With an excellent coupling, Chandos provides us with first rate performances of two of the most succesful American symphonies. As a foreigner, Jaarvi knows how the folksy music should be played. For  instance, in the Copland first movement the music starts quietly and swells  in a huge arch to a big climax which in the concert hall should be nothing  less than explosive. I went to see this work at San Diego Concert Hall some  years ago and was disappointed at the current offerings on CD when I  subsequently attempted to obtain my own definitive copy. However, this  effect is captured here, the conductor resists the usual tendency to push  the pace on, thus enabling the listener to pursue his thoughts in real time  with Copland's exposition. The other movements are excellently played but  to my mind it is the way the first movement is played which differentiates  the performances of this work. The Harris work is a celebrated symphony  which has always been played since it was penned in the 1930s. The mixture  of New England hymnody and folk strains are totally synthesised into  something new by Harris. It will be remembered that he was born in a log  cabin, like our Abe! The opening is redolent of the hymn and yet the mood  becomes transfigured as the symphony takes its course through stages  entitled: Lyric; Tragic; Pastoral, etc. The conductor and orchestra do a  wonderful job in playing this well known and well played symphony in a way  that sounds fresh and exciting. The first performance must have been really  special. This new music must have been like a breath of fresh air to the  listeners. Harris has sublimated the sources of inspiration that made him a  composer and yet kept pure those elements that move anyone who cares about  or loves the Spirit of America. The work has a classisism about it, a  restraint that is not so apparent in the more sprawling Copland. Thus two  faces of America are portrayed here, firstly there is the Apollonian  Harris, tethered to formal structure and outcome, his orchestra is not  Wagnerian; he relies on form and structure rather than texture and volume.  While the Copland may not be quite Dionysian, he does let rip in the finale  (Fanfare for the Common Man) with an indulgence in emotional patriotism.  One is aware this is a big symphonic ensemble playing. It is enough to make  the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end!