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Copland - Billy the Kid & Rodeo

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Catalogue numberBIS-2164 SACD
Release date2015-10-10
Discs1
Orig. sample rate96000Hz
Total time77:26

Having taken up the post of music director with the Colorado Symphony in 2013, Andrew Litton has chosen a highly fitting programme for the orchestra's first recording on BIS: the Wild West, its folk music, traditions and legends loom large in Aaron Copland's ballet scores Billy the Kid and Rodeo. The two works were the result of the composer's search during the early 1930's for a new musical language. Copland himself described his reasons for this as follows: 'An entirely new public for music had grown up around the radio and the phonograph. It made no sense to ignore them and to continue writing as if they did not exist. I felt that it was worth the effort to see if I couldn’t say what I had to say in the simplest possible terms.’ In the two ballets, this new direction can be felt in the immediacy of the music, but also in Copland's use of cowboy tunes. A similar approach, but with Mexican themes, characterizes the slightly earlier El Salón México, inspired by a visit to a dance-hall in Mexico and the atmosphere he experienced there. Whereas these three works belong to the most popular in Copland's entire production, the opening piece, An Outdoor Overture, is something of a rarity – especially on disc. Composed in the same year as Billy the Kid, the overture was part of an educational campaign with the slogan 'American Music for American Youth' and its snappy rhythms and colourful orchestration will have made it as successful in its original purpose as it is here, as a curtain raiser. The Colorado Symphony is obviously enjoying itself in this all-American programme, as is its conductor Andrew Litton, who joins the revelry as honky-tonk pianist in the Celebration section of Billy the Kid and the Ranch House Party in Rodeo, before bringing the disc to a rollicking end in that ballet’s closing section, Hoe-Down.
 
  • STUDIO QUALITY
    File formats included in STUDIO QUALITY
    • FLAC 24-bit Stereo
    • FLAC 24-bit Surround 5.0
    • FLAC 16-bit Stereo
    • MP3 Stereo
  • CD QUALITY | MP3
    File formats included in CD QUALITY | MP3
    • FLAC 16-bit Stereo
    • MP3 Stereo
$ 18.22
 
Extra material for download
 
 
  Composer: Copland, Aaron
01 An Outdoor Overture (1938) 08:17 $ 1.99 USD
 
  Billy the Kid, Ballet in One Act (1938) 32:14
02 Introduction: The Open Prairie 03:21 $ 0.80 USD
03 Street in a Frontier Town 03:12 $ 0.77 USD
04 Mexican Dance and Finale: Billy kills his mother’s
murderer
07:13 $ 1.73 USD
05 Prairie Night (Card game at night): Billy cheats Garrett at
cards; they quarrel
03:26 $ 0.82 USD
06 Gun Battle: Billy is captured by Garrett, turned sheriff 02:31 $ 0.60 USD
07 Celebration 03:11 $ 0.76 USD
08 Billy in Prison: Murder of the prison guard and escape 01:30 $ 0.36 USD
09 Billy in the Desert (Waltz) 03:20 $ 0.80 USD
10 Billy’s Death 00:58 $ 0.23 USD
11 Billy’s Funeral: Mourning Mexicans 01:24 $ 0.34 USD
12 The Open Prairie Again 02:08 $ 0.51 USD
 
13 El Salón México (1933–36) 11:19 $ 2.72 USD
 
  Rodeo, Ballet in One Act (1942) 24:06
14 Buckaroo Holiday 07:08 $ 1.71 USD
15 Corral Nocturne 04:00 $ 0.96 USD
16 Ranch House Party 03:37 $ 0.87 USD
17 Saturday Night Waltz 05:14 $ 1.26 USD
18 Hoe-Down 04:07 $ 0.99 USD
 
  Album total 77:26
ComposerCopland, Aaron
ConductorLitton, Andrew
OrchestraColorado Symphony

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