Those who may have been deterred by some of Chavez’s often astringent and acerbic music now have the opportunity, with the present selection of his works, of hearing him in more approachable vein. Much the most attractive is the longest work here, the symphonic suite The daughter of Colchis, originally the score for the Martha Graham ballet Dark meadow. Its calm, pastoral atmosphere, spare texture and mostly diatonic and linear style make it sound very much like Copland, for whose work it could easily be mistaken. The Toccata, taken from some incidental music to a dramatized version of Don Quixote, also comes as a pleasant surprise: the first third of its six-and-three-quarter minutes is taken up by a pastoral oboe solo; gradually other woodwinds then enter, the pace quickening the while, until at about half-way through the piece the whole orchestra becomes involved in a vigorous scherzo. In contrast, the Mexican landscapes are full of thematically disjunct, noisily grandiose dramatic gestures masking nationalistic turns of phrase and dance rhythms.
All the works so far mentioned were written in the 1940s: the earlier, brief Songs of Mexico, musically primitive, exploits an exotic orchestra of native instruments and ends in a dance of raw energy; the Baile (“Dance”) of 1953 was the original finale of the Fourth Symphony, and progresses curiously in aggressive short jerks. The playing and recording throughout are both excellent.'