Achim Breiling:

>Maybe some of you can enlighten me stupid German about two CDs I have
>recently seen and wondered if they might be interesting.  Both are on
>Mercury (Living Presence) with recordings from the 5ties and 6ties, both
>with the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra (I never heard of; what is/was that)
>and a conductor called Hanson (I guess its Howard Hanson).

The orchestra at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York state,
named for George Eastman of Kodak fame.  It made many recordings for
Mercury, mainly of American music and mainly conducted by Howard Hanson,
who ran the school for many years.

>One is called *Music for quiet listening* and contains works by *Barlow,
>Nelson, Pursell (Purcell?), Scianni, Gauldin, Mailman, Sutcliffe, Earls
>and Stern.

Most of these are the winning compositions for an annual prize at the
school before 1958 - most run 5-6 minutes.  The music is pleasant enough,
but stylistically there's not a lot to distinguish one from another.

>The other one has Victor Herberts Celloconcerto Nr.2 and Grofes Grand
>Canyon-Suite.  What kind of music is this? Hanson-like American-romantic?

The Herbert is an attractive piece which IMHO deserves to be better known.
It doesn't sound especially American to my ears but Romantic, certainly.
This was the only version for many years and although serviceable enough,
sounds its age these days (1958 recording).  There was once a record of
both cello concertos which is nla - the only alternative AFAIK is Yo-Yo Ma
on Sony with the Dvorak.  The Grand Canyon Suite is a light classic
warhorse but some might regard it more seriously.  It's available in
technically better recordings.  It's a bit like the 1812 Overture - if
you're going to buy a version, go for the noisiest one with the loudest
thunderstorm.  Grofe made a number of other attempts to achieve the
popularity of the Grand Canyon Suite but with limited success.  I remember
buying his World's Fair Suite on LP for 75c, figuring it couldn't be that
bad.  It was.

Richard Pennycuick
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