Copland: Billy the Kid & Rodeo / Grofe: Grand Canyon Suite Morton Gould & His Orchestra

• Aaron Copland (1900-1990): Billy the Kid - Suite:
• 1Introduction: The Open Prairie03:30
• 2Street in a Frontier Town03:12
• 3Mexican Dance and Finale03:07
• 4Prairie Night: Card Game03:18
• 5Gun Battle01:47
• 6Celebration: After Billy's Capture02:13
• 7Billy's Death01:21
• 8The Open Prairie (reprise)01:45
• Billy the Kid - Waltz:
• 9Billy the Kid - Waltz04:09
• Rodeo - Suite:
• 10Buckaroo Holiday07:42
• 11Corral Nocturne03:53
• 12Honky Tonk Interlude01:45
• 13Saturday Night Waltz04:27
• 14Hoe-Down03:29
• Ferde Grofé (1892-1972): Grand Canyon Suite:
• 15Sunrise05:38
• 16Painted Desert05:32
• 17On the Trail07:40
• 18Sunset05:00
• 19Cloudburst08:33
• Total Runtime01:18:01

Info for Copland: Billy the Kid & Rodeo / Grofe: Grand Canyon Suite

From the majestic hues of Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite to the rambunctious stomp of Copland's Rodeo, this recording celebrates the spirit of the frontier with some of the most enduring American music ever written.

Morton Gould’s 1957 Living Stereo recordings of two Copland ballet suites were top recommendations at the time. Since then, however, Bernstein, Slatkin, and Michael Tilson Thomas have made recordings of these works that surpass Gould’s. It’s not that Gould’s performances are bad in any way. Indeed, there is one aspect at which Gould excels: he never lets you forget that this is dance music. And the gun battle in Billy the Kid is top-flight–Gould’s snare drummer really makes his drumsticks hit like pistol shots. In addition, Gould includes a couple of items usually missing from recordings of these suites: a Waltz from Billy the Kid and a hilarious bit of honky-tonk piano in Rodeo.

Still, the other performances mentioned bring out the crackling tension of Copland’s uniquely unpredictable rhythms in a way that Gould does not. Bernstein, Slatkin, and Thomas also had the advantage of working with their own top-tier permanent symphonies. Gould’s, labeled as “His Orchestra”, in reality was a pick-up band. Good as the players were, they lacked the musical rapport achievable by several dozen master musicians who have been together for years. In this SACD transfer, Lewis Layton’s original 3-channel masters are splendid–full and clear. The Copland recordings alone would rate 9/9.

However, the 1960 Grand Canyon Suite is a step down. Musicians who play the Grand Canyon Suite have to put aside any condescension they have for the score. Let a trace of it in, which is what happens here, and the listener starts to notice its obviousness instead of its charm. Further, this version of Gould’s orchestra sounds like it was made up of less-skilled–and fewer–musicians. The original mastering shows signs of excessive gain-riding and is over-pressured in tutti passages. RCA would have been better advised to include instead Gould’s recording of his own Fall River Legend Suite, or Copland’s own masterful recording of the Appalachian Spring Suite with the Boston Symphony. (ClassicsToday.com)

Morton Gould & His Orchestra
Morton Gould, conductor

Morton Gould
"Composing is my life blood," said Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Morton Gould. "That is basically me, and although I have done many things in my life - conducting, playing piano, and so on - what is fundamental is my being a composer."

Capping a life full of achievements in all facets of music are Morton Gould's 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Stringmusic, commissioned by the National Symphony for the final season of music director Mstislav Rostropovich, and his 1994 Kennedy Center Honor in recognition of lifetime contributions to American culture.

Born in Richmond Hill, New York, on 10 December 1913, Gould was recognized early on as a child prodigy with the ability to improvise and compose. At the age of six he had his first composition published. He studied at the Institute of Musical Art (now the Juilliard School), but his most important teachers were Abby Whiteside (piano) and Vincent Jones (composition). During the Depression, Gould (still a teenager) found work in New York's vaudeville and movie theaters. When Radio City Music Hall opened, the young Gould was its staff pianist. By the age of 21 he was conducting and arranging a series of orchestral programs for WOR Mutual Radio. Gould attained national prominence through his work in radio, as he appealed to a wide-ranging audience with his combination of classical and popular programming. During the 1940s Gould appeared on the "Cresta Blanca Carnival" program and "The Chrysler Hour" (CBS), reaching an audience of millions.

Gould composed Broadway scores (Billion Dollar Baby, Arms and the Girl), film music (Delightfully Dangerous, Cinerama Holiday, Windjammer), music for television (Holocaust, the CBS documentary World War I), and ballet scores (Interplay, Fall River Legend, and I'm Old Fashioned). His music was commissioned by symphony orchestras throughout the United States, the Library of Congress, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the American Ballet Theatre, and the New York City Ballet. Gould integrated jazz, blues, gospel, country-and-western, and folk elements into compositions which bear Gould's unequaled mastery of orchestration and imaginative formal structures. These instantly recognizable American sounds led to Gould's receiving three commissions for the US Bicentennial (including American Ballads, Symphony of Spirituals, and Something to Do).

Always open to new styles, he incorporated a rapper/narrator into The Jogger and the Dinosaur and a fire department into Hosedown, both commissions for the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony. Among his last works are Stringmusic, Classical Variations on Colonial Themes, and Diversions for saxophone and orchestra. Ghost Waltzes was commissioned for the ninth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (1993). Recent recordings of his music include American Ballads on Angel, Declaration Suite on BMG, Fall River Legend on Albany, Holocaust Suite and Of Time and the River on Koch, West Point Symphony on Mercury, and Concerto Grosso on Delos. His talents as an arranger are featured on a series of recordings recently re-released by BMG.

As a conductor, Gould led all the major American orchestras as well as those of Canada, Mexico, Europe, Japan, and Australia. In 1966 he won a Grammy Award for his recording of Ives's First Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a recording that led the way for a new appreciation of Ives's work. Gould received the American Symphony Orchestra League's 1983 Gold Baton Award.

In addition to his Pulitzer Prize and Kennedy Center Honor, he was Musical America's 1994 Composer-of-the-Year. A long-time member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, Gould was elected president of ASCAP in 1986, a post he held until 1994. In 1986 he was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He also served on the board of the American Symphony Orchestra League and on the National Endowment for the Arts music panel.

Booklet for Copland: Billy the Kid & Rodeo / Grofe: Grand Canyon Suite