Anderson: Orchestral Music Vol 1 (Incls 'Belle of the Ball' & 'Bugler's Holiday')

"Look, you don't need me to tell you that this is essential listening for anyone with a soul and a love of a good tune. You owe it to yourself to make space in your life, and your CD collection, for such carefully wrought serious light music. The performances are all you could wish for, the recording excellent, the notes informative. Until a recent spate of new recordings, light music had a bad press for too many years, not being worthy of a serious music lovers attention, but just like allowing yourself that second Mars Bar, it's great to wallow in sheer delight and enjoy the guilty pleasure of a good tune."
(MusicWeb Feb 2008)

"Naxos's ability to come up with winning ideas at knockdown prices never ceases to amaze. The Classical Jukebox is a delightful novelty piece... ...altogether encapsulating Anderson's genius for packing aural gold into a three-minute piece. One way or another, everything here is easy on the ear and beautifully played."
- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone, March 2008

"The playing by the BBC Concert Orchestra is relaxed and charming. Under Slatkin's baton the melodies flow effortlessly, and clearly a good time was had by all. You will too." (ClassicsToday 10/10)

"Listening to the pieces straight through is a little like gorging on bonbons, but taken in judicious doses, they're irresistible. Also included is Anderson's 1953 Piano Concerto, which applies the same ideas on a larger scale with mixed success." (San Francisco Chronicle)

Leroy Anderson etched out his own unique place in American music - a composer rigorously trained in the classical tradition whose records could top the pop charts, a reclusive personality whose compositions became household words, and a meticulous craftsman who could pull one marvelous tune after another out of his hat almost at will. Here, in the first complete cycle of Anderson's orchestral music, the Anderson family has made available several pieces that the composer did not release, with some first recordings scattered among the familiar and not-sofamiliar titles. Volume One closes with Anderson's Piano Concerto which, since its revival in 1989, has been receiving an increasing number of performances.