Naxos
2008
Leroy Anderson: Orchestral Music 1 - Piano Concerto / The Golden Years / Fiddle-Faddle - Jeffrey Biegel, Piano / BBC Concert Orchestra / Leonard Slatkin
About This Album
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.
Track List

Bugler's Holiday, For Orchestra
1.
Blue Tango, For Orchestra
2.
The First Day Of Spring, For Orchestra
3.
Belle Of The Ball, For Orchestra
4.
Governor Bradford March, For Orchestra
5.
Clarinet Candy, For Orchestra
6.
The Captains And The Kings, For Orchestra
7.
The Golden Years, For Orchestra
8.
Chicken Reel, For Orchestra
9.
Fiddle-Faddle, For String Orchestra (or Standard Orchestra)
10.
Classical Jukebox, For Orchestra
11.
China Doll, For Orchestra
12.
Balladette, For Orchestra (or String Orchestra)
13.
Arietta, For Orchestra (or String Orchestra)
14.
Concerto In C, For Piano And Orchestra (or 2 Pianos)
15.
16.
17.