Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes

While Copland's hugely successful celebration of the American West, Rodeo, has become an American classic, Dance Panels is barely known despite working beautifully as a concert work. Based on popular Mexican melodies, the glittering, even exotic El Salon Mexico is 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 (8.559373-74) received 'the kind of performance that brought tears to my eyes' (Audiophile Audition).