Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin – Copland: Grohg & Billy the Kid (2019) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Aaron Copland did as much as anyone in establishing American concert music on the world stage, and his ballet scores proved to be among his most important and influential works. Grohg is the most ambitious example of his Parisian years, a precociously brilliant one-act ballet scored for full orchestra, inspired by the silent expressionist film Nosferatu. The first example of Copland’s new ‘Americanized’ music of the 1930s was Billy the Kid, based on the life of the 19th century outlaw and heard here in its full version. This was the first fully fledged American ballet in style and content: brassy, syncopated, filmic and richly folk-flavoured.

Tracklist:
01. Grohg: I. Introduction & Cortège-Entrance of Grohg
02. Grohg: II. Dance of the Adolescent
03. Grohg: III. Dance of the Opium-Eater (Visions of Jazz)
04. Grohg: IV. Dance of the Street-Walker
05. Grohg: V. Imagines the Dead Are Mocking Him
06. Grohg: VI. Illumination and Disappearance of Grohg
07. Billy the Kid: I. Introduction. The Open Prairie
08. Billy the Kid: II. Street in a Frontier Town
09. Billy the Kid: III. Mexican Dance & Finale
10. Billy the Kid: IV. Prairie Night (Card Game at Night)
11. Billy the Kid: V. Gun Battle
12. Billy the Kid: VIa. Celebration
13. Billy the Kid: VIb. Billy in Prison
14. Billy the Kid: VIc. Billy in the Desert. Waltz
15. Billy the Kid: VIIa. Billy’s Death
16. Billy the Kid: VIIb. Billy’s Funeral. Mourning Mexicans
17. Billy The Kid: VIII. The Open Prairie Again