Fanfare For Aaron Copland

Welcome to Fanfare For Aaron Copland

2013-01-01T15:54:00.000-05:00

Aaron Copland has always been one of my personal musical heroes. Mr. Copland cannot be considered one of the major contributors to American music because Aaron Copland IS American music. His influence on two generations of composers in North America (and worldwide) is considerable and the Coplandisms depicting "Americana" he created in his beloved ballet scores and in his globally famous Fanfare For The Common Man are still heard today in film and television music (even in TV commercials!).

Biographical information on Copland is readily available from other sources (see links) so I will not address this on Fanfare For Aaron Copland. We will instead deal with the glorious music composed by Mr. Copland throughout his lengthy career. A systematic survey of Copland's complete oeuvre will not be conducted but a generous cross-section of his work will be posted. These will include orchestral, chamber, and vocal/choral pieces (many lesser-known compositions will be included). Ocassionally we will hear the same piece in different instrumentation. Sometimes we will feature the same piece interpreted by two different orchestras/conductors.

I hope this site will raise awareness of Aaron Copland's titanic contribution to his field and to the cultural history of the 20th century United States. All postings on this site will be in the lossless FLAC format and will be ripped from original CD's in my personal collection. All artwork included with the CD packaging will be added as image scans, now all done at 300DPI.

ROSS POPLE & LONDON FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA: APPALACHIAN SPRING & OTHER WORKS

2012-01-27T10:52:00.001-05:00

re-up by request, new link in comments
This is another "donation" by the very generous Miguel. My sincere thanks... Scoredaddy

Though Aaron Copland is probably best known for his more accessible music (like his ballet scores Rodeo and Appalachian Spring), this CD presents, alongside selections from these pieces, some earlier and more intricate works of this great American composer. Of course, Appalachian Spring is very well known to many, though here it is performed in the original setting for thirteen instruments. For those who only know the full-orchestra version, this may present some surprising new sounds and it's certainly a nice diversion. Since Appalachian Spring is one of my favorite pieces, I enjoyed this greatly.

The second work on this CD is the Sextet for clarinet, piano and string quartet. In fact this piece is a transcription of Copland's second symphony (the "short symphony"). Due to the difficulties that this symphony presented to many professional orchestras (mainly the intricate rhythmical structure of the work), it was rarely played. Copland, to make this work accessible to the public, made this arrangement for a smaller ensemble. Characteristic for Copland's work in this period (the nineteenthirties), its idiom is much more difficult than works like Appalachian Spring. So, it may take some getting used to, although it's already extremely Copland-like (you can already hear traces of what later will become for example rodeo or Appalachian Spring). The first movement is a jumpy, dance-like Allegro vivace, much like the Hoe-down also on this CD. The second movement, Lento, is intense and quiet, much like the quieter moments in Appalachian Spring. Without pause, the Lento passes into the Finale, introduced by some sudden piano chords. This finale is a very rhythmic, fast, bur humorous piece. At the end, thematic material from the first movement is recapitulated. Though it is, as I said, no Appalachian Springs, I find this a great piece. It's very interesting to hear that a lot of elements of Copland's later works are already present here, albeit in a different form and stage of development.

Quiet City, for English Horn, Trumpet and Strings was written in 1941 (two years before Appalachian Spring). It's a dialogue between the two solo instruments with string accompaniment. Though it is a intimate work, focussing more on harmony than on rhythm, I find myself getting bored towards the end, it's quite a lot of the same really.

The two pieces for string orchestra are arrangements of the two pieces for string quartet that Copland wrote between 1923 and 1928. The Lento molto is a melodramatic piece with dense harmonical writing. It's a silently flowing piece with now and then some dramatic crescendo's. The second piece, a rondino, opens similar to the first movement of the sextet. Although it is not as complicated as the sextet, it's has the same character, albeit more lyrical (as can be expected with a string orchestra). But, even when there is more lyrical writing there is always the driving force of the opening rhythm, even pizzicato in the violins under a beautiful cello-melody.
The last work on this CD is the exuberant Hoe Down from Rodeo. This is Copland on his most humorous and most enthusiastic. The violins even produce some dubious tones in this semblance of a drunken feast.

I find this CD a very nice compilation of some of Copland's well-known and less well-known works, with very nice ensemble playing. It's definitely a CD that will never lose its charm. JJM Peters

1. Appalachian Spring, concert suite for full orchestra 26:30 (1945)

Sextet, for clarinet, piano & string quartet (arr. of Symphony No. 2) 15:38 (1937)
2. Allegro Vivace 4:40
3. Lento 4:54
4. Finale 6:00
Violins: Robert Gibbs, Amanda Smith
Ian Rathbone (viola), Ferenc Szucs (cello), Michael Freyhan (piano), Anthony Pike (clarinet)

5. Quiet City, for English horn, trumpet & strings (from the incidental music) 10:07 (1940)
John Wilbraham (trumpet), Alison Alty (English Horn)

Two Pieces for string orchestra (arr. from 2 Pieces for string quartet) 9:19 (1923, 1928)
6. Lento Molto 5:20
7. Rondino 3:58

8. “Hoe down” from Rodeo, ballet 3:01 (1942)

Performed by: London Festival Orchestra conducted by Ross Pople
Recorded January 24&25, 1996 at The Warehouse, London UK

PAUL POSNAK & PETER ZAZOFSKY: COMPLETE WORKS FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO

2012-01-24T14:02:00.001-05:00

Simply put, Aaron Copland is one of the most important composers of the twentieth century. He codified a concert music sound that was distinctly "American," and single-handedly created a generous path for composers in his native land, bringing to "the new world" what was mostly, up until that point, an imported and exclusively European art form. He lived a long and productive life, one that spanned almost the entire century, and worked not only as a composer, but as a conductor, pianist, teacher, author, concert promoter and generous friend to music.

His parents immigrated from Poland and Lithuania to New York City in their adolescence; Aaron was their fifth child, born in 1900. He was gifted at the piano, studying with Victor Wittgenstein and Clarence Adler. He took lessons in harmony and counterpoint with Goldmark, an old-fashioned teacher who was dedicated to Beethoven and Fux, and against whom Copland rebelled, as children do, becoming enamoured of Scriabin, Debussy and Ives (whom Goldmark called "dangerous"). Eventually, when he was twenty, the young composer-to-be set sail for Paris and the tutelage of Nadia Boulanger.

Under Boulanger Copland began to write his first full-fledged pieces, as well as keeping an involved notebook of musical ideas, an example of his legendary parsimonious nature, always thrifty with everything, especially notes. Using the new knowledge his teacher had imparted to him about Stravinsky, he also cultivated an interest in Jazz, mostly as seen through the eyes of the French, though he did have some knowledge of it from his time in New York. When he returned to America, it was with the score to a ballet called Grohg, along with sketches that would become the Symphonic Ode and Music for the Theatre in his satchel. He had begun to find his voice.

Copland’s legendary compositional output changed it all; Americans no longer had to seek Teutonic refuge, trying to be Brahms. Works like the Third Symphony, with its Fanfare for the Common Man, Rodeo, Billy the Kid, Appalachian Spring, the Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson and El Salon Mexico showed American composers that it was possible to create a sound that was both nationalistic and musically sophisticated. He taught generations to draw influence from what was around, whether that happened to be Gershwin, Debussy, jazz, folk-tunes or hoedowns.

Yet Copland was more than a creator of wistful American nostalgia; he was a deeply sophisticated musician, aware of aesthetic trends of his time. Some of his works, like the early Piano Variations or the later Inscape, are truly modernist creations, not ignoring the influence of the Second Viennese School. His output was diverse, and even eclectic. He also wrote a great deal of chamber music, much of which is included here.

Copland seemed to have two separate sides, the populist and the aesthete. The Sonata for Violin and Piano seems to fall in between the two, being jaunty and full of good tunes, but also based on sophisticated harmonies and unorthodox musical schemes. The piece is dedicated to Lieutenant Harry H. Dunham, a close friend of Copland’s who died in battle, and the date of its première (17th January 1944, with violinist Ruth Posselt and the composer at the piano) shows that war was probably very much on the pacifist Copland’s mind. Cast in three movements with traditional titles (Andante, Lento and Allegretto giusto) this is truly a neo-classical work, but it is also pure Copland; as with everything, he took what he needed of the theoretical conceits, but ultimately composed to his instincts.

Two Pieces for violin and piano, which Copland wrote in the mid 1920s for himself and violinist Samuel Dushkin to play in a Boulanger-sponsored concert in Paris, is a chance to see Copland playing with new ideas, including a new fascination with jazz (this is also the period he was writing his heavily jazz-influenced Piano Concerto). Much of this music would be mined for later scores, but they do hold interest on their own. This is music that is bitonal (in more than one key at once), undoubtedly influenced by Darius Milhaud, whom Copland esteemed highly. In the Ukelele Serenade Copland is having a good time trying to make the fiddle sound like something it is not.

Copland’s piano trio Vitebsk, one of his few "Jewish" works, is here arranged for violin and piano. It is a startling piece, full of wailing dissonances, even using microtones, notes which fall in between the cracks of piano keys, not of the "Western" well-tempered system. It is based on The Dybuk, a Jewish folk-tale, which also fascinated George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, about spirits and doomed love in a small Hasidic community, and Copland hoped the music would, in his own words, "...reflect the harshness and drama of Jewish life in White Russia." It is, therefore, a lean, almost angry work, with many moods contained in its taut single movement.

Dipping even further into the well of Copland’s juvenilia, Two Preludes for Violin and Piano are attempts to translate poetry into music, as Liszt had done in his tone poems. The poets in whom Copland found inspiration were Witter Bynner and Wallace Stevens, both contemporaneous and American. Here we see the seed of the Copland yet to come, the off-kilter rhythms, the stark harmonies, and the sparseness of texture. The titles offer their own explanations; these are musical moment pieces, composed to a single-focused and specific idea of mood.

Originally scored for flute and piano, Copland’s Duo was re-scored by the composer in 1977 at the request of Robert Mann, the violinist for the Juilliard Quartet and Copland enthusiast. The "all-but" sonata was therefore transcribed into this version, which took a good deal less time than the composition - Copland worked for three years on the Duo, commissioned by William Kinkcaid. The famous flautist wanted something that would work "...like a sonata," and Copland certainly delivered the goods, offering a tightly formed work in three movements. The second movement in particular, the composition of which took most of the three years, evokes, in the composer’s own words "a certain mood that I connect with myself - a rather sad and wistful one, I suppose."

The ballet Rodeo was a divisive moment in Copland’s career, a complete smash hit, and yet the piece that managed to alienate him from much of his community. Copland, they thought, had sold out. Copland even incorporates some memorable American folk-tunes. It is a cowboy romance, full of wranglers and cowgirls, and culminating in a hoedown. The choreography and scenario were by Agnes de Mille, who, on the strength of her work on Rodeo, was hired to choreograph a new musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein called Oklahoma!, and Copland composed dutifully to her vision, though he preferred his idea for a ballet about Ellis Island. The 1942 première at the Metropolitan Opera was an enormous success, with a standing ovation. The suite from the work is one of Copland’s most recognizable achievements, with hundreds of performances and countless wonderful recordings. Daniel Felsenfeld

Paul Posnak (piano)
Peter Zazofsky (violin

Sonata for Violin and Piano (1943)
1. I. Andante semplice 7:41
2. II. Lento 4:56
3. III. Allegretto giusto 6:55

Two Pieces for Violin and Piano (1926)
4. Nocturne (Lento moderato) 00:05:40
5. Ukelele Serenade (Allegro vivo) 00:04:26

6. Vitebsk (Study on a Jewish Theme for Piano, Violin and Cello) (1929) 12:03
Harbaugh, Ross, cello

7. Prelude No. 1 for Violin and Piano (1917) 3:41
8. Prelude No. 2 for Violin and Piano (1917) 4:54

Duo for Violin and Piano (1978)
9. I. Flowing 5:44
10. II. Poetic, somewhat mournful 4:50
11. III. Lively, with bounce 3:22

Rodeo: Hoe Down 1942 (arr.1945)
12. Rodeo: Hoe Down 3:14

Billy the Kid: Waltz and Celebration (1938)
Arr. For violin and piano
13. Waltz (Molto moderato) 3:56
14. Celebration (Allegro) 2:24

Total Playing Time: 1:13:46

Recorded: at Gusman Hall, University of Miami, School of Music, Coral Gables, Florida on May 9 and June 14, 15 and 16, 2000

DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES, ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S: DANCE PANELS, EIGHT POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON, SHORT SYMPHONY

2012-01-13T09:00:00.005-05:00

Aaron Copland, like Cole Porter, reversed his musical course in the 1930s from his earlier, astringent, severe form of classical writing to a more accessible, tonal style. Porter, of course, completely gave up his classical style to become a top popular and Broadway songwriter, while Copland went on to score multiple successes writing classical music for “everyman.” But when you aim for Everyman, you get just that, a blanket homogeneity of style that sounds alike, or very similar, piece after piece after piece, and unfortunately, this is what Copland achieved.

His best (but not necessarily his most popular) music in this style was the opera The Tender Land, an oft-neglected masterpiece that puts anything John Adams or Jake Heggie wrote to shame; the Clarinet Concerto; El salon Mexico; some of his later chamber works; and two pieces on this disc, the 8 Poems of Emily Dickinson and the “Short Symphony.” Dance Panels, composed in 1959 and revised in 1962, begins with a marvelous introduction, including some foreboding but interesting harmonic clashes, but quickly settles down into the sort of Everyman Generic Classical Sound that was a hallmark of his style. Gerard Schwarz’s recording with the New York Chamber Symphony (EMI 49095) is clean but glib, though exciting in the fast movements. Copland’s own recording with the London Symphony (Sony SM2K 47236) is a little slower but considerably warmer, with more legato phrasing that makes the slow passages more attractive. Davies’ performance here is similar in approach to Copland’s, but recorded in a cleaner, less warm acoustic. It’s very, very fine, but none of the three performances convince me that the music is anything but functional.

The “Short Symphony” is given an outstanding reading by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony (RCA 68541) that I found both thrilling and able to project the very best qualities of the music, contrasting its quirky motor rhythms (the opening of the first movement always puts me in mind of the “Rocky and Bullwinkle” theme song) with the more lyrical sections brilliantly. The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (DG 427335) also does a fine job but, as is often the case with Orpheus, there is a certain clinical sound in slow passages that disturbs me. Davies takes it somewhere in between, but plays the entire symphony—short though it is—quite a bit slower than written. The opening movement, for instance, clearly indicated in the score as quarter note = 144, is taken by Davies at quarter note = 138. In a sense, this helps alleviate the slightly “cartoony” quality of the rhythms, but I found the last movement, taken at the same tempo (hey, at least he’s consistent!), less exciting and invigorating than Tilson Thomas.

The Dickinson songs are among Copland’s finest achievements, not a page, not a phrase, sounding mechanical or merely functional to my ears, but as I am really fussy about singers I didn’t know how Helene Schneiderman, whom I had never heard of before, would sound in them. As it turns out, she is simply wonderful. Her light, airy, sweet high mezzo voice, sounding very soprano-ish to my ears, interprets the words with wry humor and fine clarity of diction. She is not only finer than Dawn Upsaw (Teldec 28169), but I can pay her no higher compliment than to say that she equals or surpasses the 1982 recording by the legendary Marni Nixon (Reference Recordings 22) with Keith Clark and the Pacific Symphony, though this may be because Davies is a finer and more emotionally responsive conductor. In toto, then, a fine performance of Dance Panels, a first-rate version of the Dickinson songs, and a very good if not scintillating “Short Symphony.” If you don’t have the Nixon recording of the Dickinson, you’ll definitely want this disc. FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Dance Panels (1959, rev 1962)
1. Introduction: Moderato 4:45
2. Allegretto con tenerezza 5:06
3. Scherzando 3:16
4. Pas de trois: Lento 5:12
5. Con brio 3:32
6. Con moto 1:55
7. Molto ritmico 5:08

Eight Poems of Emily Dickenson (1949/1950)
8. Nature, the Gentlest Mother
9. There Came a Wind Like a Bugle
10. The World Feels Dusty
11. Heart, We Will Forget Him
12. Dear March, Come In!
13. Sleep Is Supposed to Be
14. Going to Heaven!
15. The Chariot

Helene Schneiderman (mezzo-soprano)

Symphony No 2 "Short Symphony" (1932-1933)
16. I. Tempo = 144 (incisivo) 4:41
17. II. Tempo = circa 44 5:25
18. III. Tempo = 144 (preciso e ritmico) 5:49

Orchestra of St. Luke's
Dennis Russell Davies (conductor)

SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY & BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: APPALACHIAN SPRING , LINCOLN PORTRAIT + HANSON: THIRD SYMPHONY

2010-10-21T21:52:00.003-04:00

These historic recordings works are linked by wartime and the premonition of war. The Copland works belong to the war years - both post-Pearl Harbour. Appalachian Spring was when recorded here still work 'hot off the presses'. It was a ballet with a ballet reputation rather than concert music. It is done with deliciously rushed slides and deep-running bass-heavy figures (13.45). Koussevitsky relishes the Stravinskian influence which is, in his hands, very strong indeed - direct from Le Sacre and Petrushka. In addition Koussevitsky does tender duty to the more plaintive voices (e.g. 16.22). Holstian and Respighi influences can be heard at 18.52. He makes a real Abschied out of the last five minutes. This suddenly becomes the centre of gravity of the whole piece - giving it symphonic weight.

