Sym No 6

This is yet another fantastic release in RCA Victor's American music series with Leonard Slatkin conducting the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (with great Thomas Hart Benton cover paintings). The Incredible Flutist by Walter Piston, written in 1938, is one of his most colorful works, and it is probably his greatest work, despite the power of his symphonies. (The "Tango of the Merchant's Daughter" will bring you to your knees.) It's from a ballet suite about a funky circus that invades a sleepy little town. Slatkin's take on Piston's Three New England Sketches is elegaic and the Symphony 6 more robust. Wonderful music. --Paul Cook