Kim Criswell

Praised by composer John Williams as ‘one of the great American masters of light orchestral music’, Leroy Anderson was a meticulous craftsman, a composer and arranger of many popular tunes that, once heard, are never forgotten.

Volume 5 in Naxos’s complete edition of his orchestral works presents highlights from his charming 1958 musical Goldilocks, which ran for 161 performances on Broadway and won two Tony awards. His Suite of Carols for Woodwind Ensemble, written three years earlier, includes both well known and less familiar Christmas tunes, each given the magical Anderson touch.

This is the final volume in the Anderson orchestral music series and includes some world premiere recordings.

Leroy Anderson etched out his own unique place in American music – a composer rigorously trained in the classical tradition whose records topped the pop charts, a meticulous arranger of music whose own melodies were crafted with inventive precision.

Here, in the first complete cycle of Anderson’s orchestral music, the Anderson family has made available several pieces that the composer did not release, with some first recordings scattered among the familiar and not-sofamiliar titles. Volume Four concentrates on Anderson’s many arrangements, as well as revisions or alternate versions of his own works, including Alma Mater, a reworking of his 1939 suite Harvard Sketches.