The Hanson with its Pohjolan and Brucknerian rumblings is a pioneer recordings as are all of these tracks. The symphony only flags in the finale where the pesante element weighs down the sense of direction. There is Sibelian pert wind writing aplenty. Hanson tries in the andante tranquillo to build the breadth of his great free-ranging theme in his Romantic Symphony. He just misses. He builds some surprisingly sinister visions as well - especially in the finale. His opera Merry Mount (will that work ever be recorded in modern sound?) was the quarry for this Breughel-Dali surrealism. Koussevitsky takes his time - all the time in the world! The largamente does not work as it should ending up far too ponderously rhapsodic.

The Lincoln Portrait has all the usual stirring strengths. What impresses though is the sudden poignant tenderness of the music for the words 'He was born in Kentucky'. This has been done well by many others and in better recordings. My recommendations are James Earl Jones on Delos and Charlton Heston on Vanguard. There were some quibbles when this disc first appeared in 1998 but at bargain price there is too much here to savour to let an allegedly synthetic sound quality deny you the pleasure of this deeply felt music making. For my part the sound quality was perfectly satisfactory. It is no barrier to enjoyment. Rob Barnett

1. Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring (1945) 24:29

Howard Hanson: Symphony No. 3 (1936)
2. Andante lamentando 9:57
3. Andante tranquillo 8:09
4. Tempo scherzando 5:54
5. Largamente e pesante 10:34

6. Aaron Copland: Lincoln Portrait (1942) 14:06

Melvyn Douglas (narrator - Lincoln)
Boston SO/Serge Koussevitzky
rec Symphony Hall, Boston: 31 Oct 1945 (Appalachian); 20 Mar 1940 (Hanson); 2 Feb 1946 (Lincoln)

MARCELO BRATKE & MARCELA ROGGERI: MUSIC FOR TWO PIANOS- THE OPEN PRAIRIE

2010-08-29T20:56:00.004-04:00

A lot of the repertoire for two pianos is arranged from orchestral music, but none the worse for that. The sound of two concert grands is uniquely exciting, though it can be cumbersome if the players are not perfectly synchronised, or if they compete rather than cooperate.

Marcelo Bratke and Marcela Roggeri sound as if they have been playing together for a long time. On Monday, they only looked at each other when they started each piece, not needing to afterwards because they felt the music together. It was an object lesson in true ensemble. He played nearly everything from memory, and while she had prompt scores, for much of the time she didn't appear to need to consult them.

Their programme brought together three American composers united by popular culture [this refers to a concert, reviewed herein]. Copland made his own two-piano arrangement of his cowboy ballet Billy the Kid, preserving its lean and airy textures. Just occasionally, in the second number, for instance, dissonances that are absorbed as instrumental colour in the orchestral original sound intriguingly arbitrary in the piano duo version. The hardest thing to make convincing (and get together) on two pianos is probably the broad opening music, which returns at the end. It was very well played.

Danzon Cubano also exists in an orchestral version, though it was originally for two pianos. Bratke and Roggeri got its cheeky rhythmic syncopations perfectly. And they caught the subtle switches of tempo in Copland's El Salon Mexico, arranged by Leonard Bernstein.

Gershwin wrote his Three Preludes for piano solo, and we heard an arrangement which Marcelo Bratke made in collaboration with Julian Joseph, attempting to evoke the sound of a big band. At least, that's what Bratke's programme note said, though the point of a big band sound is surely its brashness, and Bratke's own playing with Roggeri was a bit too refined to create that effect [not included on this CD].

I wonder what the Labeque sisters would have done with the same music, because they fairly thrash their instruments. But while the French girls are unrivalled in their way, these Latin Americans have their own discreet, considerate style which is charming rather than stunning. I don't usually find the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story [not on this CD] charming, exactly, but I'm grateful that Bratke and Roggeri did their very best to make them so. Their recent CD of this programme is available on the Etcetera label, distributed by Chandos Records. Adrian Jack

Check out http://fanfareforcopland.blogspot.com/2009/11/william-chapman-nyaho-susanna-garcia.html for a recording of the same repertoire by a different piano duo.

Billy the Kid
1] The Open Prairie 3:10
2] Street in a Frontier Town 4:23
3] Billy and his Sweetheart/Mexican Dance 3:24
4] Celebration after Billy’s Capture 2:28
5] Billy’s Demise 1:18
6] The Open Prairie Again 1:35

7] Danzón Cubano 6:57
8] Variations on a Shaker Melody 5:29
9] Danza de Jalisco 3:56
10] Dance of the Adolescent 6:05

Two Movements from Rodeo
11] Hoe Down 3:10
12] Saturday Night Waltz 3:55

13] El Salón Mexico 9:23

Marcelo Bratke - piano
Marcela Roggeri - piano

Recorded at St. Phillip’s Church, Norbury UK in July, 1999

JOANN FALLETA & BUFFALO PHILHARMONIC: RODEO/THE RED PONY/PRAIRIE JOURNAL/LETTER FROM HOME

2010-08-22T17:49:00.004-04:00

Although it's played and recorded frequently, there is a genuine difference between a decent performance of Rodeo and a really excellent one such as we have here. This difference can be summed up in two words: rhythm and tempo. When it comes to rhythm, it's not merely a question of hitting the syncopations in the opening movement and concluding Hoedown, but of being both accurate and relaxed enough to let the music swing. This is a quality that Bernstein's performances always had, and JoAnn Falletta understands it too. This gives the music both the necessary verve in the outer sections and real balletic grace in the two inner ones, reminding us that we are, after all, hearing a story told through physical movement.

When it comes to tempo, the issue is at once simpler and less impressionistic. In Buckaroo Holiday, speeds have to be quick enough to prevent the music from breaking up into discrete, detached bits. Once again, Falletta & Co. come through with flying colors. The music never sounds mechanical, disconnected, or excessively "Stravinskian". Copland disliked excessive sentimentality, but his music is never dry (the rich, warm, but clear sonics also help in this department). And what turns out to be a successful recipe for Rodeo works just as well in all of the other pieces here. Prairie Journal (a.k.a. Music for Radio) is one of the least known of Copland's "Westerns", but it's every bit as enjoyable as the three great ballets, and this is as fine a performance as you will hear anywhere. Letter from Home is an exercise in nostalgia that never turns overly sweet.

Best of all, perhaps, is The Red Pony, one of the great film scores of all time, and a glorious work that for some reason seldom gets played live. Copland's invention is of exceptionally high quality throughout, and once again you can hear from the unusual freshness of the opening bars how effortlessly Falletta and the Buffalo players get into the spirit of the music. There are so many delightful moments, from the raucous Circus Music to the unforgettable Walk to the Bunkhouse, a piece that has become the very essence of musical Americana. Finally, it's great to see one of the very popular pieces, like Rodeo, coupled with some less ubiquitous examples of Copland's genius. A wonderful disc! David Hurwitz

1. Prairie Journal (1937) 10:55

Rodeo - Four Dance Episodes (1942)
2. Buckeroo Holiday 7:20
3. Corral Nocturne 3:41
4. Saturday Night Waltz 4:26
5. Hoe Down 3:26

6. Letter from Home (1944) 6:23

The Red Pony Suite (orchestral version) 1948
7. I. Morning on the Ranch 4:27
8. II. The Gift 4:35
9. IIIa. Dream March 2:29
10. IIIb Circus March 2:29
11. IV. Walk to the Bunkhouse 2:58
12. V. Grandfather's Story 4:15
13. VI. Happy Ending 3:11

Recorded at Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, NY USA on January 31 and February 1, 2005

DENNIS RUSEELL DAVIES: VIOLIN SONATA, PIANO QUARTET, VITEBSK

2010-08-12T21:45:00.001-04:00

Violin Sonata/ Vitebsk—comparative version: Göbel Trio, Berlin (4/88) CTH20I2

It's good to have more Copland on CD in anticipation of his ninetieth birthday in November: this time three of his best chamber works, all with piano and all of which he recorded himself. Vitebsk, written the year before the Piano Variations, has the same granitic grandeur but it also reveals the different strands in the composer's background. He said he intended to reflect "the harshness and drama of Jewish life in White Russia" so he borrowed a tune collected in

Vitebsk and used quarter-tone inflexions (right at the opening in the strings). The same quick-slowquick pattern of sections is the basis of the movements in the Piano Quartet, although both that work and the Violin Sonata are more lyrically expansive. The Piano Quartet extends Copland's horizons in other ways--it uses a twelve-note row, anticipating later more dissonant works like Connotations and Inscape, although the folksy opera The Tender Land (see review last month) was still to come. In 1985 Copland told Tim Page, when he asked him about the nature of American music: "The main thing is to write music you feel is great and that everybody wants to hear". That public response has not yet happened to some of Copland's more serious works so this release can only improve matters.

The Violin Sonata is played by Romuald Tecco and the versatile conductor and pianist Dennis Russell Davies. The violin intonation and attack—there are plenty of exposed moments in simple textures—are not always absolutely clean, but there is an attractive swing to the playing which is needed for Copland. By comparison the Gdbel Trio (Thorofon/Koch International) stemming from a different rhythmic tradition, seems slightly remote in both this sonata and Vitebsk. Tecco and Davies carry the impetus well in the long cumulative crescendos of the fast movements and the static slow movement, opening like a folksong in the piano, is well sustained.

Vitebsk opens with biting attacks on strings and piano. I have always admired the playing of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players (on RCA Victor—nla), who caught this taut intensity acutely. Tecco, Duckles and Davies, who are associated through the Cabrillo Festival, are a little lax, but the rapid music flows effortlessly, better than the German players. In some ways the Piano Quartet is the most satisfying performance on the record. The outer, slow movements range from cumulative power to static calm and this wide dynamic requirement is faithfully recorded. The second movement scherzo, with its taxing octaves and rhythmic unisons, comes off well in spite of its length. Altogether these interpretations may be slightly lacking in steely precision but they serve the composer very acceptably. PETER DICKINSON

Violin Sonata (1943)
1. Andante semplice (7:39)
2. Lento (5:13)
3. Allegretto giusto (8:41)

4. Vitebsk, Study on a Jewish Theme (1929) 13:15

Piano Quartet (1950)
5. Adagio serio (7:15)
6. Allegro gusto (7:50)
7. Non troppo lento (6:59)

Romuald Tecco (vn); Kenneth Harrison (Va); Lee Ducktes (Ce); Dennis Russell Davies (pf)
Recorded at the Performing Arts center, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA on July 10-12, 1989

MARIN ALSOP & BOURNEMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCH: DANCE, SHORT SYMPHONIES, SYMPHONY #1

2010-06-06T20:59:00.005-04:00

All of these works predate Aaron Copland's populist American ballets, but they reveal perhaps even more tellingly just what a talented and individual voice he had right from the start. The most important piece here is the Short Symphony (a.k.a. Symphony No. 2), a stunning essay in rhythmic lyricism that was considered all but unplayable when written in 1933--so much so that Copland rewrote it as a sextet. This performance hasn't quite the sharpness and sizzle of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra recording for DG, but the Bournemouth Symphony under Marin Alsop shows itself more than capable of mastering the music's intricacies.

The other two performances are even finer. Alsop catches the bittersweet lyricism of the First Symphony's outer movements very affectingly, while the whirlwind central scherzo is dazzling. The same observation holds true of the Dance Symphony, which works its way to a fine frenzy in a finale that strikingly anticipates the mature composer of the 1940s. Copland's bright, open textures come across well in the problematic acoustic of the Poole concert hall; this is one of Naxos' better recordings from this locale, graced with some really impressive bass sonorities. This is an intelligently planned and impressively executed disc. David Hurwitz

An altogether convincing and worthy disc of the OTHER Copland symphonies -- the ones that are not his large-scale masterpiece, the Symphony No. 3, certainly one of the greatest symphonies ever written by an American. There are Spartan modern music partisans who will, in fact, insist that Copland's first symphony from his 1924 Symphony for Organ and Orchestra is the great Copland Symphony. Or choose his Short Symphony from 1933. While it's true that Copland's musical personality was fully formed by the late '20s, the later populist masterworks -- and the wartime seriousness of the Third Symphony -- take his work to another level entirely. Alsop and the Bournemouth Orchestra's performances here on this budget-priced Naxos disc are predictably first rate, if not exactly inspired. Jeff Simon

Symphony No. 1 (1924)
1. I. Prelude: Andante 6:51
2. II. Scherzo: Molto allegro 8:01
3. III. Finale: Lento 10:27

Short Symphony, "Symphony No. 2" (1932-33)
4. I. quarter note = 144 4:21
5. II. half note = 44 5:08
6. III. quarter note = 144 00:06:02

Dance Symphony (1929)
7. I. Dance of the Adolescent: Lento - Molto allegro 6:56
8. II. Dance of the Girl Who Moves as if in a Dream: Andante moderato 5:12
9. III. Dance of Mockery: Allegro vivo 5:17

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop, Conductor
Recorded in The Concert Hall, Lighthouse, Poole, UK on March 30-31, 2007

Total Playing Time: 00:58:15

JAMES SEDARES & PHOENIX SYMPHONY: THE TENDER LAND, THE RED PONY, THREE LATIN AMERCAN SKETCHES

2010-02-26T08:17:00.006-05:00

I want to thank my friend Wimpel for permitting me to post his rip of this nice CD.

Aaron Copland's The Tender Land was to be the first opera written for television, but NBC rejected it. Copland revised it, but later performances weren't well received. Hard to believe, from just the suite. This is vintage--if unfamiliar--Copland. The Red Pony comes from the film of the same name and is quite understated, something that was intentional on Copland's part: he didn't want the music to obtrude on the film's story. The real surprise here is how well the Phoenix Symphony comports itself under Sedares's baton. Nicely balanced, excellent sound. Highly recommended. Paul Cook

Aaron Copland was the composer who best personified the American style of classical music, having composed works that reflected all aspects of America: its big cities ("Music For A Great City"); its small towns ("Our Town") and its wide open spaces ("Rodeo"; "Billy The Kid"). But there is even more to this greatest of composers that our nation has ever produced, as personified on this 1991 recording by the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and its music director James Sedares.

The recording contains a three-part orchestral suite from the composer's surprisingly unsuccessful 1954 opera "The Tender Land"; a suite from his score for the 1948 film version of John Steinbeck's novel "The Red Pony"; and a true rarity among rarities, the "Three Latin American Sketches" (Estribillo; Paisaje Mexicano; Danza De Jalisco), which were premiered in 1972. This suite, sandwiched between "The Tender Land" and "The Red Pony", makes for a thoroughly interesting comparison with Copland's two earlier Latin-oriented sojourns, "El Salon Mexico" and "Danzon Cubano."

Under Sedares' crisp direction, the Phoenix Symphony shows itself to be very much at home in this great American composer's works. They are almost certainly one of the great regional orchestras in the U.S., capable of standing tall with their bigger bretheren in cities like Los Angeles, Dallas, and New York. This is a wonderful recording for anyone with a taste for Americana and the occasional Latin spicing. E. North

Tender Land (Orchestral Suite from the Opera) (1956)
1. Intro and Love Music
2. Party Scene
3. Finale: The Promise of Living

Three Latin American Sketches (1959,1971)
4. Estibrillo
5. Paisaje Mexicano
6. Danza de Jalisco

Red Pony (Film Suite) (1948)
7. Morning on the Ranch
8. The Gift
9. Dream March
10. Circus Music
11. Walk to the Bunkhouse
12. Grandfather's Story
13. Happy Ending

The Phoenix Symphony
James Sedares (conductor)
Recorded May, 1991 at Symphony Hall, Phoenix, AZ USA

JUBILANT SYKES SINGS AARON COPLAND

2010-01-29T16:12:00.005-05:00

Given Jubilant Sykes recent triumph starring in Marin Alsop’s revival of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS for Naxos, I thought that posting Sykes’ 1993 Copland recital would be appropriately timed. Actually, the entire program is not dedicated to Copland’s music, despite the disc’s title. Traditional American spirituals comprise approximately half the running time. But they are well worth listening to and work well within the structure of Sykes’ presentation.

The singer’s musical partner on this recording is Andrew Litton, an American conductor who is extremely well-versed in Copland and the American vernacular in particular.

This is a charming CD and I feel that Sykes does a nice solid job with the “Old American Songs”, bringing enthusiasm and good humor to these old ditties, but with the weight and gravity required when needed. Enjoy! Scoredaddy

Jubilant Sykes’ bio: A classically trained baritone vocalist, Jubilant Sykes was a respected opera, jazz and spiritual vocalist of the late '90s. Sykes began his professional career in the early '90s. By 1996, his audience had grown substantially -- that year, he was named the Vocalist of the Year by Sacred Music USA. By the time he released his first album, Jubilant, on Sony Classical in the spring of 1998, he was a widely respected vocalist who had sung at the Metropolitan Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and had performed with the Boston Pops, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among many other organizations. A sophomore effort, Wait For Me, was issued on Sony in summer 2001. Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Traditional Spirituals
1 City Called Heaven
2 Ride On, King Jesus
3 Were You There?
4 Weepin' Mary
5 Go Down, Moses
6 Leanin' On That Lamb
7 My God Is So high
8 Witness

Old American Songs by Aaron Copland
Set 1 (1950)
9 The Boatmen's Dance
10 The Dodger
11 Long Time Ago
12 Simple Gifts
13 I Bought Me a Cat

Set 2 (1952)
14 The Little Horses
15 Zion's Walls
16 The Golden Willow Tree
17 At The River
18 Ching-a-Ring Chaw

Jubilant Sykes (vocals)
London Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Litton, Conductor
Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, UK on March 30-31, 1993

WILLIAM CHAPMAN NYAHO & SUSANNA GARCIA: COPLAND, MUSIC FOR TWO PIANOS

2009-11-10T11:01:00.007-05:00

This beautiful disc is a gift contribution from my good friend Southview212. For this I thank him sincerely. Scoredaddy

The Nyaho/Garcia Duo is committed to performing music of composers of African or Hispanic heritage, as well works of contemporary, American and women composers. The Duo has a recording to its credit as well: Aaron Copland: Music for Two Pianos, Centaur 2405 (1998). The tracks include El Salon México, Rodeo selections, Dance of the Adolescent, Danza de Jalisco, Variations on a Shaker Melody, Danzon Cubano and Billy the Kid (arranged from suite from the ballet). Nyaho's Web site has this to say of the CD:

In November 1998, Nyaho and Garcia released their first compact disc recording of the complete transcriptions of Aaron Copland for two pianos for Centaur Records. Classical Magazine wrote then that the duo, "form a perfect match in their style of playing, their tone, and in their genuine feeling for and understanding of the Copland pieces... This CD will be the standard against which any futures performances of these dances will be measured."

