Governor Bradford March in its orchestral incarnation, hasn't appeared on any recording, and certain other pieces included, such as China Doll, Balladette, and The Classical Jukebox are relative rarities for
Anderson. So is his Piano Concerto in C major, which has only been recorded twice before, once in an arrangement for piano and organ. This composer of "perennial favorites" was perennially unhappy with his one piano concerto, his only large-scale orchestral composition, and it's fairly easy to see why;
Anderson thought most successfully in short forms, and his stringing together of episodic ideas to make up the concerto doesn't really succeed in coming off as a coherent whole. However,
Jeffrey Biegel does play it here with a sense of enthusiasm and dazzle, and
Slatkin complies with a responsive and gracious accompaniment; the concerto is a very lovely and appealing piece to listen to, in spite of its patchwork construction. Among the lesser-known pieces, Balladette is rather uncharacteristic for
Anderson, with its ominous, rising scale. The Classical Jukebox -- only lately regarded as an
Anderson original, as it is based on the pop song "Music! Music! Music!" -- has a skipping record effect that points up his importance as a progenitor of the art of converting "noise" into music.
No one debates the notion that
Leonard Slatkin -- even with the decidedly "limey"
BBC Concert Orchestra -- has a way with
Leroy Anderson; that was one of the things that made BMG's The Typewriter such a glorious experience. One additional aspect that made The Typewriter so attractive was its equally glorious sound quality, which plainly is not in evidence here; the recording is more serviceable than spectacular. Nevertheless, listeners who have already shelled out for the BMG release may rest assured that they will not be duplicating very much in obtaining Naxos' Leroy Anderson: Orchestral Music I. Listeners will no doubt be delighted with the range of interesting and unusual
Anderson material offered here.