Sony Classical’s handling of its archives is quite gratifying, when one considers the loss of widespread expertise and historical knowledge in the business. This Copland directing his music follows the Carlos Chavez box set that we talked to you about here a few months ago. The content has already been partly reissued by Sony, notably the London recordings, but not as exhaustively and not with the original covers. In addition, here we find the supreme CD Appalachian Spring (And Tender Land) recorded with the Boston Symphony for RCA, since RCA and Sony are part of the same group. Completeness brings us the mono and stereo versions of the Clarinet concerto with Benny Goodman (1950 and 1963) and Old America Songs with William Warfield (1951-1953 and 1962). Only 2 of the 20 CDs are monophonic, and Sony had the good idea to complete everything with recordings by Bernstein, works not recorded by the composer (Inscape, Conotations). An intelligent anthology.
To watch on video