1. El Salon Mexico (arr. Bernstein)

Two Movements from Rodeo (arr. Gold & Fizdale)
2. Hoe-down
3. Saturday Night Waltz

4. Grohg: Dance of the Adolescent
5. Danza de Jalisco
6. Variations on a Shaker Melody (arr. Lerner)
7. Danzon Cubano

Billy the Kid: Suite
8. The Open Prairie
9. Street In A Frontier Town
10. Billy and His Sweetheart
11. Celebration and Billy’s Capture
12. Billy’s Demise
13. The Open Prairie Again

William Chapman Nyaho & Susanna Garcia (pianos)
Recorded August 6 & 7, 1997 at LSU Recital Hall, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisisana

AARON COPLAND & LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: BILLY THE KID/THIRD SYMPHONY

2009-11-02T10:48:00.007-05:00

Again, I would like to express my appreciation to Mr Jansons for being kind enough to let me post his rip of these important recordings. Scoredaddy

Until Copland came along there wasn’t really a truly American sound in concert music; we had jazz of course but that was a different thing. Most of the leading American composers had been trained in Germany and that was the prevailing musical culture. Aaron Copland changed all that, and two of his most American-sounding works are beautifully performed on the first of these discs as conducted by the composer himself.

The Billy the Kid music sounds like it could be from a Western movie. The big attraction for audiophiles has long been the movement Gun Battle. The various tympani and bass drum put on quite a fire fight. The Third Symphony is full of that special American quality which Copland originated and has been copied by so many film composers. It is miles beyond the simple quoting of folk tunes such as Dvorak and Brahms did. John Sunier

The overuse of the word “cult” has recently taken on inflationary proportions – but sometimes it is totally justified: such as for the recordings on the American Everest label. Founded in 1958 by sound engineer Bert Whyte, it created recordings that ranked as trend-setters whenever they were released. Regrettably, two years later they gave up on recording classical music; the LP’s, however, continued to retain their valid reputation as cult objects for collectors for decades to come – not least for the author of these lines, for whom, back in his youth, these discs with their characteristically colorful cover illustrations represented an introduction to the fascinating world of North American and Latin American orchestral music.

Up until now, Everest releases were only briefly available. Fortunately this situation has now changed: one CD from the Everest package deserves a more thoroughgoing consideration: Aaron Copland’s exemplary conducting of his own Symphony No. 3 and the suite from the ballet “Billy the Kid”. Here he avoids a fundamental error to which even authentic Copland specialists like Leonard Bernstein occasionally succumbed: gussying up the music with additional pathos. This can have fatal consequences – especially in the Symphony. The apotheosis of the finale comes across as exaggerated, overstated, cascades of cymbal crashes and tam-tam fireworks threaten to undermine the actual substance of the work. Copland, on the other hand, maintains a tight rein on his own music and keeps all the bombast remains under control. The build-up of tension in the first movement (the strongest section of the symphony) could not have been better realized. In his later recording of this opus for Columbia he failed to reach the formal overview, combined with the rhythmic attack with the same precision he achieved here.

In “Billy the Kid” as well, he limits himself to an unemotional, yet no less extremely transparent and color-intense realization of the score. If we add to this circumstance the fact that the sound image of the orchestra, even for the time this recording was made – probably 1959, but precise information is not available in the booklet – was downright phenomenal in terms of clarity and sharp contours, so that we can refer to this as a true reference recording. Anyone who knows nothing of Copland and is curious about his music should really pick up this CD. Thomas Schulz

Billy The Kid - Ballet Suite (1942)
1. The Open Prairie
2. Street in a Frontier Town
3. Card Game At Night
4. Gun Battle
5. Celebration: After Billy’s Capture
6. Epilogue: The Open Prairie Again

Third Symphony (1944-46)
7. I Molto Moderato
8. II Allegro Molto
9. III Andantino quasi allegrett0
10. IV Molto deliberato: Allegro risoluto

London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland in 1958.

MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS, SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY: COPLAND THE MODERNIST

2009-10-27T09:59:00.005-04:00

I want to extend a sincere and grateful THANK YOU to Mr. Jansons, who was kind enough to allow this post of his rip!! THANK YOU MR. JANSONS. Scoredaddy

According to Virgil Thompson, jazz was Aaron Copland’s “one wild oat”. Maybe, but he sowed it with a will – and others reaped. Page after page of Music for the Theatre and its first cousin, the 1926 Piano Concerto, featured here, read like the blueprints for symphonic dance to come. Bernstein’s On the Town began here. Concert jazz with attitude, sinewy, street-smart, strident, dislocated, blowsy, bumping, grinding, shimmying like everyone’s sister Kate. But Copland arrived first, and middle America (which had mentally drawn a line under Gershwin in that regard) was taken aback – temporarily. An erstwhile succes de scandale became ‘the best roar from the roaring twenties’.

Well, at least one audacious enough to subdue the MGM lion on the opening gambit stakes. It’s a corker, this opening. A bold proclamation passed between trumpets and trombones, a ‘fanfare for...’; but before you can finish the sentence, a dramatic cut to the wide shot: a glorious lyric effusion, its sights set on yet another gleaming skyline. Brave new world or lonely town? The quizzical solo piano isn’t entirely sure, but the yearning grows: rhapsody in blue. Aren’t they all? But as muted clarinets take us in deeper, and deeper, the piano player shucks the cigarette, flicks the wrist, mindful of something snappy; snappy, as in fractured and slightly tipsy. Garrick Ohlsson kicks into this rhythm-bending mood-swing with terrific aplomb, and the San Francisco Symphony stretch every sinew to get their long limbs co-ordinated. Tilson Thomas has them well blooded in the ways of this music: it’s slick, it’s tight, but it still retains that sense of wilful precariousness. One last view of the skyline, and it’s all over.

Copland, ‘the modernist’, alludes to skylines a great deal here. The word ‘sheer’ is always springing to mind – long, tall brilliance; shining surfaces, all height and angularity. It’s hard to imagine that the Orchestral Variations were ever laid down in anything but orchestral terms, their sonority and harmony stretched from top to bottom of the score in spare, spacey chords. Copland’s very particular brand of rhetoric. And then you remember that in its ground-breaking piano original it was as if the keyboard itself had been surrealistically elongated. It has the look of a modern metropolis in sound, this music: lean, clean, oblique. Why, even the beautiful and remote slow movement of the Short Symphony is rural Copland with inner-city tensions.

But let me direct you to the tallest of these particular edifices – because I honestly don’t anticipate a better view of it. Symphonic Ode – Copland’s first big orchestral piece after the Piano Concerto – proceeds onwards and upwards in sky-scraping, octave-leaping tower blocks of sound. It’s so very much a young man’s America, alternately monolithic and toughly contrapuntal. A jazzy hint of misbegotten adolescence, a reflective heart – with solo oboe (exquisitely attended here) lending a refinement so well nursed by Nadia Boulanger – and a tremendous conclusion as proud and implacable as the US Constitution itself. A couple of sensational modulations, and MTT’s San Francisco horns are quite literally reaching for the sky. Because there is no place to go but up. The performance knows just how good it is – and that’s a fact. Deep-set, blockbusting recording. A winner.' Edward Seckerson

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1926)

1. Andante sustention 7:32
2. Molto moderato; Allegro assai 9:27
Garrick Ohlsson, piano

3. Orchestral Variations (1957) 13:39

Short Symphony (Symphony No. 2) (1932/33)
4. Incisivo 4:33
5. Espressivo 5:01
6. Preciso e ritmico 5:52

7. Symphonic Ode (1928/29) 20:16

San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas
Recorded June 25, 1996 at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA, USA

A COPLAND CELEBRATION, VOL 1: FAMOUS ORCHESTRAL AND CHAMBER WORKS

2009-10-14T15:23:00.006-04:00

The three volumes in the “Copland Celebration” series are only available separately so you can pick and choose. Dedicated Coplanders will want all of them. Sony, who have come in for considerable stick in some quarters, have here done a regal job. Design is consistent across the three sets. The market placement is astute at mid-price. The 2 CD sets are in slimline cases.

The great attraction of these sets is the harvest of previously CD-unavailable tapes. The following receive their first CD release here (speaking of the entire three-volume series): Nonet, Vitebsk, Piano Quartet, Lincoln Portrait, Dickinson Poems (both Addison and Lipton), Old American Songs, Tender Land, In the Beginning, Dark, Nonet, Copland rehearsing Appalachian Spring. The two Billy extracts played by Oscar Levant appear for the first time on any commercial medium.

The sets were issued in Copland centenary year (2000) and merit attention here. The age of the tapes varies from 1959 to 1971 with many falling in the 1960s. The only monos are the Martha Lipton Dickinson Poems, the Warfield American Songs, the Levant Billy excerpts. These are all ADD and the sound quality is good to excellent.

Discographical documentation is good and background notes (in English only) are by Copland biographer, Howard Pollack. An obvious though hardly damning demerit is that none of the words are printed. The booklet for each set is liberally sprinkled with facsimiles of concert fliers and programme notes as well as some very natural on the fly photographs.

Though eclipsed in hifi terms there is still plenty of bass and fibrous pith in the LSO version of the Fanfare. The boozy Arnold-like Copland is evident from the second of the Rodeo dance episodes which also chimes in well with The American Songs. His orchestration which blossomed under the tutelage of Nadia Boulanger is pristine, Gallic in its transparency but American in every other way. I wasn't sure whether the LSO were quite on top of things in the final dance but otherwise things go with a swing and with galloping élan. Stravinsky scores were amongst those studied by Copland during his Parisian years and certainly The Rite surfaces with unmistakable identity throughout the orchestral works - try The Open Prairie in Billy The Kid. When that music returns at the end it has the atmosphere of a tragic scrolling effect - extremely cinematic. Playing is pointed and precise - a great orchestra in their finest confident form.

El Salon lacks the out and out zip and shudder of Bernstein's version however the accenting is sharper in the composer's version. The NYPO are probably more at home in this music and the NPO trumpets seem not completely inside the idiom by comparison with Bernstein's band. The LSO manage things more naturally with Danzon Cubano. Quiet City - that hymn to metropolitan solitude has never quite been matched in the case of this Copland version.

Appalachian Spring is a hallmark work in Copland's catalogue. Its qualities are exposed to even greater effect in its original chamber garb. A cool innocence allied of music keyed into vernal winds, rustic playfulness and the landscape. Some may miss the opulence of a full orchestra but the compensations in terms of diaphanous sounds and a glowing soundscape more than compensate. Tight rhythmic control push things along with real zing. Somehow the fact that this represents the score as it would have sounded when it was danced by the Martha Graham troupe in the murderous 1940s seems only a makeweight. Hearing the complete ballet underlines who used we have become to the orchestral suite - tracks 8, 11 and 12 seems stylistically anomalous now - rather slow, a trifle slower and Molto allegro ed agitato. The fifteen instruments are six violins, two violas, two cellos, double bass, flute, clarinet, bassoon and piano. Paul Jacobs was the pianist in this 1973 recording. We take with this more than 17 minutes of rehearsal which illustrates the care with which Copland laboured at the creation of that slender web of sound and zappy attack. Copland's direction is firm, specific but always respectful of the musicians. The sequence is not continuous with sections faded down and then faded up.

The Nonet for strings is a quite unfamiliar work. It oscillates between the poles of Bach, Tippett and neo-classicism. A no-holds-barred performance with plenty of gutsy playing compromised by 1962 sound only to the extent that it lends an unforgiving edge to the strings at forte and above. Rob Barnett

DISC ONE

1. Fanfare for the Common Man (1942) 3:16
LSO, Walthamstow, UK 26-29 Oct 1968

Rodeo (1942)
2. I. Buckaroo Holiday 7:47
3. II. Corral Nocturne 3:50
4. III. Saturday Night Waltz 4:44
5. IV. Hoe-Down 3:33
LSO, Walthamstow, UK 26 Oct 1968

Billy The Kid (1942)
6. Introduction: The Open Prairie 3:21
7. Street in a Frontier Town 6:26
8. Card Game at Night (Prairie Night) 3:45
9. Gun Battle 2:03
10. Celebration Dance (after Billy’s Capture) 2:15
11. Billy’s Death 1:28
12. The Open Prairie Again 1:45
LSO, Walthamstow, UK Nov 1969

13. El Salon Mexico (1936) 11:27
New Philharmonia, EMI Studios, London UK 31 May 1972

14. Danzon Cubano (1942)
LSO, EMI Studios, London UK 9-10 Nov 1970

15. Quiet City (1939) 9:49
William Lang (trumpet)/Michael Winfield (English Horn)/LSO, Walthamstow, UK 6 Nov 1969

16. Down a Country Lane (1965)
LSO, Walthamstow, UK 26 Oct 1968

DISC TWO
Appalachian Spring (original chamber version) (1945)
1. Very Slowly 2:44
2. Allegro 2:49
3. Moderato 3:28
4. Fast 3:25
5. Subito Allegro 2:57
6. Menos Mosso 1:58
7. Doopio movimento 2:23
8. Rather slow 1:25
9. Very deliberate 2:44
10. Poco piu mosso 1:01
11. A trifle slower 0:24
12. Molto Allegro ed agitato 3:09
13. Broadly 0:33
14. Moderato (like a prayer) 3:18
Columbia Chamber Ensemble/Columbia Studios, NYC 9-11 May 1973

Nonet (1960)
15. Slow and solemn 5:39
16. Ritmico ed un poco marcato 6:48
17. Temp as at first 5:01
Columbia String Ensemble/ 799, 7th Ave, NYC, 6 Apr 1962

18. Copland rehearses Appalachian Spring. 17:12
Columbia Studios, NYC 6 April 1962

THE HEIRESS: ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK

2009-09-25T11:44:00.010-04:00

Hello Friends: Today we have a real treat, courtesy of some generous online friends. I have obtained the kind permission of Southview212 to share with you the never-before-released original tracks from Copland's THE HEIRESS score. Please keep in mind that these are rough-sounding recordings taken from the original acetates. They were never intended for release and they are encoded @320kbps, MP3.

There are 14 untitled tracks, approximately 26 minutes of music. Aside from an eight-minute suite recorded by Leonard Slatkin and The St. Louis Symphony (available here on this blog), this is the only existing source (that I am aware of) of this score, which is truly in need of a complete restoration and recording.

Thanks also to my friend Jean for allowing me to utilize the "cover art" he designed for this THE HEIRESS. enjoy! Scoredaddy

For a well-researched article on this music, please read "You Have Cheated Me”: Aaron Copland’s Compromised Score to The Heiress which was published in Film Score Monthly May/June 2005. Written by James Lochner http://www.filmscoreclicktrack.com/2009/03/14/you-have-cheated-me/

LEONARD SLATKIN & ST. LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: ORGAN, DANCE, & SHORT SYMPHONIES

2009-09-21T09:24:00.003-04:00

The Copland known to most people is the composer of scores such as El Salón México, Rodeo, Appalachian Spring, and the Third Symphony--in short, of the popular, approachably folksy works of the years 1936 to 1946. But what about the music Copland wrote before these defining pieces? Some would say it's even more important, having served to open the door, as Virgil Thomson rightly observed, to "the voice of America in our generation."

The four works on this disc show that Copland was Copland--a powerful, provocative, original, and energetic musical personality--before he was "Copland." The daring Organ Symphony of 1924, the same year as Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, sounds at least 20 years ahead of its time. The Dance Symphony, from 1929 (but based on material from Copland's 1922 ballet, Grohg), is permeated by the aroma of French modernism and full of the spiky grotesqueries of Stravinsky and Bartók, yet it's got a jazzy swagger that's distinctively ... Copland. Ditto for the Short Symphony of 1933, rhythmically one of the most boisterous pieces Copland ever wrote.

Even the one work that appears to be "later" Copland--the Orchestral Variations of 1957--is actually from the same youthful vintage as the symphonies. It's Copland's orchestration of his epoch-making 1930 Piano Variations, among the most powerful utterances in the history of American music. Seventy years later, the force of the musical ideas in this piece still takes listeners' breath away, and reminds us it was no accident that Copland has come to be regarded as America's greatest composer. Leonard Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra play the spots off all the music on this CD, and the sound is superlative. Ted Libbey

Symphony For Organ and Orchestra (1924)
1. Andante 6:02
2. Scherzo 7:21
3. Finale: Lento 10:03
Simon Preston , organ

Dance Symphony (1929)
4. Intro: Lento, Molto Allegro 6:37
5. Adante Moderato 4:40
6. Allegro Vivo 4:51

Short Symphony (Symphony No. 2) (1932-33)
7. Incisivo 4:07
8. Espressivo 4:56
9. Presto E Ritmico 5:36

10. Orchestral Variations (1957) 12:36

St Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin
Recorded September 21, 1993 at Christ Church Cathedral, St Louis, MO (#1-3); February 17&18, 1995 (#4-9) & May 9, 1995 (#10)at Powell Symphony Hall, St Louis, MO USA

Upgrade to FLAC: A COPLAND CELEBRATION, VOL 2 - CHAMBER MUSIC AND RARITIES

2009-09-15T14:43:00.004-04:00

Carl Sandburg only appears on about 14 minutes of this mid-priced two-CD set, but it's a very important 14 minutes in terms of his artistry and career. The poet/singer's four-decade association with Abraham Lincoln culminated on record in 1958 with his recording of Aaron Copland's "A Lincoln Portrait" with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of the man who commissioned the work, Andre Kostelanetz.

