Frederick Fennell - Eastman-Rochester 'Pops' Orchestra/ Hi-Fi A La Espanola

Mastered at Abbey Road Studios, pressed on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl at Optimal

Lacquers cut by Sean Magee

Original LP sleeves

Sound of Vinyl Download Vouchers included

Newly presented on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl pressings. Presented with original artwork and pressed at Optimal in Germany, each release has been carefully mastered from the original Decca analogue tapes at Abbey Road Studios.

The Old and New Worlds meet in this colorful program by the Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra under the baton of Frederick Fennell. Nine composers from six countries are represented in music tributes to the artistic influence of Iberia: Enrique Granados, Manuel de Falla and Joaquin Turina from Spain; Ernesto Lecuona from Cuba; Jaime Texidor from Mexico; Camargo Mozart Gaurnieri and Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez from Brazil; Percy Faith from the United States; and Arthur Benjamin from Australia.

This album was recorded in the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York, the home of the Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra. A normal concert set-up was maintained throughout the session, with three omni-directional microphones of extremely high sensitivity hung in a plane approximately 15 feet above and slightly behind the conductor's podium. The special percussion effects called for in many of the works were never allowed to overwhelm the other instruments: maracas, marimbas, bells and drums are quite distinctly etched in to the orchestral picture, providing sonorous highlights which do not at the same time blot out the rest of the instrumentation. Dramatic contrasts in dynamics abound. In "Malaguena", for instance, there are powerful sections for full orchestra alternating with passages played by solo guitar with harp and marimba back-ground. "Batuque" opens with no more than a murmur in the bass and swells out to an awe-inspiring climax.