Out West, down Mexico way, and a short hop to Havana. The familiar Copland tour. Any extras? Well, the ''Ranch house party'' from Rodeo comes replete with saloon-bar effects—honky-tonk piano, the clink of glasses and a ruckus of revellers. They know how to party in Baltimore. Except that David Zinman's long-limbed and incisive direction is generally more upbeat than it is uproarious. Out come the clean-cut cowboys. The hammered unisons and whip-crack syncopations of ''Buckaroo Holiday'' are at once a pristine realization of Agnes de Mille's fancy choreographic footwork. But I am less sure about the lanky trombone solo—more the dandy than tobacco-chewing Buckaroo. Zinman's reading is very much in the immaculate, pressed gingham mould. No flies on him. Or his excellent orchestra. But I would happily sacrifice a little of the finish for a hotter, more up-tempo response to the square-dancing fiddlers of the ''Hoe-Down''. Something wilder and woollier.
Down Mexico way, things are no less sophisticated. The sound and characterization need roughing up a little—although Baltimore does field a suitably oily E flat clarinet. The trick in pieces like this and Danzon cubano is somehow to convey the grubbiness without compromising the musical integrity. No doubts about the musical integrity of Zinman's Billy the Kid. The sound of those lonely falling thirds aspiring to lengthen their reach to Copland's familiar fourths and fifths is a sound as well attuned to the wide open prairies as anything in his music. Cowboy songs come and go. The quiet nocturne underscoring ''The card game at night'' (Bury me not on the lone prairie) is a special moment here, the solo trumpet straight out of the quiet city into the OK Corral. So, too, the slow waltz before Billy's capture (Come wrangle yer bronco): wistful bassoon, solo trombone, swaying string basses—cradle song for a tough guy. I need hardly say how good the Argo sound is. When it comes to a showdown—and I'm thinking of bass-drum bucking broncos as well as gunfight rim-shots—you are right in the line of fire.'