Copland and Thomson Film Scores

This is a follow-up to my earlier post containing Virgil Thomson's music written for the film Louisiana Story, which came out in 1948. There are two suites pulled from this music - the one heard on the earlier post by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the composer's direction, and this one, called Acadian Songs and Dances, which contains music that Thomson derived from published folk collections.

In this performance, the Thomson is coupled with film music written by Aaron Copland, the Children's Suite from The Red Pony, from 1949.

Both suites were relatively new when this recording from the Little Orchestra Society and Thomas Scherman was issued in 1952. With the films' similarities in theme, setting and time, and the connection between the two composers, the two works make highly complementary companions on disc.

The performances from the New York-based ensemble are very fine, and the simple recording is excellent. It is a good example of what used to be called "hole in the wall" recording - that is, the recording is so coherent that it gives the impression of taking place behind the speaker. That's an effect I like, but the "hi-fi" crowd wanted things to be more close up, so the microphones got closer and more numerous and by the end of the decade multi-miked ping-pong stereo was in vogue.

The music here is simple, yet sophisticated in its own way, and the performance is highly sympathetic.

LINK to February 2025 remastering