Sandburg's relationship to the piece went back 15 years, though he did not narrate it at its debut, but nobody ever narrated it better on record -- Sandburg quotes the lines drawn from Lincoln's speeches as though they're his, and his utterance of the framing narrative is done with the gentleness of someone who seems to have known the man, and knew the sadness of losing him; when he speaks on Lincoln being a quiet and a melancholy man, he does it as if he were describing a much-mourned friend, with all of the depth that implied in that description.

It's an illusion, but a successful one and totally natural, from a non-actor. Sandburg's voice has a natural fragility that is extraordinary in a recording like this, and separates him from the work of Henry Fonda and most other actors who have recorded this piece. The Philharmonic never played the piece with more feeling, and the recording quality is excellent. Bruce Eder

This second Copland collection focuses on unique talents of veteran performers. William Warfield lends his voice and his interpretations of Copland's Old American Songs, and he sings them as they were meant to be, not as classical diletantes felt they should be. You have authenticity here.

Martha Lipton likewise contributes an older world charm and charisma to Copland's settings for Emily Dickenson's words. Carl Sandberg's resonant reading of his own words is worth the full price of this set. And then the inimitable Oscar Levant's piano treatment of the orchestral pieces...Levant had a wry touch to his interpretations that gave him a voice all his own.
There's much more here, quite a bit that's less than familiar and therefore increases one's familiarity with Copland. Neal C. Reynolds

DISC 1
1. Vitebsk, Study On A Jewish Theme (1929)
Aaron Copland (piano)
Earl Carlyss (violin)
Claus Adam (cello)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York City, NY on October 28, 1966

Sextet For Clarinet, Piano And String Quartet (1937)
2. I. Allegro vivace
3. II. Lento
4. III. Finale
Aaron Copland (piano)
Harold Wright (clarinet)
Julliard String Quartet:
Robert Mann (violin)
Raphael Hiller (viola)
Earl Carlyss (violin)
Claus Adam (cello)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York City, NY on October 27, 1966

Piano Quartet (1950)
5. I. Adagio serio
6. II. Allegro giusto
7. III. Non troppo lento
Aaron Copland (piano)
Robert Mann (violin)
Raphael Hiller (viola)
Claus Adam (cello)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York City, NY on October 28, 1966

Duo For Flute And Piano (1970-71)
8. I. Flowing
9. II. Poetic, Somewhat Mournful
10. III. Lively, With Bounce
Aaron Copland (piano)
Elaine Shaffer (flute)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio on December 11&14, 1972

DISC 2
1. Lincoln Portrait (1942)
The New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andre Kostelanetz.
Carl Sandburg (narrator)
Recorded in New York City, NY on March 16, 1958

Twelve Poems Of Emily Dickinson (1949-50)
2. I. Nature, The Greatest Mother
3. II. There Came A Wind Like A Bugle
4. III. Why Do They Shut Me Out Of Heaven?
5. The World Feels Dusty
6. V. Heart, We Will Forget Him
7. VI. Dear March, Come In!
8. VII. Sleep Is Supposed To Be
9. VIII. When They Come Back
10. IX. I Felt A Funeral In My Brain
11. X. I've Heard An Organ Talk Sometimes
12. XI. Going To Heaven!
13. XII. The Chariot
Martha Lipton (voice)
Aaron Copland (piano)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York City, NY on December 22, 1950 and April 4, 1952

Old American Songs -Set 1 (1950)
14. The Boatmen's Dance (Minstrel Song, 1843)
15. The Dodger (Campaign Song)
16. Long Time Ago
17. Simple Gifts (Shaker Song)
18. I Bought Me A Cat
Old American Songs -Set 2 (1952)
19. The Little Horses (Lullaby)
20. Zion's Walls (Revivalist Song)
21. The Golden Willow Tree
22. At The River (Hymn Tune)
23. Ching-A-Ring Chaw (Minstrel Song)
William Warfield (voice)
Aaron Copland (piano)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York City, NY on August 16, 1951 (Set 1) and August 18, 1953 (Set 2)

Billy The Kid (1938) arr. for solo piano
24. I. The Open Prairie
25. II. Street In A Frontier Town
26. V. Celebration Dance (After Billy's Capture)
Oscar Levant (piano)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York City, NY on September 1, 1949

HE GOT GAME - MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK: THE MUSIC OF AARON COPLAND

2009-09-11T13:16:00.008-04:00

As the review below mentions, this CD soundtrack for a Spike Lee film acts as sort of Copland’s Greatest Hits and all the selections within are also available in the various composer-conducted collections that you can find in the pages of this blog. However, we do have one “new” item on this CD, and that is the reason for this posting. This disc includes the wonderful “Lincoln Portrait”, for the first time ever (to my knowledge) WITHOUT narration! The text that Copland selected for this stirring piece is essential to its very being… but, it is indeed fascinating to hear the music alone: quite beautiful and majestic. This is an excellent sampler for those who wish to quickly experience the most popular music Copland wrote in his most mainstream Americana manner. Scoredaddy

Director Spike Lee states, "When I listen to Aaron Copland's music, I hear America, and basketball is America." That may be far-fetched for those who saw Lee's film, especially when the only other music in the film was that of Public Enemy. On its own, though, this album is a welcome "greatest hits" collection of Copland's Americana. The CD and the movie start off with John Henry, a slow-building, beguiling melody that works effortlessly with Lee's montage of basketball images. More spirited numbers such as "Hoe-Down" from Rodeo and Fanfare for the Common Man are also featured on the soundtrack. Unlike many Copland compilation CDs, this collection features abridged selections, allowing for more variety of source material: symphonies, soundtracks from movies (Of Mice and Men, Our Town), and ballets. Maybe not the CD for the purist, but a welcome first album for those who were introduced to Copland's music by the film. At over 60 minutes, it's a worthwhile investment. Doug Thomas

1. John Henry (04:00)

Appalachian Spring
2. Very Slowly (02:45)
3. Calm and Flowing (Shaker melody) (03:11)
4. Moderato, Coda (03:24)

5. "Hoe-Down" From Rodeo (03:33)
6. Lincoln Portrait (without narration) (15:06)
7. "Interlude" From Music For The Theatre (05:24)
8. Fanfare For The Common Man (03:16)
9. "Pas De Trois" From Dance Panels (04:05)
10. Letter From Home (07:23)
11. "Grover's Corner" From Our Town (03:13)

Billy The Kid

12. The Open Prairie (03:21)
13. The Open Prairie Again (01:46)

Aaron Copland conducting The London Symphony Orchestra except #7 Leonard Bernstein conducting The New York Philharmonic

Total Duration: 01:00:27

NEEME JARVI & DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: COPLAND/HARRIS THIRD SYMPHONIES

2009-09-07T13:06:00.007-04:00

Arguably the best American symphony coupled with arguably the best-known American symphony makes an ideal pairing on paper. Sad to report, however, I have considerable reservations. Roy Harris‘s Third is one of the most awesomely concentrated of all twentieth-century symphonic structures, but you wouldn‘t guess it from Neeme Jãrvi’s loose-limbed, disconcertingly slack conception. As the opening few minutes quickly reveal, the orchestral playing is neat but cruelly lacks bite and tension. Where’s the sense of tingling expectancy in these measures, the feeling of setting out on some fantastic musical voyage? Whither the bite of fortissimo trombones and horns on their first appearance? And whatever happened to the burgeoning lyricism of the pages that follow? In the central portion (so potently suggestive of the vast horizons of the prairies and their fields of rippling wheat) Jarvi opens out the two small cuts practised by Koussevitzky and Bernstein, but given the disinterested nature of the musicmaking, the restoration of these extra bars is not necessarily a boon. And so it goes on. The tremendous fugue barely gets off the ground, generating none of the volcanic power and implacable momentum so evident in the two Bernstein accounts (CBS, 6/76 and DG, 11/87 — both nla) and Koussevitzky’s fabulous 1939 Boston reading, while Jarvi’s brusquely impatient handling of the tolling peroration merely gives the impression that session-time was running out (and why the sudden, ugly lurch forward in tempo at the beginning of this section?). All in all, the performance is a bitter disappointment, to say the least.

Copland‘s mighty Third fares more happily, but I‘m still far from convinced that Jarvi really has this repertoire well and truly in his bloodstream. For all the agreeable security of the orchestral response, I don‘t register any especial dedication or inspirational sense of occasion about proceedings. Indeed, a certain literalness and “let‘s get on with it“ efficiency tend to scupper large portions of the symphony‘s first half; the searching string dialogue with which the slow movement opens also lacks the last ounce of eloquence (and, at the very start, the necessary icy hush). That said, Jarvi rises capably enough to the big and brazen ‘public‘ gestures of the finale, and the Chandos sound is predictably alluring in its transparent sumptuousness. In the end, though, it all boils down to conviction, the kind of extraordinary commitment to the cause that Bernstein and his New Yorkers display on their electrifying 1985 DG version; the relative dearth of those self-same qualities in Detroit is what ultimately relegates this latest account to the also-rans. AA

Roy Harris: Symphony No. 3 (1939)
1. I. Con moto: quarter note = 84 [Tragic] — - 2:06
2. II. half note = 72-80 [Lyric] — - 1:20
3. III. Poco piu mosso: half note = 94-104 [Pastoral] — - 6:27
4. IV. half note = 112 [Fugue - Dramatic] — - 3:26
5. V. Con moto: whole note = 66-72 [Dramatic - Tragic] - 3:09

Aaron Copland: Symphony No. 3 (1944-46)
6. I. Molto moderato - with simple expression - 9:41
7. II. Allegro molto - 8:00
8. III. Andantino quasi allegretto - 9:30
9. IV. Molto deliberato - 13:26

Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi
Recorded at Orchestra Hall, Detroit, Michigan USA on 1-2 October 1995

LEONARD BERNSTEIN & NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: SYMPHONY NO. 3/QUIET CITY

2009-08-02T09:32:00.003-04:00

Late in his career, Leonard Bernstein returned to the greatest orchestral work by his lifelong friend, Aaron Copland, with a performance that eclipsed all others, including Bernstein's own previous recording of the Symphony no. 3 on Sony. Though Copland's stock still hadn't climbed back to its present height, Bernstein gave the music a grandeur that made you forget how much of a cliché the Fanfare for the Common Man--which was worked into the finale of the Third--can be. In fact, many of the world-stopping qualities Bernstein brought to his second Mahler cycle for Deutsche Grammophon seem much in evidence here, with the New York Philharmonic playing as though its collective life depended on it. David Patrick Stearns

Did they love each other? Did they hate each other? Did they respect each other? Yes, all of the above and apparently all at the same time. Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein were without a doubt the two most popular American composers of serious music in the twentieth century -- Gershwin's music is too much fun to be serious -- and their relationship was long and deep and filled with so many conflicting emotions as to be almost beyond comprehension, much less explication. But one thing is sure: Bernstein's recordings of Copland's music are almost unbearably exciting. His 1986 recording of Copland's Symphony No. 3 with the New York Philharmonic is the most intensely expressive and overwhelmingly emotional performance of the work ever recorded. Bernstein's conducting is ecstatically lyrical, deeply dramatic, profoundly rhetorical, and so massively monumental that the music itself all but disappears. Indeed, Bernstein's Copland's Third might sound to some listeners too much like Bernstein's Third -- a little restraint and a soupçon of dignity might not have been out of place -- but there's no denying the effectiveness of Bernstein's conducting. The New York Philharmonic plays with power, precision, and panache. Deutsche Grammophon's early digital sound is big and loud, but a bit empty. James Leonard

Symphony No. 3 (1944-46)
1. I. Molto moderato (11:01)
2. II. Allegro molto (8:04)
3. III. Andantino quasi allegretto (10:20)
4. IV. Molto deliberato (Fanfare) - Allegro risoluto (13:54)

5. Quiet City (1939) (10:35)

Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic
Recorded December, 1985 at Avery Fisher Hall, New York City

SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY/BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: APPALACHIAN SPRING, EL SALON MEXICO, LINCOLN PORTRAIT

2009-07-30T18:37:00.006-04:00

I "borrowed" this post (and the links to the FLAC files) from my good friend Buster (with permission, of course). These are important, historic recordings made by the first great Copland interpreter, and Buster did a bang-up job remastering the sonics on these vintage records. I highly recommend everyone to check out his superlative and invaluable blog, BIG 10-INCH RECORD http://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/

Here are Buster's comments from his original post:

This post is in response to a request by friend of the blog David Federman. David says he has never heard a version of Copland's Appalachian Spring to rival the first recording, by the Boston Symphony and Serge Koussevitzky. So here is that mid-40s recording for David, and I imagine many others, in a mid-50s transfer on RCA - and a pretty good one, too.This also includes Koussevitzky's 1938 first recording of El Salón México, also sounding well, if enshrouded in reverb.This pressing of Appalachian Spring had a fault toward the end of the side, so I patched in a short section from a much later Victrola pressing, which almost certainly used the same tape transfer for its master.The latter album also included the BSO/Koussevitzky version of A Lincoln Portrait, with narrator Melvyn Douglas, so I have added that to the download as a bonus. Here the sound is a little cloudier and there is more pitch instability, possibly caused by making a new disk master from an old and creaky tape transfer. I am not that fond of Douglas' histrionic approach to Lincoln. Copland's words tell us that Lincoln was "a quiet and a melancholy man," but Douglas seems to disagree. Give me Charlton Heston with Abravanel, a more monumental approach that is well suited to the stylized (and much criticized) narrative and to Copland's music.By the way, I keep wanting to spell the conductor's name with an "s" before the "k" instead of a "z," and I think I did so in the download. It's not wrong, being a transliteration, but the z-version is the more usual spelling. Buster

1. Appalachian Spring (ballet suite) 24:23

2. El Salón México 10:57

3. Lincoln Portrait (narration by Melvyn Douglas) 13:43

Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky

81ST BIRTHDAY CONCERT: JAN DEGAETANI (MEZZO) & LEO SMIT (PIANO)

2009-06-29T09:50:00.005-04:00

The Library of Congress organised a concert to celebrate Copland’s 81st birthday in November 1981. Jan DeGaetani (1933-1990) was a staunch supporter and proponent of the contemporary repertoire and especially that of her native country – many American composers had cause to be grateful to her for her idiomatic and expressive performances. Leo Smit had worked closely with her, as well as pursuing his own polymathic interests. He was also a notable exponent of Copland’s piano music.

The recital ranged widely; piano works early (Three Moods, 1920-21) and late (Night Thoughts, 1972) and the mid period Dickinson settings, the centrepiece of the recital. To garnish the occasion still further there are some of the Old American Songs, principally the Second Set of 1952, with such old favourites emerging newly minted as Simple Gifts and At the River.

DeGaetani’s rich mezzo, well equalized throughout the scale, brings "true simplicity" to the Old American Songs, subtle in At the River (its "wrong note" pianism banishing complacency) and moving in Simple Gifts, with Smit providing the most adroitly effective of support in the rhythmically displaced piano accompaniment. He is equally convincing in the early Three Moods, originally given a French title, and according to the notes only receiving a first performance in 1981 a few months before this concert, with a dedication to Smit – though I’ve read elsewhere that Copland himself premiered them in concert at the time of their composition. The first is dissonant and fractious, the second a little glinting Debussyian affair, and the third a syncopated number with a show tune embedded in it. By way of immediate contrast Night Thoughts was composed for the 1972 Van Cliburn Piano Competition. With its widely spaced chords and slow, meditative sense of overlapping it makes an intriguing foil for the more youthfully combustible composer.

The Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, Copland’s first major vocal work, date from 1949-50. They cover a wide variety of moods and feelings, impressions and sensibilities and Copland’s settings are ones of amplification and extension of the text whilst remaining true to the very personal idiom of the poems. Thus in the first setting, Nature the gentlest mother he hints in the piano part at the pastoral, whereas the succeeding There came a wind like bugle the bell tolling and violence of the setting mirror the text’s violent unease – with DeGaetani’s downward extension on the final words exposing their dramatic finality. In The World feels dusty Copland provides a simple rocking accompaniment, a cradle song of anticipated death - elsewhere in the cycle evoking the loss and bewilderment explicit in the settings with a kind of trenchant simplicity. Sleep is supposed to be erupts with real violence, emphasized by the coldness of the acoustic, and in I felt a funeral in my brain whilst DeGaetani starts rather backward in the balance, the funereal tread in the piano leads on to wandering tonalities in the vocal line, well conveyed here, and an increasing sense of fracture and collapse. Copland’s piano accompaniments hint, suggest, elide, now spare, now furious, all the while managing to convey the myriad suggestible implications to be gleaned from the texts.

