CCMusic.com

While Copland's hugely successful celebration of the American West, Rodeo, has become an American classic, Dance Panelist barely known despite working beautifully as a concert work. Based on popular Mexican melodies, the glittering, even exotic El Salon Mexico's one of Copland's most frequently performed works. Of his rhythmically complex Danzon Cubano, inspired by a visit to a dance hall in Cuba, in which there were two orchestras playing at both ends, the composer himself wrote: 'I did not attempt to reproduce an authentic Cuban sound but felt free to add my own touches of displaced accents and unexpected silent beats.' GRAMMY Award winning conductor Leonard Slatkin's recording of Copland's Lincoln Portrait (Naxos CD 8.559373-74) received 'the kind of performance that brought tears to my eyes' (Audiophile Audition).