This LP is called ''American Festival'' and is in fact an American sampler, the most predictable elements of which are the Barber and Bernstein pieces. It is also a showcase for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, which appears to be a first-class ensemble in all departments. The Bernstein is riotously energetic and is played that way; one of the melodies from Candide that it quotes is ''Glitter and be gay''. Brashly representational, the Schuman portrays several episodes from a newsreel, such as a horse race and a tribal dance. Again, it is played for all it is worth, which is to say with immaculate efficiency; all this music receives, also, an appropriately clear, precise recording.
A degree of sensitivity is welcome at this point in the programme and Ives's The Unanswered Question has a rapt performance, showing, like the beautiful account of Barber's Adagio, the other side of the orchestra's capabilities. Ruggeri is a composer unknown to me (and to Grove), and though his brief contribution is of little interest the sleeve-note, for no reason that I can discover, speaks of ''an age of societal intoxication with technology''. Copland's Fanfare remains uplifting despite its familiarity while his variations on the home-spun ''Gift to be simple'' are moving in a different way. Cowell's charming piece could be subtitled 'the symphony orchestra looks at square dancing'. Finally comes Ives's youthful march, composed during his first year at Yale. It is energetically tuneful and receives another wholly idiomatic performance.'