Russo: Street Music; Three Pieces for Blues Band and Orchestra; Gershwin: An American in Paris.

Corky Siegel, Siegel-Schwall Band. Seiji Ozawa, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. DG Originals 463 665-2.

Things are never so easy as they appear. Despite the cover picture on the front of the CD, these recordings derive from two separate LP releases in 1972 and 1977 respectively. The first LP coupled Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story with William Russo's Three Pieces for Blues Band and Orchestra. The second LP coupled George Gershwin's An American in Paris with Russo's Street Music. The idea behind both LPs was to demonstrate the successful fusion of classical music and jazz, something only the Gershwin work succeeded in doing completely. In any case, when the CD era dawned, DG put together a different package from the two LPs. It had the Bernstein and Gershwin pieces coupled with Russo's Street Music. Since these were the most popular of the works on both previous records, it seemed like a good idea. Since the sound was among DG's finest, it made for an easy recommendation.

Now, DG have remastered and repackaged the works in their "Originals" line of classics. This time they have again used three of the four works, but they've chosen to use Russo's Three Pieces and omit Bernstein's Symphonic Dances. This is a crying shame because the Bernstein stuff was the best that music had ever seen, and the second Russo piece is much like the first, anyway. What gives? Are DG going to give us the Bernstein at a later date, or is it to slip through the cracks, never to be heard from again?

Oh, well, what we have here is quite good, if a bit repetitious in the relatively lightweight Russo material. The Gershwin is quite lively and strongly flavorful, though, and the sound is ever so slightly better than what DG provided on their first CD. The bass is especially better focused and carries more impact, as is the midrange likewise better defined. It's a good but disappointing release at the same time because I'd really liked to have heard what DG's "Original Image Bit Processing" could do with the Bernstein. We'll wait and see.