In my opinion, Masters Film Music’s 1989 CD box entitled Bernard Herrmann: The Concert Suites is one of the monumental achievements in the short history of digital reissues of important film scoring. A four disc set, this essential collection includes ALL the recordings Bernard Herrmann conducted in London of his OWN film music for the Decca International record label in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s (of course, Herrmann recorded, at that time, many other composers’ work). The orchestras performing under Herrmann’s leadership are the London Philharmonic and National Philharmonic Orchestras.

The German-born, American composer Lukas Foss passed away several weeks ago after a long and distinguished career. Here is a recent recording of WWII-era work that is accesible yet complex, a delightful piece that truly deserves this high quality digital recording.

I have not the slightest doubt that this tremendous symphony should force anyone who cares about the European symphonic tradition to take Lloyd seriously as a major contributor to it. Tempo

The Seventh Symphony is on a larger scale...the emotional heart searching is muted and lies beneath the surface...the end is curiously satisfying. Lloyd's powers of construction ensure that this is not only a well balanced symphony but also a forcefully propulsive one...it is also the case that Lloyd has very great powers of orchestration...the recording itself is of equal accomplishment.. Gramophone

Two of the British master's best symphonies:

George Lloyd writes: "When a composer has written eight symphony he may find that the horizon has been blacked out by the overwhelming image of Beethoven and his one and only Ninth. There are other very good No. 5s and No. 3s, for instance, but how can one possibly have the temerity of trying to write another Ninth Symphony? I solved my problem by treating it lightheartedly. I wrote my Ninth Symphony in December 1969 and on the full score I added the following notes: If I had been a serious composer in the late nineteenth century, this symphony would have been at least an hour and a half long, and it would have concerned itself with life, death and resurrection. As I was born somewhat later than that, I will simply tell you that there are three movements, the first one is about a young girl, she dances and is a little sentimental; the second is about an old woman who reminisces - grief-stricken; and the third is the merry-go-round that just keeps on going round and round and round. The Second Symphony was written in 1933 and revised in 1982. The first complete performance was given under my direction by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Januar6y 1986; this recording was made a few days later."

Stephen Sondheim's musical, inspired by the life and work of the French pointillist (or, as he preferred to be known, chromo-luminarist) painter Georges Seurat (1859-1991), is one of his most beguiling and challenging works, but one that won't necessarily appeal to every taste. The music is, on one level, an homage to Seurat's most celebrated painting, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte," and could easily be the finest dramatization of a work of art and the life of an artist this side of Alexander Korda's film Rembrandt. But this is also a sweet, sad, profound, and ultimately elevating meditation on life and the creative process. Sunday in the Park with George moves with lightning swiftness between brittle passages, many centered on frustration, and soaring, achingly beautiful sections. It engages in a fair amount of wry comedy in the process, mostly at the expense of its characters, and, more importantly, the worlds of modern art, multimedia art, and new age music, among other '80s cultural fixtures.

The Pulitzer-prize winning musical Sunday in the Park with George — a live performance of which this disc is a television recording — is not as much an attempt to interpret Seraut's life through what he clues he may have left in his art, but instead uses this imagined life to comment on the nature of artists and art, and the uneasy yet emotionally vital relationship between art and life.

These recordings for the Verve label, most under the direction of Roy’s great champion Norman Granz, began in 1951 soon after Roy’s return to the USA from europe. The final session in the set is from June, 1960.Throughout sixteen different sessions, Roy’s tone hums with energy, whether he’s vaulting into an upper register with no apparent ceiling, or caressing a mournful ballad. The sessions present Roy in a variety of settings, including small groups that comprised of Buddy Tate, Oscar Peterson, Jo Jones, Barney Kessel, Buddy Rich and Ray Brown; Roy with string orchestras led by the brilliant arranger-conductors George Williams and Russ Garcia; three jam session excursions, one with Benny Carter, another with Harry Edison, and a memorable battle with Dizzy Gillespie; two rare sideman titles with Ralph Burns, and two movie soundtrack titles from Paris; the famous trio session with Art Tatum that became a duet between Roy and drummer Alvin Stoller when Tatum couldn't make the gig (Roy overdubbed flugelhorn and piano); and a selection of trad numbers swung nicely in an album for Verve's Down Home series called "Swing Goes Dixie". Session by session notes and an appreciation of Eldridge are by Dan Morgenstern, and the lavish Mosaic booklet includes many rare photographs. The set includes 8 previously unissued alternate takes. But for many listeners? This entire set will be a revelation. Mosaic website

Although the folk-tinged ballet scores that made Copland the quintessential American composer of the early 1940's are outside the scope of this selection, he worked along similar lines well into the 50's. ''The Tender Land,'' his 1956 opera about a girl's coming of age on a Midwest farm, is the culmination of this style, offering both the orchestral warmth and evocativeness of ''Appalachian Spring'' and the homey vocal writing of ''Old American Songs.'' Its attractions include a gorgeous quintet (''The promise of living''), an infectious barn dance (''Stomp your foot'') and a touching finale. The Brunelle recording, with Elisabeth Comeaux as Laurie and Dan Dressen as Martin, does the score full justice. Allan Kozinn

If you want a prime collection of Copland's more accessible works, this is it. Yes, it's true that Bernstein's recordings of individual pieces are often bolder and livelier; but this set offers the composer's own authoritative view of his work, and for that reason alone it is priceless. In addition, it includes virtually all the orchestral pieces he composed during his "populist phase," from El Salon Mexico (1936) to the Clarinet Concerto (1948). You won't find some of these lesser-known gems, such as An Outdoor Overture (1938) or Letter from Home (1944, written--like Rhapsody in Blue--for Paul Whiteman), on typical single-disc Copland compilations. I'd even go so far as to claim this as one of the four indispensable compilations of American instrumental music from the first half of the twentieth century (the others on my list--in case anyone cares--are Joshua Rifkin playing Scott Joplin, Oscar Levant playing Gershwin, and the Blanton-Webster band recordings of Duke Ellington).

With his airy, vibratoless tone and sophisticated harmonic imagination, Lester Young (1909-59) was arguably the most influential tenor saxophonist after Coleman Hawkins. As the star in Count Basie's big band and Billie Holiday's favorite soloist, Young's breezy solos, along with his patented porkpie hat and unique hipster jargon, affected legions of musicians. This 8-CD compilation marks the 90th anniversary of Young's birth and contains all of the recordings he made for producer Norman Granz from 1946 to 1959, the last 13 years of Young's life. This collection aurally illustrates his supernatural ability to enliven the most familiar pop tunes and rise above his own pharmaceutically challenged physical state to create magic. The keys to Young's music making is his emphasis on knowing the lyrics to songs and on telling a story, delivering a melodic solo that communicates as it innovates.

Although the folk-tinged ballet scores that made Copland the quintessential American composer of the early 1940's are outside the scope of this selection, he worked along similar lines well into the 50's. ''The Tender Land,'' his 1956 opera about a girl's coming of age on a Midwest farm, is the culmination of this style, offering both the orchestral warmth and evocativeness of ''Appalachian Spring'' and the homey vocal writing of ''Old American Songs.'' Its attractions include a gorgeous quintet (''The promise of living''), an infectious barn dance (''Stomp your foot'') and a touching finale. The Brunelle recording, with Elisabeth Comeaux as Laurie and Dan Dressen as Martin, does the score full justice.