There is a charming talk, self-deprecatory and amusing, between Copland, Smit and Donald Leavitt of The Library of Congress and a delightful encore, The Little Horses. It was a memorable concert in the Coolidge Auditorium that November in 1981. Jonathan Woolf

From Old American Songs (1950-52)
1 Zion's Walls 2:14
2 At the River 2:48
3 Simple Gifts 1:52
Voice and piano

Three Moods (1920-21)
4 Embittered 1:01
5 Wistful 2:04
6 Jazzy 1:17

Piano solo

7 Night Thoughts (1972) 8:16
Piano solo

8 Conversations With Aaron Copland 3:26
With Leo Smit and Donald L. Leavitt

9 Introduction by Jan Degaetani 1:15

Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson (1949-50)
10 Nature, the Gentlest Mother , 4:18
11 There Came a Wind Like a Bugle 1:36
12 Why Do They Shut Me Out of Heaven? 1:45
13 The World Feels Dusty 1:59
14 Heart, We Will Forget Him 2:15
15 Dear March, Come In! 2:02
16 Sleep Is Suppose to Be 3:04
17 When They Come Back 2:00
18 I Felt a Funeral in My Brain 2:29
19 I've Heard an Organ Talk Sometimes 2:07
20 Going to Heaven! 2:25
21 The Chariot 4:20

22 The Little Horses (from Old American Songs, 1952) 2:33

Jan DeGaetani, mezzo-soprano and Leo Smit, piano
Recorded at the Coolidge Auditorium of The Library of Congress 14th November 1981

MUSIC FOR STAGE & SCREEN: JOHN WILLIAMS/BOSTON POPS ORCHESTRA

2009-06-23T21:47:00.004-04:00

This is a superb album, largely overlooked on its release because it falls squarely into that awkward chasm between "serious" classical music and "light" film music.

John Williams conducts Copland's Red Pony suite like film music--which of course, it is--keeping the rhythms taut and the tempi precise: the "Circus March" swaggers boisterously, the "Happy Ending" skips along exuberantly. Trumpet soloist Tim Morrison makes the most of the reflective Quiet City and reprises his appearance on Born On The Fourth Of July for Williams's concert suite, arguably a better way to experience this elegiac, pastoral and affecting music than the original soundtrack.

The Reivers, from 1969, remains one of Williams's best-loved film scores: a jaunty, nostalgic slice of early Americana presented here as an extended suite with avuncular narration by Burgess Meredith (who narrated the original movie, a little-known adaptation of a William Faulkner novel starring Steve McQueen). It's delightful music, although the spoken text occasionally seems disproportionately long.

The juxtaposition of Copland and Williams on one album allows the listener to experience two complementary facets of American music, impeccably performed by the Boston Pops and vividly recorded at Symphony Hall. Leonard Slatkin's Music For Films album, on RCA, offers an excellent alternative for anyone wanting an all-Copland disc--but the real gems on this album are the two John Williams items. Mark Walker

The Red Pony
1. Morning On The Ranch (04:41)
2. The Gift (04:58)
3. Dream March (02:30)
4. Circus March (01:55)
5. Walk To The Bunkhouse (02:49)
6. Grandfather's Tale (04:47)
7. Happy Ending (03:24)

Born of the Fourth of July
8. Theme (06:21)
9. Cua Viet River, Vietnam 1968 (03:37)
10. Massapequa...the Early Days (04:06)
Tim Morrison trumpet

11. Quiet City - for Strings, Trumpet & English Horn (10:35)
Tim Morrison , trumpet Laurence Thorstenberg, English horn

12. The Reivers (18:43)
text by William Faulkner , narrated by Burgess Meredith

Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by John Williams
Recorded at Symphony Hall, Boston, Massachusetts on February 9-10, 1990 & November 3-5, 1991

RICHARD STOLTZMAN/LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: CLARINET CONCERTO & OTHER PIECES

2009-05-13T09:58:00.005-04:00

Another contribution by our friend Miguel:

Richard Stoltzman and Michael Tilson Thomas made an outstanding team for this recording. Stoltzman's tone is often the object of debate, but in this album, it works wonderfully. The jazz influences in all of these pieces call for a brighter, and (for lack of a better word) looser sound, which Stoltzman can pull off with flair. He does an excellent job of making the opening section of the Copland silky and dream-like.

The bravado and virtuosity in the cadenza are fitting, as is the occasional stretch or pause. It sounds almost improvised, which is what Copland was going for in this very difficult section. The orchestra (directed by Tilson Thomas) is also excellent - sparkling one moment, incisive the next.

The rest of the album is a collection of pieces by other American composers of the 20th century. "Goodbye" is an emotional memorial of Benny Goodman, the Bernstein "Sonata" is an interesting expansion of the work for clarinet and piano. Look out for the opening of "West Side"... it has startled me more than once when I wasn't paying attention! And the "Three Preludes" at the end are, again, an interesting expansion of the work for piano.

I can't say that I've heard a better performance of the Copland, so this album is worth it just for that. But, the other pieces are fun to listen to as well and nicely round out this album. K. Peters

1. Concerto for Clarinet by Aaron Copland 1947-1948
2. Goodbye in Memory of Benny by Gordon Hill Jenkins

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano by Leonard Bernstein 1941-1942
3. Grazioso
4. Andantino; Vivace e leggiero

5. West Side Variants by Leonard Bernstein
6. Promenade "Walking the dog" by George Gershwin
7. Porgy and Bess: Bess, you is my woman now by George Gershwin
8. Short Story by George Gershwin

Three Preludes by George Gershwin
9. Prelude #1: Allegro ben ritmato e deciso
10. Prelude #2: Andante con motoe poco rubato
11. Prelude #3: Allegro ben ritmato e deciso

London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Eric Stern (Michael Tilson Thomas on #1&2)
Richard Stoltzman (clarinet)
Recorded November 18, 1992 and May 8-9, 1993 at Abbey Road Studios, London, UK

EUGENE ORMANDY/PHILADELPHIA ORCH: BILLY THE KID + AARON COPLAND/BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCH: APPALACHIAN SPRING & THE TENDER LAND SUITE

2009-04-21T13:36:00.004-04:00

Appalachian Spring, composed in 1945, is in an uncomplicated idiom, rather like that of much music being written in Iron Curtain countries today (this review is from 1978) : bright simple tunes, diatonic harmonies, clean orchestration. It proved a winner from the start, and skill and inspiration combine to make it one of the most attractive of "nationalist" pieces, and—like, say, the Overture to The Bartered Bride—it should keep its place in the orchestral repertory.

The Tender Land, first given at the New York City Center, in 1954, was Copland's first opera (apart from The Second Hurricane mentioned above). The orchestral suite appeared three years later (a miniature score is obtainable from Boosey and Hawkes). The plot is a Middle-West pastorale. The suite consists of three numbers: the Introduction and Love Duet from Act 3; the Party Music from the second act, leading into the Quintet (Thanksgiving Song: "The Promise of Living") which closes the first act. In orchestral form I find the music very pleasant, but somewhat dull and repetitive —sort of vaguely "atmospheric" in a familiar way. Probably with the story and the singers it makes a more positive impression. A.P.

Ormandy secures wonderful playing from the Philadelphia Orchestra, highlighting the subtleties of tonal contrast. The delicacy of the string pianissimos has one catching the breath, and those hushed passages are sharply set against the brilliant, brittle passages based on jazz rhythms. Characteristically Ormandy is more literal in his reading of jazz rhythms than the composer or Bernstein. Instead of nudging the rhythms he sharpens their edge, and I could not illustrate the difference more clearly than with the cakewalk of triumph which follows the shooting scene in Billy the Kid. With the composer's version I drew a parallel with the Façade parodies or even with Satie. With Ormandy a far closer parallel is with the spiky music of Kurt Weill at his darkest and most bitter. It is apt that with Ormandy the brutality of the shooting sequence is conveyed at the fullest possible force. One really does experience it as a shooting. E.G.

1. Appalachian Spring (1944) 25:20

The Tender Land (orchestral suite from the opera) (1956) 20:40
2. Introduction and Love Music 10:15
3. Party Scene 4:53
4. Finale: The Promise of Living 5:28

Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland
Recorded April 23, 1959

5. Billy The Kid (ballet suite) (1939) 19:50

The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded May 28, 1969

LEONARD SLATKIN/ST. LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: MUSIC FOR FILMS

2009-04-09T08:27:00.004-04:00

There comes a time when you just have to grow up and face the fact that Aaron Copland really was the great American composer of the twentieth century. Everyone knows his music and everyone loves his music. And the more Copland you listen to, the better he gets. Even his film scores have great stuff in them. The big tunes, the populist rhetoric, the brilliant orchestral colors, and the sense of awe and transcendence that are the hallmarks of his best music can be heard in his film music.

In this recording by Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Copland's film music gets the full Technicolor treatment. Their music from The Red Pony has its humor, grandeur, and an aching lyricism. Their suite from Our Town has its stoicism and its romanticism. The suite from The Heiress has its pathos and irony. Their Music for Movies has its bathos and bombast. And their closing #Prairie Journal has its epic scope and occasionally trivial tunes. Slatkin leads with energy and conviction. The St. Louis plays with subtleness and strength. RCA's early-'90s digital sound is warm and rich and full. ~ James Leonard

An unmissable Copland collection. Though the front cover bears the title "Music for Films", the earliest offering here was written in 1936 following a commission from the CBS radio network. Music for Radio (also known as Saga of the Prairies or Prairie Journal) was one of Copland's first conscious efforts to attain a greater simplicity of utterance and stronger melodic appeal, and its clean-cut, out-of-doors demeanour is relished to the full by these performers. Copland wrote eight film scores in all, the first three of which—The City (1939), Of Mice and Men (1939) and Our Town (1940)—formed the basis for his 1943 concert suite, Music for Movies. Slatkin gauges the differing moods of each of the five tableaux with unerring perception and the playing of his St Louis group easily scores over Copland's New Philharmonia (on a three-disc set) in terms of infectious panache and memorable poise.

Perhaps Copland's most enduring achievement in this particular field remains his 1948 score for The Red Pony. Again, the new performance is all one could wish, possessing a homespun delicacy ("The Gift"), infinitely touching affection ("Walk to the Bunkhouse") and poignant nostalgia ("Grandfather's Story") that really capture the imagination. There's real swagger, too, in the joyous "Happy Ending" number (such deliciously pointed trombones at 0'32"!) as well as a truly exhilarating sense of wide-screen spectacle. Indeed, neither rival production can match the present display: the composer's own recording is, in all truth, not untainted by a certain stiffness and the hard-edged recording now sounds uncomfortably dated, whilst Sedares's Phoenix account of the film score is just a touch cautious (and his hardworking strings are rather lacking in body and muscle as recorded).

In addition, Slatkin also gives us the heart-warmingly evocative concert suite Copland compiled from his score for Our Town (more easefully flowing than Copland's occasionally sticky LSO version), as well as a first commercial recording for Arnold Freed's idiomatic 1990 reconstruction of Copland's Academy Award-winning 1948 score for The Heiress, which happily restores the "Prelude" that director William Wyler rejected for the final print. With excitingly full-bodied Powell Hall sonics to match, this compilation is a winner all the way. AA

The Red Pony (1948) 23:15
1. Morning on the Ranch [4:30]
2. Gift [4:46]
3. Dream March [2:25]
4. Circus Music [1:43]
5. Walk to the Bunkhouse [2:37]
6. Grandfather's Story [3:41]
7. Happy Ending [3:01]

8. Our Town (1940) 9:05

9. Heiress Suite (1948) 8:06

Prelude/Catherine's Engagement/Cherry Red Dress/Depart

Music For The Movies (1943)
10. New England Countryside [5:11]
11. Barley Wagons [2:13]
12. Sunday Traffic [2:28]
13. Grovers Corners [2:20]
14. Threshing Machines [3:01]

15. Prairie Journal [Music for Radio] 1936 [11:20]

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin
Recorded November 22, 1991 and April 18, 1992 at Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis, MO USA

EARL WILD: PIANO CONCERTOS BY COPLAND & MENOTTI

2009-04-07T11:47:00.003-04:00

Here is another contribution by Miguel. Thanks!

I bought the original Vanguard MONO LP of these concertos in my teens, mainly for the Menotti. I had seen a local production of The Medium which spurred me to the Cleveland Public Library, where I checked out the score and the recording with Marie Powers. At that point, I really had little idea of Menotti's place in the musical world, or even that he was thought of as an opera specialist. After all, hadn't he written this concerto? I quickly found out that people who knew something about music looked down on him, but that didn't stop me from liking – a lot – what I heard.

It turns out that for most of his life, Menotti longed for a critical success like those enjoyed by his friend Samuel Barber, while Barber yearned for a popular success like Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors. Menotti probably came closest to what he wanted with his violin concerto (1952). Still, I've always liked the 1945 piano concerto even more. Formally, it's a bit of a mess, like a rumpled but favorite uncle, but it doesn't seem to matter – at least not to me. In its spirit and its contrasts, as well as in the general shape of some of its themes, it recalls very strongly Ravel's G-major concerto. It's just not as elegant or as brilliant a composition. Few other pieces (by anybody) are. What it does have are tunes, tunes, tunes – memorable tunes, tunes that ravish the ear, tunes that make you feel great, tunes that you find yourself humming for days, months, and years afterwards. The concerto proceeds in a straightforward way, with quick sections framing and balancing lyrical ones. The first movement explodes into a fugato with exuberant Scarlatti-like runs in the piano. A song-like section follows, and we end up with a recap. The slow movement is nine minutes of gorgeous, melancholy song. The finale – which I would call a rondo in a more solidly-constructed work than this – builds up to a bring-'em-to-their-feet ending. Menotti may not be Brahms, but he might very well be Grieg, and that's not nothing.

Of course, the Copland takes a much thornier approach, although it's not without considerable humor. However, where Menotti gives you the impression of just singing the song that lives within him, Copland consciously tries to carve out his own niche in Modernism. An early work (1926) written under the influence of both Stravinsky and Gershwin (the Concerto in F appeared in 1925), it shows a young man's desire to be taken seriously. I don't know how the first audiences took it, but it thrilled me from its opening bars. Like the Gershwin concerto, it shouts "New York!" from its first measures, with thrusting upward leaps followed by soaring cantabile. This is not the folky Copland of the "American" ballets, but you recognize the composer nevertheless. Jazz was still in the air, and Copland at this stage explored it as a way of writing characteristically American music. He gave it up shortly thereafter. Copland divides the concerto into two related parts, played without break, and writes extremely tersely. Each note says a lot. There's also a funny, jazz-vamp section, initiated by solo piano, with a melody that foreshadows the 1944 Jule Styne song, "Poor Little Rhode Island." It stands out so that you wonder whether Styne had ever heard the Copland. The soloist often gets to lurch into his part, as if drunk, dull-witted, or simply not very good, but it's all written in and indeed constitutes part of the rhythmic challenge of the concerto.

One associates Earl Wild with Liszt and Rachmaninoff, rather than with modern music (other than Gershwin), but he turns in a marvelous performance of both concerti. The Menotti fizzes and sings with a light touch, and Jorge Mester matches Wild with an accompaniment that sparkles. My only reservation is Copland and the Symphony of the Air. Copland can't keep the cross-rhythms in his own concerto quite together, and the orchestra sounds in spots like they're holding on. I did prefer Bernstein's recording with Copland as soloist (Sony 60177 or 2-CD set Sony 47232; the latter has a bunch of early Copland, 1923-1935) – broader, fuller-sounding, and rhythmically more compelling.

The Vanguard sound as presented on the CD improves on my LP enormously. In fact, the tinny, puny scratch from my record player led me to seek out the Copland/Bernstein in the first place. The CD incarnation is both rich and clear as a bell. Steve Schwartz.

Of special interest is the participation of Aaron Copland as conductor of his own concerto. Together with Earl Wild and the fine Symphony of the Air (formerly Toscanini's NBC Symphony), the composer has left us with a definitive recording of the work. A disc no collector will pass up, the disc-mate is the otherwise unavailable piano concerto of Gian Carlo Menotti, one of the composer's most beautiful and haunting works. Menotti: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in F (Mester conducting). Earl Wild, piano; The Symphony Of The Air.. Menotti's concerto received a brilliant recording in 1961 on the Vanguard label... It has just been reissued and remastered with startling sound quality. "Copland has recorded his Piano Concerto at least twice, once for CBS as soloist (with Leonard Bernstein conducting), and here for Vanguard in the role of conductor. In the absence from the catalogue of the CBS version - in which the composer is freer and more persuasive in the passages influenced by jazz -- this one with Earl Wild, a powerful soloist is very recommendable, and the recording is first-rate, hardly showing its age." Penguin Record Guide

Copland: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1926)
1. Part One 6:20
2. Part Two 9:20
Earl Wild, piano
Symphony of the Air conducted by Aaron Copland

Menotti: Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra (1945)

3. Allegro 13:44
4. Lento 9:17
5. Allegro 10:20
Earl Wild, piano
Symphony of the Air conducted by Jorge Mester

Recorded in 1961

LEONARD BERNSTEIN - THE EARLY YEARS

2009-04-04T07:57:00.006-04:00

I have been trying to resolve the issue of how to present recordings of Copland's work on discs in which his music is combined with that of other composers. Till now, I have avoided this by not posting such CD's.

Contemplated was ripping/posting only those selections composed by Copland: in the interest of completeness and to preserve the integrity of these discs, I have opted against this. Instead, I have decided to proceed and disregard the percieved problem, ignoring the fact that this "Copland" blog will sometimes present music that is "related" to Copland's, but not actually his.

