Erich Kunzel & The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra – Round-Up (features Frankie Laine) (1986/2006) {SACD ISO + FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz}

The Cincinnati Pops is one of America’s favorite orchestras, playing classical hits, orchestral versions of pop and jazz, movie themes and show tunes…

This rootin’-tootin’ salute to Westerns on TV and movie screens was the most popular demonstration disc at the 1987 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas — and it’s easy to hear why. Before you can say Hopalong Cassidy, the disc opens with the stunningly reproduced stereophonic hooting of horses on the range, followed of course by a leisurely trot through the “Hi-O-Silver” section of Rossini’s “William Tell” Overture. Excerpts from Elmer Bernstein’s score for The Magnificent Seven — which contains probably his most memorable theme, along with a Copland pastiche — are given a spectacular arrangement by Christopher Palmer. The usual big-time Hollywood composers of the past, Alfred Newman (How the West Was Won), Dimitri Tiomkin (Gunfight at the OK Corral, High Noon), Franz Waxman (The Furies), and Jerome Moross (Big Country) show up — and collectively they prove that Westerns invariably brought out the best in their craft. A Palmer/Boston Pops-style medley of TV themes with gunfire punctuation turns up, as does a taste of the genuine article, Richard Hayman’s “Pops Hoedown” — complete with whoops from some hired hands on the recording stage. Why, even Frankie Laine, then 73, was lassoed out of semi-retirement in order to authentically resurrect “OK Corral,” “Rawhide,” and his big hit “High Noon.” Laine sounds pretty good, hamming it up in “Rawhide” and delivering “High Noon” in clipped phrases. The weight of Kunzel’s Cincinnati Pops enhances the stature of this music to no end — and Telarc’s pickup of the sound is as broad as a big screen and deep as a desert canyon. This is one of the best of Kunzel’s many discs, and it sounds as if he and the Pops are having a ball recording it.

Tracklist:
01. Sounds of the West (SFX)
02. William Tell Overture: Finale (Lone Ranger Theme)
03. The Magnificent Seven
04. The Furies Suite
05. Round-Up: Anthology of TV Western Themes: Bonanza
06. Round-Up: Anthology of TV Western Themes: Rawhide
07. Round-Up: Anthology of TV Western Themes: Wagon Train
08. Round-Up: Anthology of TV Western Themes: The Rifleman
09. How The West Was Won
10. Gunfight at the OK Corral
11. Pops Hoedown
12. Big Country
13. High Noon
14. Coyote and Crackling Campfire (SFX)
15. Western Medley: Ti Yi Yippee Ay
16. Western Medley: Shenandoah
17. Western Medley: Red River Valley
18. Western Medley: Home On The Range
19. Western Medley: Streets of Laredo
20. Themes From Silverado