VILLA-LOBOS: The Little Train of the Caipira; Uirapuru; Modinha (Preludio); GINASTERA: Estancia & Panambi suites – Stadium Sym. Orch. of New York/Leopold Stokowski (in Uirapuru & Modinha only); London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Eugene Goossens – Everest EVERCD 012, 51:33 ***** [Not Distr. in U.S.]:
These are two more of the first 15 CD reissues from HarkIt Records in the UK of the acclaimed Everest Records masters of the late 50s and early 60s. I’ve lumped them together because they involved comparisons with both the c. 1996 CD reissue series from Vanguard/Omega as well as an earlier 1994 series of LP remasterings from DCC.
Until Copland came along there wasn’t really a truly American sound in concert music; we had jazz of course but that was a different thing. Most of the leading American composers had been trained in Germany and that was the prevailing musical culture. Aaron Copland changed all that, and two of his most American-sounding works are beautifully performed on the first of these discs as conducted by the composer himself.
The Billy the Kid music sounds like it could be from a Western movie. The big attraction for audiophiles has long been the movement Gun Battle. The various tympani and bass drum put on quite a fire fight. The Third Symphony is full of that special American quality which Copland originated and has been copied by so many film composers. It is miles beyond the simple quoting of folk tunes such as Dvorak and Brahms did.
The first two Villa-Lobos selections are not frequently heard. They have the same lush tropical feeling found in so much of his music. The Little Train comes from his Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2, and was actually released on a Vanguard three-channel SACD with a different group of selections, as well as on a DCC vinyl repressing with Prokofiev’s Cinderella ballet suite. Ginastera’s two ballet suites use Argentine folk tunes, the first reflecting Argentine ranch life and the gauchos. His impressionistic style bears some resemblance to Villa-Lobos, and in the both the final dance of Estancia as well as the Dance of the Warriors of Panambi, he writes in a primitivistic and percussive style not unlike that of the Stravinsky of The Rite of Spring.
In comparing the older Omega CD reissues with the new Everests I found no noticeable differences. The Copland disc also replicates the same programming. In comparison with the DCC vinyl reissues the sonics were also quite close to one another. The Everest CDs actually had a somewhat richer and more impactful sonic, although on some selections the high strings became a bit harsh-sounding vs. the DCC vinyl. The sense of additional “air” around the musicians, so frequently noticed when comparing identical performances on CD vs. LP, were not in evidence on my highly-tweaked SOTA table with SME-V arm and Transfiguration MC cartridge. However, one major difference was clearly noted: As the arm approached the center label on the vinyl, the high end became gradually rolled off vs. that of the CD reissues, until the differences were quite gross!
– John Sunier