By the way, this post was provided by my friend Miguel (thank you Miguel!), who is a visitor to this blog and has generously decided to contribute this excellent CD (and there are more to come!). You can find his original links in the comments section. Scoredaddy

RCA's welcome release of late-40's monaural recordings entitled "Leonard Bernstein: The Early Years" offers proof, if such were needed, that the great American conductor had the knack way back then. It also recalls his difficulty in deciding which of his talents to pursue.

As it happens, his performance of Copland's Piano Sonata is the most impressive of the four, masterfully embracing the craggy declamation of the outer movements and the jazz influence of the middle one.

Bernstein's New York Philharmonic stereo recordings of "Billy the Kid" and dances from "On the Town" on CBS remain preferable overall, but the conductor's admirers will want these striking efforts and the modest piano pieces "Seven Anniversaries" for their documentary value. RCA's 78-r.p.m. transfers are vivid and the surfaces quiet. SEDGWICK CLARK

These early Bernstein recordings are true treasures. In terms of time, the relatively short elapsed interval (sixty years or four generations) is nothing compared with the fruits of time. But they are essential documents that reveal an astonishing talent playing and conducting the score of one of the most heavy-weigh champions in the American musical landscape.

The figure of the internationally acclaimed director Leonard Bernstein will be inseparable of Aaron Copland. A close friend, and a successful conjunction of affinities, made possible that every time you listen Bernstein playing Copland you can identify rapidly without blinking. It is not a simple matter of orchestral technique; it goes far beyond. It' s a special taste an interwoven texture, an immediate rapport that it' s hard to visualize with a glimpse and even an intense analysis of his works.

Bernstein had that humor sense, that gentle rapture, stable smell, that melancholic vision of the Wild West, as the main inspiration source of a true American Mythology. So more than just conduct Bernstein describes us visually those far landscapes, the sordid gunfighters. Then listen carefully, his West pictures at exhibition in Billy the Kid, for instance and compare by yourself with any other performance. The RCA certainly lacked of the brightness of the New York Philharmonic, and nevertheless it's a vivifying and electrifying portrait.

Copland's Piano Sonata has always been neglected by most of pianists in the world. It' s underrated . I love this Sonata since I listened for the first time in the 70's. The unforgettable William Kapell was also an affectionate friend of Copland and played it.

Leonard Bernstein was also a promissory pianist and you may be kindly surprised with this notable and alluring performance, recorded January 22, 1947 when Bernstein was still in his late twenties (29). The second half of the album we have Bernstein playing his own music. The flame of the genius could be watched in these superb and invaluable recordings. Go and try to get as soon as possible for this album. More than a simple recording, it' s a national treasure. The transfer to tape was simply glorious. Hiram Gomez Pardo

Copland: Billy The Kid-Ballet Suite (1938)
1. Prelude: The Open Prairie
2. Street In A Frontier Town
3. Waltz
4. Card Game
5. The Fight
6. Celebration Dance
7. Epilogue

Leonard Bernstein/RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
Recorded June 12 & 23, 1949

Copland: Piano Sonata (1939-41)
8. Molto Moderato; Piu Largamente -
9. Vivace
10. Andante Sostenuto
Leonard Bernstein, piano
Recorded January 22, 1947

Bernstein: Seven Anniversaries (1943)
11. For Aaron Copland
12. For My Sister, Shirley
13. In Memoriam: Alfred Eisner
14. For Paul Bowles
15. In Memoriam: Nathalie Koussevitzky
16. For Serge Koussevitzky
17. For Willam Schuman
Leonard Bernstein, piano
Recorded September 17, 1947

Bernstein: On The Town-Dances (1944)
18. Pas De Deux: Lonely Town
19. Act I Finale: Times Square
20. The Subway
21. Gabey, The Great Lover
22. Pas De Deux: Ivy & Gabey
Leonard Bernstein conducting the 'On The Town' Orchestra
Recorded February 3, 1945

THE CITY - DOCUMENTARY WITH MUSIC BY AARON COPLAND (1939/DVD-9, Uncompressed)

2009-03-30T11:08:00.005-04:00

A very substantial addition to the Aaron Copland discography, this was Copland's first film score and it led to his notable additional career at Hollywood.

It receives here the first modern recording of the music, which the composer surprisingly had not arranged as a concert suite.

The City was an unique documentary film by Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke created for the 1939 New York World's Fair, its theme the contrast in living conditions and possibilities between a grim milltown and frantic city with the possibilities of a better life in a planned "new town", Greenbelt, Maryland. The score is unusual in its continuity and ironic commentary on the visual message, at its height in the city scenes, most especially commenting on rush hour traffic and hectic lunch breaks, the idyllic life near nature at Greenbelt counterpointed with beautiful music, maybe a little less arresting. But the music as rediscovered here would certainly justify a place in an orchestral concert programme.

This DVD is very much a labour of love and its "extras" are best seen first. The original film with Lewis Mumford's didactic commentary narrated by Morris Carnovsky and the music conducted by Max Goberman has a period quality, with the sound track of its time fully equal to putting across its uncommon quality within the genre; we found it riveting.

Next, see a short film made for the Greenbelt Museum, 2000, in which older residents (some of them had featured as children in The City) extol the virtues of this "garden town" which continues to be a desirable place to live and bring up families. Lastly there is a conversation with Joseph Horowitz which contextualises this ground breaking film of the thirties.

The new version has sharper, better contrasted visual images and a vivid modern stereo presentation of the score, an important example of Copland's more "popular" music reflecting his desire to reach an enlarged "new audience" in the thirties and forties. Conductor Angel Gil-Ordonez and new narrator Francis Guinan contribute to its success, the latter recorded deliberately "no louder than required for the words to be understood", thereby taking nothing from the force of the music. Peter Grahame Woolf

In the Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed called Aaron Copland’s score to The City “an astonishing missing link not only in the genesis of Copland’s Americana style, but in American music and cinema.” On January 27, Naxos releases The City (Naxos 2110231) with a newly-recorded soundtrack of the complete Copland score, featuring the Washington, D.C.-based Post-Classical Ensemble and conductor Angel Gil Ordóñez. Francis Guinan, a founding member of the renowned, Chicago-based Steppenwolf Theater Ensemble, narrates. This DVD is a sequel to The River and The Plow that Broke the Plains (Naxos 2110521), two classic Pare Lorentz documentaries that strongly influenced The City. The new DVD marks the first time Copland’s score has been recorded in its entirety.The DVD is produced by the Post-Classical Ensemble’s Artistic Director, Joseph Horowitz, author of Classical Music in America: A History and the recently-released Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts. Horowitz considers Copland’s little-known score (which was never condensed as a concert suite) his “highest achievement” as a film composer. Horowitz also notes: “At a time when the recession and a crisis in housing have focused attention on the New Deal, The City is suddently remarkably timely. The greenbelt towns it espouses were a quintessential New Deal experiment, federally planned and subsidized by Rexford Tugwell’s Resettlement Administration.”

About the film

Made for the 1939 World’s Fair (”The World of Tomorrow”), The City is a classic documentary film distinguished for its organic integration of narration (scripted by Lewis Mumford), cinematography (by Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke), and music (by Copland). The resulting tapestry is astonishing for its vibrance and originality. Because filming outdoors with sound was so difficult and expensive, the story is told without dialogue, relying solely on its imagery, narration, and music. It is the absence of dialogue that makes it possible to create a new soundtrack - and for the first time do justice to the symphonic detail and depth of Copland’s score.

Depicting in sequence a New England village, a milltown, a “city,” and a “new town,” The City illustrates how the frantic pace of city and milltown living destroyed the quality of life formerly found in rural America-but which could be recaptured in “planned communities of modest size.” In the opening sequence, Mumford (an early critic of “urban sprawl,” whose seminal 1961 book, The City in History, explored the development of urban civilization) has the narrator rhapsodize: “The town was us, and we were part of it.” The culminating “new town” sequence was filmed in Greenbelt, Maryland, site of the first federal experiment using Mumford’s model of a small, planned community that provided Americans with jobs they could walk to, along with social services, schools, and shops-in short, a self-sustaining community. This historic city exists today and appears in the bonus film Which Playground for Your Child: Greenbelt or Gutter?, which features its original inhabitants (including those in The City), as well its next generation of residents.

Aaron Copland as Film Composer

Aaron Copland’s desire to broaden his audience in the 1930s and ‘40s attracted him to film; The City was his first soundtrack. His works were the antitheses of the lush, Romantic scores by his Hollywood contemporaries Erich Korngold and Max Steiner, leading famed composer, conductor, and pianist André Previn to comment that “what Copland represented in Hollywood was ‘fewer notes.’ ” Copland followed the example of Virgil Thomson, who, in The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936) and The River (1937), created a new style of film music Copland considered “fresher, more simple, and more personal” than most Hollywood movie music-”a lesson in how to treat Americana.”

The City’s structure permitted Copland to explore a gamut of iconic American locales. Sounds such as sirens, a taped emergency call, and typewriters become part of the musical score, evoking Varèse’s Amériques and Ionisation.

The City was Copland’s ticket to Hollywood, where he later composed the soundtracks to Of Mice and Men (1939), Our Town (1940), The North Star (1943), The Red Pony (1948), and The Heiress (1949), among others. He won an Academy Award for The Heiress, but director William Wyler’s insistence on bringing in another composer to soften his score soured him on working in Hollywood.

DVD Extras:

The City with the original soundtrack (43:40)
Featuring Morris Carnovsky (narrator) and an orchestra conducted by Max Goberman.

Which Playground for Your Child: Greenbelt or Gutter? (15:09)
A film produced in 2000 by Video Art Productions for the Greenbelt Museum. These interviews with three “pioneers” who lived in Greenbelt, Maryland, beginning in 1937 and 1938, include the reminiscences of Bob Sommers, who recalls the filming of The City and is the boy with the flat tire in the film.

George Stoney in Conversation with Joseph Horowitz (29:15)
This conversation with the legendary documentary filmmaker, who is also a historian of the genre (and, at age 91, an eyewitness to the New Deal and the 1939 World’s Fair), begins with a discussion of why 1930s documentaries such as The City eschewed dialogue-and the artistic consequences.

The DVD is produced with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund, and the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at Maryland and is distributed in the United States by Naxos of America.

Recorded at Dekelboum Concert Hall, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, 15 October 2007

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Audio format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 132 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

THE COPLAND COLLECTION: EARLY ORCHESTRAL WORKS (1922-1935) Upgrade to FLAC

2009-03-27T12:01:00.004-04:00

This is an excellent collection of Aaron Copland’s early orchestral works, written when the composer was in his twenties and mid-thirties. These pieces have not achieved the notoriety of Mr. Copland’s later “populist” compositions and contain more modernist devices. Some of these feature jazz elements (such as the Piano Concerto, Music for the Theater and the Dance Symphony, which was drawn from materials composed for the “Grogh” ballet). Despite the complexity of these selections, the music is both exhilarating and interesting, albeit challenging. Repeat listenings are required if one wishes to fully appreciate these compositions.

Of the eight works, three are conducted by Leonard Bernstein, who is often considered the definitive interpreter of Copland’s music. The rest are under the direction of the composer himself. Below find various reviews of the original issues culled from the archives at Gramophone Magazine. Scoredaddy

At some time in the 1920s, after returning from Europe and his studies with Nadia Boulanger, Copland seems to have discovered in himself an excessive dependence on European models, and to have made a conscious decision to 'Americanize' his music. One can almost hear him making that decision—with a snap of the fingers and a cry of 'Eureka!'—half-way through the finale of the Dance Symphony that he wrote when he and the twentieth century were 25 years old. After a portentous slow introduction, a brisk and rhythmically alert allegro and a sort of sarabande with bonily lyrical woodwind solos (all these sounding post-Roussel, if anything, and not in the least transatlantic), he finds the logical conclusion of a drivingly energetic presto in a passage of jazz-derived syncopation. The slithery mockromantic waltz and the brashly noisy coda that follow sound like gestures of exuberance from a man who has found a voice and knows what he can say with it. The Short Symphony of eight years later is recognizably Copland in every bar: two lithely athletic toccatas, the first of them incorporating music of earnest endeavour by way of contrast, are placed on either side of an andante full of his characteristic sense of open spaces beneath broad skies—it is almost a sketch for the "Corral Nocturne" in his ballet Rodeo, still at this date nine years in the future. That it is an 'early' work is . occasionally betrayed by a tendency to the raucous, on the one hand, and by a few pages of over-blown rhetoric on the other. It could also be objected that neither work, sternly considered, is truly a symphony: both could be more accurately described by the title of a later Copland work, Dance Panels. But both have ample vigour and freshness to make such a reservation seem irrelevant. It is good to welcome them back to the catalogue. Performances and recordings alike are crisp., clean and efficient. M.E.O.

The Two Pieces for String Orchestra date from the twenties. Both originally written for string quartet, the first piece dates from 1928, the Rondino from Copland's Paris period five years earlier with the name Gabriel Faure providing the main theme for a chattering neo-classic piece that suggests Hindemith rather than any French composer. E.G.

Statements is not quite such a clear case: there are six of them (militant, cryptic, dogmatic, subjective, jingo, and prophetic respectively), and six orchestral movements to expound them. But the statement of a single mood lends itself less well than that of two or more contrasted or interwoven moods to large-scale music (this was why sonata form was invented); and in these pieces Copland's ends and means do not seem altogether well-matched. M.M.

Symphonic Ode, which as Copland says himself, is in essence a one movement symphony: It was written for the same fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which inspired among other works Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, and was revised 25 years later for the same orchestra's seventy-fifth anniversary. The later version reduces the extravagance of the earlier scoring, and transposes the outer sections a tone lower to make the brass parts more convenient to play.

The bare harmonies and wide intervals in the opening section at once link this music with Copland’s Orchestral Variations, a degree more severe in style than one expects with Copland, but the purpose is more obviously rhetorical, and when the music subsides to mezzo-piano there is a hint of the more approachable Copland of Quiet City and the like. Not that any of this music is unapproachable, and the scherzo section with its quaver triplets and duplets in irregular patterns has (as Copland is the first to admit) its association with jazz. The slow section keeps the manner rugged, and I am reminded of another one-movement symphony from America, Roy Harris's Third. If only the Symphonic Ode had been called a symphony, it might have been better known. Both the Harris and the Copland works in fact betray clear influence from Sibelius's Seventh. E.G.

The Copland exploration — often a rewarding one—extends now back to the earlier days of the 1920s. In 1925 Music for the Theatre made friends and enemies, in 1927 the Piano Concerto. Both friends and enemies seized on the jazz inflections shared by both works : these made the concerto "music of impressive austerity, of true character" on the one hand, and the product of "a jazz dance hall next door to a poultry yard" on the other. Perhaps indeed it is both at once: the jazz inflections have not, history has since decided, become part of standard symphonic language, and they do seem now a period excrescence on what could otherwise he heard as a serious, if not exactly as a solemn work. There are some lyrical passages of great beauty (the soloist's first entry, for example) ; but these passages do tend to be interrupted by jazzy excursions seemingly intruding not so much from a different work as from a different world: one from which we are remoter now than we were then. The Music for the Theatre, too: this is smallerscale music, yet also has many very happy lyrical passages indeed, along with those borrowed from the other side of the fence.

Both works have at times been rated the pinnacles of symphonic jazz. This is a view I cannot quite share; but listeners who do hold that view, or who do wish to give it a chance, will find that this record expounds the music as convincingly as could ever be hoped. It is well recorded, in both mono and stereo, and the pieces are played in excellent style, whether in their symphonic strength or in the ease and fluency with which the orchestral soloists concerned (especially the clarinet) play those passages stemming most clearly from the dance hall. Copland obviously plays his own piano part definitively (and very well), and it seems reasonable to suppose that his special authority was also available for making the Music for the Theatre as well into something like a definitive version. Copland collectors must obviously not miss this record. M.M.

Disc: 1
Dance Symphony (1922-1925)
1. I. Introduction: Lento; Molto allegro; Adagio molto 7:02
2. II. Andante moderato 6:03
3. III. Allegro vivo 4:56
London Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Aaron Copland
Recorded at Walthamstow Town Hall, London UK on October 2&3, 1967

Two Pieces For String Orchestra (1923, 1928)
4. Lento molto 5:42
5. Rondino 4:23
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland
Recorded at Walthamstow Town Hall, London UK on November 6, 1965

Symphony For Organ & Orchestra (1924)
6.: I. Prelude: Andante 6/8 5:54
7. II. Scherzo: Allegro molto 3/4; Moderato 4- 7:30
8. III. Finale: Lento; Allegro moderato 4/4 11:00
New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein
E. Power Biggs, organ
Recorded at Philharmonic Hall (Avery Fisher Hall), New York City, NY USA on January 3, 1967

Music For The Theatre (1925)
9.: I. Prologue 5:46
10. II. Dance 3:13
11. III. Interlude 5:19
12. IV. Burlesque 3:13
13. V. Epilogue 3:51
New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein
Recorded at the St. George Hotel, Brooklyn, New York USA on December 15, 1958

Disc: 2
Concerto For Piano & Orchestra (1926)
1. I. Andante sostenuto 6:50
2. II. Molto moderato (molto rubato) 9:18
New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein
Aaron Copland, piano
Recorded at Philharmonic Hall (Avery Fisher Hall), New York City, NY USA on January 13, 1964

Symphonic Ode (1927-1929)
3. Symphonic Ode 19:47
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland
Recorded at Walthamstow Town Hall, London UK on October 2&3, 1967

Short Symphony (Symphony No. 2) (1931-1933)
4. Short Symphony (Symphony No. 2) 15:30

Statements (1934-1935)
5 I. Militant 2:44
6. II. Cryptic 3:21
7. III. Dogmatic 1:47
8. IV. Subjective 3:31
9. V. Jingo 2:33
10. VI. Prophetic 3:34
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland
Recorded at Walthamstow Town Hall, London UK on November 5, 1965

CLARINET CONCERTO/PIANO QUARTET: BENNY GOODMAN, NEW YORK QUARTET

2009-03-26T09:44:00.006-04:00

This is not my rip. It appears on these pages courtesy of my good friend, Buster, host of one of my favorite spots in blogosphere, BIG 10-INCH RECORD, where this rip was originally posted (the text below also comes from Buster's original posting of this title.) I highly recommend visiting his wonderful and unusual collection. Scoredaddy

Benny Goodman commissioned Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto in 1948, and although Goodman's stereo recording is well known, this earlier edition, from 1950, is not.

