‘Conductor and honky-tonk pianist” it proudly says next to Andrew Litton’s name under the track listing. Litton, music director of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra since 2013, is indeed a spirited ivory tinkler in Ranch House Party, an episode from Aaron Copland’s ballet Rodeo that is often left out in concert. On this all-Copland CD we get not only all of Rodeo but, similarly welcome, all of Billy the Kid, plus the Outdoor Overture and El Salon Mexico. The latter sounds staid next to the two big ballets, but those are full of character. Litton has the orchestra stylistically just right, moving seamlessly and organically between moments of cowboy-style local colour – piping tin whistle and sleazy trombones – to the “proper”-style playing. Recorded in the orchestra’s Denver home venue, the sound is spacious, so that in Billy the Kid’s running battle the gunfire really does crackle.
