Copland was nothing if not intensely practical, a fact certainly not lost on the planners of the 1939 World’s Fair who offered him two very different commissions. From Sorcery to Science comprises a colourful 10-minute sequence designed to accompany a huge puppet show in the Hall of Pharmacy depicting the history of medicine. Rather more characteristic and rewarding to my mind is the score Copland provided for a left-wing documentary entitled The City, two numbers from which (the radiant opening evocation of ‘New England Countryside’ and jaunty ‘Sunday Traffic’) eventually found their way into Copland’s Music for Movies of 1943. When Nathan Milstein showed a copy of The City to his cousin, the director Lewis Milestone, the latter was sufficiently impressed to make use of Copland’s services on his 1943 wartime drama, The North Star. Although the film (which tells of a Russian village defending itself against Nazi marauders) was later disowned by its creators, drastically pruned (removing any hint of pro-Russian sentiment) and re-released in 1957 under the new title of Armored Attack, Copland’s actual music is well worth hearing, not least the rousing ‘Song of the Guerillas’ (to words by Ira Gershwin, whom producer Sam Goldwyn had ill-advisedly hired to lighten the overall mood). All of which just leaves The Cummington Story, a sweetly lyrical score for a short documentary by the Office of War Information about the resettlement of European immigrants in Massachusetts (beam to 4'47'' for a tantalising glimpse of the slow movement from Copland’s Clarinet Concerto of six years later).
Terrific, ideally affectionate and clean-limbed performances from the Eos Orchestra under its founder and artistic director Jonathan Sheffer (who also provides the knowledgeable and enthusiastic annotation) and vividly realistic Telarc sound – though an occasional hint of strain afflicts those brassy tuttis at the start and finish of The City.'