While Morton Gould's transcription of the early "Solitude" and the sweet "River" Suite (premiered in 1971) are very enjoyable, it's Harlem that's the main attraction. Eventually premiered by Ellington's band (as Toscanini became too ill to participate), Harlem was orchestrated by Luther Henderson, one of Duke's frequent collaborators. (A review of another performance of Harlem, as well as some of Henderson's other Ellington work, may be found on Classics Today by searching for "Classic Ellington" featuring Simon Rattle and the CBSO.) Although Ellington claimed that it depicted more of Sunday-morning churchgoing than the neighborhood's nightlife, Harlem is an extraordinarily voluptuous work. Beginning with two ultra-exposed trumpet parts (played by Walter White and William Lucas), the Detroit players confidently swagger through the score: catch the blazing horns at 11:21 and again at Harlem's conclusion. It's not all bravado, though; they also luxuriate in Harlem's sleek contours, with some great slides pulled off by the unnamed clarinet soloist.

For William Levi Dawson, Dvorak and Tchaikovsky were major influences. Combining hyperbolic romanticism with themes from spirituals, the Negro Folk Symphony is an overtly hybrid creation next to Ellington's organic compositions. It's like a jigsaw puzzle: the pieces fit together but the rifts between the individual styles are never completely bonded. Regardless of those issues, though, Dawson's superb orchestration and sense of color make listening worthwhile. The sound isn't quite top-notch: it's very smooth, to the point of being one-dimensional. Where differentiation of color makes all the difference--as in the Dawson--the flatness of the strings in particular is a drawback.