Great American

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Music reviews of Great American

Music Review: Good, not grand, sound on Grofe fifties fest.
Rating: 5 Stars

The real reason to buy this CD, however, is the Grofe-conducted "Death Valley Suite," which I happen to love in spite of its many faults, not the least of which is a joyous but corny Stephen Foster medley that abruptly pops out of the sand in "Desert Water Hole," the third movement. This is very 1939 in character, with the feel of a patriotic movie short, making it only slightly anachronistic for 1949, the year of the suite. The concluding "Sand Storm" plows along in triple-forte fashion with howling wind machines and a shameless indulgence in whole-tone modality, the storm ending with an augmented-triad overlap of woodwinds and strings. A lovely and richly-scored reprise of a second-movement theme brings this fun, if not awfully serious, work to an end. For a 1954 recording, "Death Valley" sounds very good, with less tape hiss and dynamic flattening-out than there could have been. Oh, and there's the fastest "Cloudburst" ever recorded, with Grofe again at the baton, as a bonus track. This is also from 1954. A very nice buy.

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