COMPOSERS: Copland
LABELS: Sony
WORKS: The Second
PERFORMER: Martha Lipton (mezzo-soprano); Chorus Pro Musica, Soloists & Chorus of New York High School of Music & Art, New York PO/Leonard Bernstein (narrator)
CATALOGUE NO: SMK 60560 ADD stereo/mono Reissue (1960, 1953)
This is a welcome reissue of Copland’s 1936 high-school
‘play opera’ about squabbling schoolchildren rescuing hurricane victims, narrated and conducted by Bernstein in his inimitable style. The coupling is a first release of a 1953 recording of the Biblical cantata
In the Beginning. There’s no libretto, but words are clear. Matthew Rye