Columbia took Goodman and Copland to its 30th Street studio in New York for the November 1950 session. Benny sounds cautious but does no serious harm to this gorgeous composition.

A few months later, the illustrious New York Quartet went to the same studio to tape a thornier composition, Copland's Piano Quartet, for the Clarinet Concerto's coupling. These days, works in Copland's populist style are generally packaged together. Not so back then.

The New York Quartet had presented the first performance of the Piano Quartet a few months before this recording, which must have been all that Copland could have wished for. The quartet's members were Mieczyslaw Horszowski, piano, Alexander Schneider, violin, Milton Katims, viola, and Frank Miller, cello.

Perhaps Columbia sensed that they were creating historic recordings, because the sound is better than much of the sludge that came out of its 30th Street site. And these are historic recordings indeed. It's curious that they are not better known. Buster

1. Clarinet Concerto (1948) 17:33
The Columbia String Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland
Benny Goodman, clarinet

Piano Quartet (1950)
2. I. Adagio serioso 6:26
3. II. Allegro giusto; III. Non troppo lento 14:11

New York Quartet: Mieczyslaw Horszowski, piano, Alexander Schneider, violin, Milton Katims, viola, and Frank Miller, cello.

HUGH WOLF & ST. PAUL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA: COPLAND ORCHESTRAL WORKS

2009-03-19T10:29:00.009-04:00

This CD was provided to us via the kindness and friendship of Horacio. Please check out his essential blog, LA DISCOTECA CLASICA, featuring the finest collection of lesser-known, "neglected" composers you will ever find. It is a magical place to discover great music you may not even know existed. It is my FAVORITE place on the web and I visit it EVERY day. Thank you Horacio! Scoredaddy

Hugh Wolff's reputation precedes him. On this evidence, I can't say I am surprised. His Appalachian Spring, pristine in its original version for 13 instruments, is exceptionally good—keen, personable, honest. This is surely the best way (indeed I am beginning to think the only way) to hear Copland's most durable score—pared down to the barest essentials, pure and simple, unadorned. The intimacy of the sound alone lends the proceedings a more personal, homespun quality. Solo voices stand out in rustic relief, when the first allegro (marked vigoroso) bursts upon the scene, the gutsy immediacy of solo strings (a mere nonet) and dancing piano pays enormous dividends, especially in the hands of players as accomplished as these. So too the burgeoning of Simple Gifts, tentatively, mysteriously from a single sustained B in the bassoon (track 19). And of course there are the eight or so minutes of extra music (extra to the Suite, that is) reflecting the hopes and fears of the early settlers—again tensely chronicled here by the St Paul players. It's a lovely performance, lucidly recorded: as the solo flute brings blissful reassurance on the final page of all, the flowering of one last arpeggio from deep in the string bass is the kind of sound you can reach out and touch.

I should like to have 'heard' more of the breathless nocturnal atmosphere of Quiet City: the lower dynamics here (especially in the backwash of strings) are nowhere near quiet enough, the moodiness never quite takes hold, for all that Wolff has two wonderfully expressive voices in Gary Bordner (trumpet) and Thomas Tempel (cor anglais) to while away the small hours. I've no misgivings about the Latin American Sketches, though: the "Estribillo" strikes just the right attitudes, "Paisaje mexicana" is cool and sexy, and the familiar "Danza de Jalisco" with its clicking heels and hand-claps is, to use Copland's word, "bouncy". And there's plenty more where that came from in the piquant 'latino' jazz of the Music for the Theatre Prologue. Again style and detail couldn't be snappier: be it the roaring 1920s charleston-ja77 of the foot-tapping "Dance" with its 'blue' trumpet and clarinet breaks or the bumps and grinds of the "Burlesque" floorshow. Roy Harris called this "whorehouse music"—a description I rather like. Best of all, though, is the limpid blues ("Interlude") where every solo line emerges as if from a trance and those fragile piano interjections sound properly disembodied. Happily, this marks the start of a Teldec contract for Wolff—clearly good news. E.S.

Music For The Theatre (1925)
1. Prolouge
2. Dance
3. Interlude
4. Burlesque
5. Epilogue

Three Latin American Sketches (1959, 1971)
6. Estribillo
7. Paisaje Mexicano
8. Danza de Jalisco

9. Quiet City (1940)

Appalachian Spring (1945)
10. Very slowly
11. Allegro, vigoroso
12. Moderato
13. Much slower, poco rubato
14. Fast
15. Malto moderato
16. Allegro
17. Presto
18. Meno mosso
19. As at first (Slowly)
20. Thema and variations ('The Gift to be Simple')
21. Rather Slow
22. Very deliberate
23. Poco piu mosso (Twice as Fast)
24. Molto allegro ed agitato
25. Broadly
26. Moderato
27. Andante

Recorded at Ordway Music Theater, Saint Paul, Minnesota USA in September, 1990

LEONARD SLATKIN & ST. LOUIS SYMPHONY: BILLY THE KID /RODEO (COMPLETE BALLETS)

2009-03-17T13:12:00.009-04:00

This brilliant new issue—Leonard Slatkin's first St Louis recording for EMI—is particularly valuable for bringing us, not just the ballet Suite from Billy the Kid, which has been recorded many times, but the complete ballet. [Some sleeves state that this is the first complete Billy the Kid, which is incorrect, it is however the first complete Rodeo featuring some seven or eight minutes of extra music and including the piano interlude in "Saturday night waltz" which has seldom previously been heard—EMI are correcting this on subsequent reprinting—Ed.) Billy receives roughly ten minutes more of music, much of it illustrative in Copland's colourful and distinctive way but also including two complete numbers. One is a quick waltz based on the Old Smokey theme used a moment previously in the passage following the Mexican Dance. The other is much more substantial, a slow romantic waltz based on the Mexican Dance theme, which represents Billy finding refuge with his Mexican sweetheart. When the total time of the ballet at about 32 minutes makes a good concert length (and here a generous LP side-length), I hope we shall hear this full version more often now.

With this performance Slatkin confirms the impressions one had from his RCA recordings and from last year's European tour by the St Louis Orchestra, that it is a refined as well as a brilliant band. As recorded in the Powell Hall, St Louis, the sound at first gives the impression of being on the dry side, but in fact it has plenty of bloom along with clean directional effects. It gains substantially over both Bernstein's (CBS 60114,5/82) and the composer's own couplings of Billy the Kid suite and Rodeo (CBS 72888, 2/71), when the definition of the digital recording and its range bring out much of the detail in Copland's colourful orchestration. Unlike them it avoids any aggressiveness but conveys plenty of bite as in the spectacular and highly atmospheric account of the gunbattle in Billy the Kid. Some of the woodwind solos are not quite so distinguished as those from the LSO principals on Copland's version but the result is every bit as authentic. E.G.

Leonard Slatkin, who has done such outstanding service for American music, upholds the Copland tradition with potent, sympathetically argued accounts of the big ballets. The performances by the Saint Louis Symphony could hardly be bettered, and the recordings stand out for their solid sound as well. Slatkin does both Billy the Kid and Rodeo in full, restoring some delightful music in both scores that is missed when only the suites are presented. In Rodeo, for example, it comes as a delicious surprise to hear the Saloon-piano interlude before the "Saturday Night Waltz"--and Slatkin insists on an out-of-tune upright--just the right touch. These are idiomatic, persuasive accounts, thrilling in their buildups and potent in their climaxes. Even Appalachian Spring is done in full, though in its version for full orchestra. The treatment here is gentle, and while Slatkin generates less voltage than Bernstein, his reading has nobility and an engaging warmth. The recordings were made at a rather low level, but have a wonderful ambience and extraordinary dynamic range. Unfortunately, the individual scenes of Billy the Kid are not separately banded. Ted Libbey

1 Billy The Kid (Complete Ballet) 1938 (32:26)

Rodeo (Complete Ballet) 1942 (22:52)
2 Buckaroo Holiday (7:07)
3 Corral Nocturne (3:34)
4 Piano Interlude & Saturday Night Waltz (7:57)
5 Hoe-Down (4:14)

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; Conductor - Leonard Slatkin
Recorded October 8 & 9, 1985, in Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis, Missouri

GERARD SCHWARZ & DAVID SHIFRIN - CLARINET CONCERTO, MUSIC FOR THE THEATER, QUIET CITY, & DANCE PANELS (Upgrade to FLAC)

2009-03-15T14:28:00.004-04:00

Here is a very well played collection of Copland pieces composed in his more tonal and consonant style. Gerard Schwarz has proven himself a very capable Copland interpreter over the years and Schifrin's clarinet is more than up to the challenging Concerto for Clarinet & String Orchestra, which was commissioned in 1947 by jazz star Benny Goodman. Copland incorporated many jazz elements into his concerto, who once told Phillip Ramey that his decision to use jazz materials was "inspired by Goodman's playing" but that, "contrary to certain commentators, the jazz elements in the Clarinet Concerto have nothing to do with the 'hot jazz' improvisation for which Benny Goodman and his sextet were noted". The piece is written in a very unusual form. The two movements are played back-to-back, linked by a clarinet cadenza. The first movement is written in A-B-A form and is slow and expressive, full of bittersweet lyricism. The cadenza not only gives the soloist an opportunity to display his virtuosity, but also introduces many of the melodic Latin American jazz themes that dominate the second movement. The overall form of the final movement is a free rondo with several developing side issues that resolve in the end with an elaborate coda in C major. Copland noted that his playful finale is born of "an unconscious fusion of elements obviously related to North and South American popular music (for example, a phrase from a currently popular Brazilian tune, heard by me in Rio, became embedded in the secondary material)." This section was written specially for Benny Goodman's jazz talents; however, many of the technical challenges were above Goodman's confidence level (but probably not his skill level), and the original score shows several alterations to bring down higher notes, making it easier to play.

Music for the Theater (1925), is a suite in five parts for small orchestra, which makes use of syncopated and polymetric rhythms, and "blue" intervals. Copland had no particular play in mind for his work; rather, his music was intended to evoke the variety of moods found in many plays of the day, the romantic or contemplative interlude, the dance-like burst of excited activity, even a parody of burlesque. Brightened with trumpets, trombone, and clarinet, the music evokes jazz and popular song while remaining distinctively Copland's: listen for the sudden changes in metre, the irregular time signatures, the way the spaces inside the music can fill up or empty out in a heartbeat. And the relaxed lyricism of the Prologue, Interlude, and Epilogue is already uniquely his own; what's more, it's uniquely American. Not bad for a 24-year-old.

Quiet City (1940) is a well-known composition for trumpet, cor anglais, and string orchestra by Aaron Copland. In 1940, Copland knitted together the ten-minute piece from the incidental music he had written the previous year to accompany Irwin Shaw's play of the same name. The play had been commissioned for the Group Theatre by Harold Clurman and was directed by Elia Kazan. Although the play was dropped after only two Sunday performances, most likely due to internal dissension (see Richard Shickel's discussion in his 2005 biography of Elia Kazan, pp. 75-78), the music endured thanks to Copland's distilled version. Copland's decision to replace the original instrumentation, a chamber quartet of clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, and piano, with a larger ensemble of strings, trumpet, and cor anglais, has tended to deepen rather than sacrifice the intimacy and poignancy of the music. The piece was premiered on January 28, 1941, by conductor Daniel Saidenberg and his Saidenberg Little Symphony in New York City. Quiet City evokes the nocturnal introspections of the dwellers of a great city, beginning in stillness before slowly building up to a climax and then receding into silence again. The voice of the lone trumpeter, joined by that of the dark-toned cor anglais, rises and falls against the clear sound of the strings, in a cathartic release of the nostalgia, melancholy, regrets, and anxieties that distressed individuals in an urban society feel most acutely at night. According to Copland, the piece was "an attempt to mirror the troubled main character of Irwin Shaw's play," who had abandoned his Jewishness and his poetic aspirations in order to pursue material success by Anglicizing his name, marrying a rich socialite, and becoming the president of a department store. The man, however, was continually recalled to his conscience by the haunting sound of his brother's trumpet playing. Continuing the assessment in his own autobiography, Copland observed that "Quiet City seems to have become a musical entity, superseding the original reasons for its composition," owing much of its success to its escape from the details of its dramatic context.

Dance Panels (1959, revised 1962): In seven "movements". Copland at his most Copland-esque. Long pastroal melodies, bouncy tunes, a snare drum here or there. This is film music without a film, the "dawn" opening on a single pitch with offstage horns, ending with a return of the opening material after a deus ex machina trumpet solo that brings the becoming dissonant festivities to a jarring halt and the dawn rises again. Underplayed and enjoyable. The panel technique allows him to experiment with several different moods, which I'm coming more and more to realize is the essence of Copland's language. Consider even his first piece, the piano work: The Cat and the Mouse, in a way this is similar and stands rather separeate from the more "abstract" proclamatory works like the Piano/Orchestral Variations. The orchestration is consistently lovely and here is an interesting point to be aware of - in Copland's music we are hearing a sound orchestrated for the instruments, instead of the instruments playing the music - its a subtle difference. There is the blending of sounds that is so French - back to the Impressionists and forward to the Spectralists - that differs in so many ways from a contrapuntal style as in, say Carter or Ruggles.

1. Concerto for Clarinet & Orchestra (1948) 15:47
David Schifrin (clarinet)

Music For The Theater (1925)
2. Prologue 5:45
3. Dance 3:12
4. Interlude 5:07
5. Burlesque 3:07
6. Epilogue 3:43
David Schifrin (clarinet)
Mark Hill (English horn)
Neil Baum (trumpet)

7. Quiet City (1940) 8:57
Mark Hill (English horn)
Neil Baum (trumpet)

Dance Panels (1959, rev 1962)
8. Introduction: Moderato 3:35
9. Allegretto con tenerezza 4:11
10. Scherzando 4:06
11. Pas de trois: Lento 4:25
12. Con brio 3:28
13. Con moto 1:29
14. Molto ritmico 4:49

New York Chamber Symphony conducted by Gerard Schwarz

A COPLAND CELEBRATION, VOLUME 3: VOCAL AND CHORAL WORKS

2009-03-12T06:58:00.004-04:00

Volume 3 of Sony's "A Copland Celebration," the CD continues to explore the byways of Copland's output, with rarities like In the Beginning, Lark, the Dickinson poems, and The Tender Land.

William Warfield turns in a classic performance with both sets of the Old American Songs. He and Copland made a mono recording of the original piano version. Don't miss that one either (on Sony SM2K89326), one of the great vocal recitals. For the remake, Warfield's in slightly rougher voice, but damn, does he sing well, with lines that go on forever and a real flair for singing American English. This is also one of Copland's best outings as a conductor. I've tended to regard most of his recorded readings as "authentic," rather than blood-stirring, especially with Bernstein competing. But Copland the conductor seems to catch fire from Warfield. He gets the power, the lyricism, and even the fun from the score. For me, a landmark stereo recording.

Adele Addison was usually one of my favorite singers. In fact, when I first heard this listless recording from her and Copland, I blamed the work. A subsequent recording with Jan DeGaetani, in not particularly good vocal shape, set me in my ways. However, this view shattered when I heard Copland's mono account with mezzo Martha Lipton (also on SM2K89326), which confirmed the judgment I had usually read: this cycle stands among the very best American songs. But the songs share a similarity of mood and a spareness in the piano writing that can, with insufficient attention from the performers, wear on you. Addison's tone, though higher in timbre than Lipton's, takes on a dull edge. Lipton seems to understand the poems better and finds more emotional and phrasing variety. Pianist Copland catches the dolefuls from Addison. His beautifully lyric playing for Lipton is nowhere in sight here.

Lark, an a cappella piece, comes from the late Thirties. Copland didn't particularly care for the sound of an unaccompanied choir, preferring to mix choral singers with orchestra. Outside of student work for Nadia Boulanger, he wrote, as far as I know, only three a cappella works. Lark suffers from its text – a soupy, knock-off Whitman text by Genevieve Taggard, in an idiom familiar to anyone who's heard the non-Lincoln text to the composer's Lincoln Portrait. Copland in later years was slightly embarrassed that he had set the poem at all. Lark also sets the problem of a choir that can master Copland's Thirties Modernism. The work tends to come at you in short pieces, as if the composer had written it a line at a time. My own college choir performed this work, and we got to sing it for the composer (after he had already recorded it). We knocked him out. He told me he regretted that hadn't waited for us. The NEC choir doesn't nearly come up to our level. They have intonation and blend problems up the wazoo. One doesn't hear the part-writing, but sort of a wad o' sound, especially detrimental to the virtuosically contrapuntal section which make the piece for me. Furthermore, Copland can't overcome the plods. The account stops and starts. One doesn't sense a continuing thread to the work. I admit a conductor must work hard for it, but it can be found.

