The surprises just keep on coming in Naxos' excellent Leroy Anderson: Orchestral Works series, of which this is volume 3, performed, like its predecessors, by the
BBC Concert Orchestra under
Leonard Slatkin. Some hardcore
Anderson fanatics might recall Alma Mater (1954), a staid and respectful homage to
Anderson's own alma mater Harvard University. But chances are even they have never heard its predecessor, Harvard Sketches (1939), which is far more irreverent and striking; the movement "Widener Reading Room" could pass for something right out of
Charles Ives: placid strings are interrupted by the murmuring winds (students) and chastened by an ever more impatiently rapping ruler. This points up an interesting sidelight about
Anderson; while experimental elements were not entirely foreign to his musical thinking -- after all, even pieces like The Typewriter are a little experimental within its own context -- he didn't really want to be seen that way, so he held the experiments back. Melody on Two Notes (1966) is another case in point; this piece for student orchestra is based around a motive of a rising and falling fifth, the rest of it is all in the harmony and orchestration, which envelops the simple figure in a drapery of lush elegance. Another first-timer is
Anderson's arrangement of
George Gershwin's "Wintergreen for President" (1932), a depression-era hit from the show Of Thee I Sing. While it is very short, the piece shows both a mastery of orchestration and a subtle, tongue-in-cheek humor.
The remainder of the disc includes some of
Anderson's most familiar evergreens: Sleigh Ride, The Typewriter, and The Syncopated Clock, along with worthy if less familiar titles, such as Saraband, Sandpaper Ballet, and the Suite of Carols for Brass Choir.
Slatkin and the
BBC Concert Orchestra's readings are pristine, but are also spontaneous sounding and never stodgy nor ingratiating in the wrong way. The only thing wrong with this Naxos project is that even with all of the wonderful new
Anderson material included, we're only to three volumes, and pretty soon Naxos is going to run to the end of his relatively small catalog. Nevertheless, this series is one of the best things that has happened to
Anderson in posterity; listeners devoted to him ought to regard this as a first priority.