Check out that Moving Typewriter!

 

I can't think of a cover more entertaining than this one. If you move your head side-to-side, it has that strange moving-picture element to it.

I could see the cartoonish cover putting off serious listeners, though. But perhaps it could expose those unfamiliar to the wonderfulness that is Leroy Anderson and his short-form orchestral picture-postcards.

Leonard Slatkin, with his famous relationship to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, takes this music more measuredly than Leroy Anderson himself. But it is of no consequence to this listener; just different.

Otherwise, this recording has most of Anderson's miniature orchestral gems to savor.

A review from 2005

Leroy Anderson's music is best equated with the visual works of Norman Rockwell. Anderson, like Rockwell, paints mini-portraits, slices of life, into his musical creations, and with great success.

With this CD, is a compendium of 25 of Leroy Anderson's vast output and each of them, suprisingly, is a gem in and of itself. Anderson is a master of melody, creating the whimsical and the heartfelt. I was amazed to find that a short horn melody in "Horse and Buggy" could move me emotionally and so easily. One concern at purchasing this CD, was that his music might become trite and tired, especially with repeated listening; but Anderson is inventive in melody and he always mixes his songs up with unexpected syncopations and jazzy interpolations, not to mention the unusual battery of percussion needed to visualize the various animals, horse rides, and other crazy situations Anderson puts his orchestra in.

Leonard Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra perform all of this music with the right gusto needed to portray Anderson's version of Americana. The only thing missing, perhaps, is the unbridled energy these works create in a live environment. While "Bugler's Holiday" and "Clarinet Candy" are played with great alacrity, the spark of the moment is lost on a recording format. Notwithstanding, this CD is an excellent choice if you can't get the live experience, excelling in musical quality, and quite frankly, is a lot of fun. Compare and contrast this CD with other Leroy Anderson collections under Arthur Fiedler, Leroy Anderson himself, as well as a Naxos release, and you will find this CD can hold its own rather easily.

Listen on YouTube

 

Performers
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin, conductor

Label: RCA
Year: 1995
Total Timing: 72.23

 

 

Look at those dancing notes on the covers of the album. What could be more fun!

Since this recording, Leonard Slatkin has gone back to the music of Leroy Anderson, with no less than five volumes of his music now on Naxos.

Otherwise, if you want the big hitters from Leroy Anderson, not under the baton of the composer, and all on one recording, this is a good place to hear them.

 

Find more Anderson recordings HERE!