About three years ago, Sony issued two-channel SACD re-masterings of popular Aaron Copland programs led by the composer and Leonard Bernstein. While Louis Lane and the Atlanta Symphony in their 1981 Telarc recordings can’t quite match the authority of those versions, when heard on their own they boast irresistible zest and, in the slow sections, delicacy. Lane is most effective in the rambunctious moments of Rodeo, even if he doesn’t quite achieve the swing of Bernstein or, on conventional CD, Schwarz.

The Robert Shaw/Atlanta Symphony treatment of Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis also fares well, even if it doesn’t have the muscle and virtuosity of Bernstein or Telarc’s later recording by Levi. Shaw’s approach is almost balletic; he maintains a feathery step where he can, and the lightest textures Hindemith’s often thick scoring will allow. The two-channel DSD remastering for SACD calls attention to the thrilling percussion sound and the ringing clarity of the brass, but it also strips away what minor digital glare came between the orchestra and reality in earlier issues.

James Reel, FANFARE