Similar problems bedevil In the Beginning, a choral counterpart to something like Appalachian Spring. This is, first of all, a masterpiece of modern choral music and of text setting – Genesis complete from chaos to day 7. Copland may not have liked the a cappella choir, but you'd never know it from this. He comes up with new, beautiful choral textures, based perhaps on his "pastoral" orchestral vein, but thoroughly suited to the chorus. The New England Conservatory Chorus does much better in this more demanding work but suffer still from a certain dullness of tone. Again, Copland's tempi tend to lumber rather than dance, which predictably weaken the quick passages. Soloist Margaret Miller, however, stands out – the best performance of this demanding role I've heard. Overall, however, the composer's result aren't a patch on Gregg Smith's, who recorded the work long, long ago for an Everest LP.

Copland called opera, famously, the "forme fatale," indicating the simultaneous attraction and wariness he felt toward the genre. He began with an American equivalent of a Brechtian Lehrstück, The Second Hurricane, a school opera similar in function to Weill and Brecht's Der Jasager. He had few American operas to use as models. He didn't particularly care for either Gershwin or Thomson's examples, and something like Hanson's Merry Mount or Taylor's The King's Henchman probably struck him as, at best, quaint. On the other hand, the opening of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! seemed to promise something: an American subject treated in a genuine American way. He began working on a musical based, I believe, on Erskine Caldwell's Tragic Ground, but gave it up after a while. Nevertheless, the pot started to bubble, and in 1954, he completed The Tender Land. This was, by the way, B. H. Haggin's candidate for the Great American Opera. The music in it is gorgeous, Copland at his most radiant. Yet, it's not really all that good an opera. Copland may sing but doesn't characterize people all that well, and the plot – basically, Is There Life after High School? – comes over as a bit feckless. You don't care enough about most of the characters – with the exception of the ingénue – to worry about the outcome. The initial reviews were mixed, and Copland decided to revise and abridge, cutting out the only plot line that seemed remotely interesting – two drifters falsely accused of rape and murder, a reflection of the McCarthyism of the time. In its abridged form (which we get here), the opera reminds me of a Whitman sampler. Better you should hear it complete (Brunelle on Virgin Classics or Sidlin on Koch). Even so, it doesn't really suit opera stages. Both the dramaturgy and the sensibility are a bit amateurish, frankly. The opera seems locked into the opera-workshop circuit.

A shame, really. The music itself soars. Copland gets a first-rate cast – with Joy Clements, Richard Cassilly, and Norman Treigle both ardent and as believable as Copland's music allows – and a New York Philharmonic playing as well as it ever did for Bernstein. The New York Choral Arts Society raises the emotional roof in the glorious choral parts, for me the best passages of the opera. Don't worry about the plot. Enjoy the tunes. Steve Schwartz

Disc: 1
Old American Songs, Sets 1&2 (1950/1952)
1. No. 1, The Boatmen's Dance
2. No. 2, The Dodger
3. No. 3, Long Time Ago
4. No. 4, Simple Gifts
5. No. 5, I Bought Me a Cat
6. No. 1, The Little Horses
7. No. 2, Zion's Walls
8. No. 3, The Golden Willow Tree
9. No. 4, At the River
10. No. 5, Ching-a-ring Chaw
William Warfield, baritone
Columbia Symphony Orchestra/Aaron Copland
Recorded at the Manhattan Center, New York City on May 3&4, 1962

Twelve Poems of Emily Dickenson (1949/1950)
11. No. 1, Nature, the Gentlest Mother
12. No. 2, There Came a Wind Like a Bugle
13. No. 3, Why Do They Shut Me Out of Heaven?
14. No. 4, The World Feels Dusty
15. No. 5, Heart, We Will Forget Him
16. No. 6, Dear March, Come In!
17. No. 7, Sleep Is Supposed to Be
18. No. 8, When They Come Back
19. No. 9, I Felt a Funeral in My Brain
20. No. 10, I've Heard an Organ Talk Sometimes
21. No. 11, Going to Heaven!
22. No. 12, The Chariot
Adele Addison, soprano and Aaron Copland, piano
Recorded at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio, New York City on November 16, 1964

23. In the Beginning (text from Genesis) 1947
Mildred Miller, mezzo-soprano and New England Conservatory Chorus cond.. Aaron Copland
Recorded at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio on March 29, 1965

24. Lark (text by Genevieve Taggard) 1938
Robert Hale, baritone and New England Conservatory Chorus cond. Aaron Copland
Recorded at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio on March 29, 1965

Disc: 2
The Tender Land (Opera in Three Acts, Abridged Version) 1953
1. Gently flowing
2. Once I thought I'd never grow tall as this fence
3. Do you suppose they're makin' food in there?
4. We've been north
5. Halloo, halloo
6. If you boys work as smooth as you talk, we'll make good time in the fi
7. The Promise of living with hope and thanksgiving
8. Not enough for me, Mrs. Moss
9. Thank you, thank you all
10. Ah, Laurie, you are a puzzle
11. Stomp your foot upon the floor
12. The World seems still tonight
13. Introduction (Act III)
14. Daybreak will come in such a short time
15. That's crazy!
16. The sun is coming up as though I'd never seen it rise before
17. You are strange to me

Joy Clements, soprano
Claramae Turner, mezzo-soprano
Richard Cassilly, tenor
Norman Treigle, bass-baritone
Richard Fredericks, baritone
Choral Art Society (William Jonson, Chorus Director)
New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Aaron Copland
Recorded at the Manhattan Center, New York City on July 31, 1965

Total time: 75:23 + 65:58

LEONARD BERNSTEIN/NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: THE SECOND HURRICANE

2009-03-09T09:02:00.004-04:00

Apparently, the Bernstein Century aims to issue every scrap Bernstein recorded for Columbia. Although this will prove invaluable for archivists and fanatics (myself included), Bernstein's wide range of activity produced some pretty marginal stuff. The Second Hurricane was written in 1936 for a high school performance (directed by Orson Welles!) but the painfully trite libretto seems more like one of those grade-school pageants that charm doting parents while their little Jimmy or Suzie is up on the stage, but otherwise is pretty grim. Copland's music, though, is full of fine, unpretentious touches. The dozen musical numbers begin each of the CD tracks, so you can skip most of the stilted dramatic interludes; otherwise, the overall effect is pretty doleful. In the Beginning is a colorful but reverent a cappella setting of scripture, written for the Robert Shaw Chorale in 1947.

A mono recording, one that hasn't been released until now, is that of Copland's In the Beginning. This is an attractive a cappella work with texts based on the book of Genesis, and it's hard to say why the present recording sat in the can so long. Perhaps it's because the sound is a little muddy, even by 1953 standards. I can't hear any gross deficiencies in the performance, and Lipton is a good singer with clear diction. Furthermore, this is a rare opportunity to hear Bernstein in the role of a choral conductor. The Second Hurricane dates from the Depression era; its first director was Orson Welles. It's a school opera, and in that way it reminds me of Britten's Let's Make an Opera! and Noye's Fludde. It's mostly on that level, musically speaking. The story concerns six high school heroes, their worried parents, and their friends. The heroes have been sent to a hurricane-stricken area to provide disaster relief. (When was FEMA founded?) On the way, their plane develops difficulties, and they are stranded on a hill while the pilot flies off in search of mechanical help. Frustrated and scared, they begin to quarrel, and it's only the threat of a second hurricane that pulls them together. Eventually, they are rescued, and there is the requisite happy ending. Bernstein is the avuncular narrator, and he keeps the action flowing. (Together, the two acts last barely more than 45 minutes.) The young people of the High School of Music and Art carry out their solo and ensemble duties with maturity. There are no texts, but you'll be able to understand the words anyway. The 1960-vintage sound is excellent.

1. In The Beginning (1947)
Martha Lipton, mezzo-soprano with Chorus Pro Musica

The Second Hurricane (A Play Opera in Two Acts) 1936
2. Choral Overture
3. We Don't Know, We Don't Know
4. What's Happened, Where Are They?
5. Gyp's Song
6. How Childish They Are
7. Like A Giant Bomb
8. Introduction
9. Two Willow Hill
10. Sextet
11. Jeff's Song
12. Queenie's Song
13. The Capture Of Burgoyne
14. Finale
Soloists & Chorus of the High School of Music and Art, New York City
Leonard Bernstein, narrator

New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein

#1 was recorded on May 27, 1953 in New York City, NY; all others recorded on April 3, 1960 at the Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City, NY

MICHAEL TILSON-THOMAS: COPLAND & THE AMERICAN SOUND (2006/DVD9/Uncompressed)

2009-01-27T11:01:00.005-05:00

I wish to thank Schulhoff, who ripped this wonderful DVD and generously gave me permission to repost it here at FANFARE FOR AARON COPLAND. His original links can be found in the 'comments' section. Scoredaddy

This is the latest in the San Francisco Symphony productions which have also been aired on PBS. With the initial production on Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony plus the two mentioned above, the series now totals four "Revolutions in Music."

It would usually be best to start with the documentary portion of each DVD in the series. These productions lift the presentation above most of the concert music DVDs which simply record a performance by the orchestra in question. Conductor Tilson Thomas goes to Europe and investigates aspects of the story of the particular composer being profiled. In this case it means going to Paris and talking about Nadia Boulanger and her effect upon not only Copland but many other American composers.

The videography is top rate, with sweeping views and trenchant but brief commentary by MTT. Not just music-oriented, the commentary delves into the social and political developments around Copland's capturing of that special American sound in concert music. Talking about the diversity of music in early 20th century America and how the different musical styles were transformed in Copland's unique sound brings in references to the Yiddish theater and closeups of sheet music from productions done by Tilson Thomas' ancestors, the Thomashevskys. Discussion of the quintessential Copland Americana, Appalachian Spring, involves fascinating clips from the original Martha Graham dance film which featured Copland's score. I only wish the documentary portions could have been presented in 5.1-channel surround, not just the concert portions.

The concert video portion is a bit different from the other three in that it involves only a small chamber group for a performance of the complete Appalachian Spring ballet. Various instrumental soloists comment on the music and their parts in it. The players are arranged in a semi-horseshoe around MTT with the piano front and center, replicating the layout of the larger orchestra seen in the other DVDs. The shots often feature super closeups of the players and their instruments.

The images are more striking and involving than most symphonic videos, and the 5.1 surround is a superb accompaniment to the widescreen images. The influence of AIX Records' Mark Waldrep as DVD producer is seen in this series being one of the only ones to offer a choice of both "Stage" and "Audience" mixes - the former puts the listener right on the podium with MTT. I found it more exciting listening than the tenth-row Audience acoustic.

All in all, a wonderful treatment - sonically, visually and intellectually, of an important American composer. John Sunier

DVD Details:

Performers: San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas
Studio: San Francisco Symphony Production
Video: 16:9 widescreen color
Subtitles: English on documentary; also German, French, Spanish
Audio: DD 5.1 on concert, with "Audience" or "Stage" acoustics; DD Stereo on documentary; PCM Stereo
Extras: About Keeping Score, About MTT, About the San Francisco Symphony, Trailers for Beethoven's Eroica & Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Net links

CAMERATA SINGERS: COPLAND WORKS FOR CHORUS

2009-01-26T07:22:00.005-05:00

Aaron Copland is best remembered for creating a truly American style of music which is full of folk influences, and melodic and harmonic simplicity. The Old American Songs incorporate folk melodies ranging from minstrel songs (The Boatmen's Dance) to hymns (Simple Gifts) to political satire (The Dodger). Originating as songs for voice and piano, these arrangements by Irving Fine for chorus were authorized by the composer, who himself further expanded the songs for voice and orchestra. 'The House on the Hill' and 'An Immortality' were both arranged by the recently departed Daniel Pinkham, who was a student of Copland's at Harvard.

For a composer whose reputation is so closely connected with the idea of Americanness, Aaron Copland's output of choral music, the central genre of American community music-making, is remarkably sparse. To make an album's worth it's basically necessary to employ the solution chosen here by the Camerata Singers and director Timothy Mount: to perform the two sets of Old American Songs, as arranged for chorus by Irving Fine.

These are delightfully done by Long Island's youthful Camerata Singers, with the words clearly articulated (a good thing, since no texts are given), all the jokes intact (sample I Bought Me a Cat if you're in the mood for a laugh), and a restrained attitude that puts across the cleanness of Copland's lines. That cleanness was a legacy of Copland's French neo-classic training, on view in the Four Motets composed in 1921, during his years as a student of the Paris pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. It is striking how much of Copland's personality comes through in these little works, even as they reflect various French models; they're little crowd-pleasers that deserve to be better known than they are. Indeed, it is the smaller works that provide the real attractions for the potential buyer of this album. Try track 16, Las Agachadas (The Shakedown), a fascinatingly compact slice of Copland's Mexican idiom (it is in Spanish, with an English translation provided).

Two choral songs from 1925, on texts by Ezra Pound and Edwin Arlington Robinson, are also worthy and neglected early Copland works. The sound has a high-school-gymnasium quality, but it doesn't detract from the listener's enjoyment — it's appropriate, somehow, and the texts aren't obscured. The only major negative is the booklet, which needed editorial oversight; among the numerous problems is the appearance of Robinson's name as Edwin Arlington in the track list. James Manheim

Old American Songs, for voice & piano, Book 1 Set 1 (1950)
1. The Boatmen's Dance 03:01
2. The Dodger 02:16
3. Long Time Ago 02:59
4. Simple Gifts 01:31
5. I Bought Me a Cat 02:21

Four Motets (4), for chorus (1921)
6. Help Us O Lord 02:49
7. Thou O Jehovah Abideth Forever 02:14
8. Have Mercy On Us 03:38
9. Sing Ye Praises To Our King 02:10

Old American Songs, for voice & piano, Book 2 Set 2 (1952)
10. The Little Horses 03:12
11. Zion's Walls 02:22
12. The Golden Willow Tree 03:57
13. At the River 02:54
14. Ching-a-Ring Chaw 01:56

15. Choruses (2) An Immorality (1925) 04:36
16. Las Agachadas (The Shake-down Song), for soprano, alto, tenor, bass & chorus (1942) 03:32
17. The House on the Hill (1925) 05:10
18. Lark, for baritone & chorus (1938) 04:44

Camerata Singers, Timothy Mount, conductor
Recorded March & October, 2006 at the State University of New York, Stoney Brook Recital Hall, Stoney Brook, NY

Upgrade to FLAC: OLIVER KNUSSEN/CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA & LONDON SINFONIETTA: GROHG, HEAR YE! HEAR YE!

2009-01-24T16:24:00.005-05:00

The full, revised score of Copland's first ballet Grohg lay miscatalogued, thought lost, in the Library of Congress until the late 1980s. That is when Oliver Knussen found it. Grohg was the most ambitious undertaking of Copland's Paris years, the Nadia Boulanger years, and is an important piece of the Copland jigsaw. Its inspiration was Nosferatu, as portrayed in the 1921 German horror film. But only superficially, only in the sense that it alludes to silent-film melodrama of the macabre. Grohg is a kind of necrophile Svengali of the dance. The dead dance to his tunes, for his pleasure. This is X-rated Petrushka.

And, of course, the close proximity of Stravinsky can be felt in more than just the motoric rhythmic gyrations of the scene-setting "Dance of the Servitors". An odd mix, this. On the one hand is the puppet-like bassoon of folklore, the Petrushka connection, and on the other, the racy wood-block and xylophone-spiked world of Poulenc. Then there are Copland's own, newly liberated 'Americanisms': the Opium-eater's dance with its 'visions of jazz', slinking in like a kind of oriental blues; or the provocative burlesque variant of the Streetwalker's waltz eerily sexy with piano and muted trumpet emerging from the shadows. The Latinos are in there too—feisty, chilli-hot woodwinds, a vital element in the hallucinatory final scene. Knussen and the Cleveland Orchestra show exactly what they are made of in set-pieces like this, and Argo bring them to your listening room with time-honoured clarity and brilliance. But it's French sensibility which lends Grohg's last moments an unexpected pathos. Petrushka's ghost sensed if not seen.

By far the best music on the disc, though, is sandwiched between the fledgling ballets. Prelude for chamber orchestra is a re-working of material extracted from Copland's Symphony for organ and orchestra and owes everything to Boulanger's tender, loving care. At least, that is the effect she and her influence would appear to have had on its tactile scoring. And there is more where that came from—albeit fleetingly—in the cool and graceful Apollonesque idyll at the heart of Hear ye! Hear ye!. Now here is a novelty: a courtroom melodrama-cum-burlesque-cum-whodunit; a cabaret of contradictory re-enactments complete with gunshots and the crack of the Judge's gavel. Yet, in truth, it's dance music in search of its choreography. Copland's quirky off-kilter jazz just does not convince in its own right. It is still more of a gimmick than a compulsion. Give the young Copland his due, though: he lays down a band sound that is a formidable blueprint for the future. Leonard Bernstein was to play on it. American urban ballet starts here. First recordings, first-class quality. ES

Grohg - Ballet in One act (1922-25, revised 1932)
1. Introduction, Cortège and Entrance of Grohg 7:40
2. Dance of the Adolescent 6:27
4. Dance of the Streetwalker 3:42
5. Grohg imagines the Dead are mocking him 4:41
6. Illumination and Disappearance of Grohg 1:59

7. Prelude for chamber orchestra 6:04 (1924, arranged 1934)

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! - Ballet in One act (1934, version for small orchestra, 1935)
8. Scene i (Prelude) 1:36
9. Scenes ii-iv (The Courtroom; Dance of the Prosecuting Attorney; Danse of the Defense Attorney; Quarrel) 4:48
10. Scene v (The Nightclub hostess sworn in) 0:47
11. Scene vi (The Chorus-girls' first dance) 3:31
12. Scene vii (First Pas-de-deux) 2:49
13. Scene viii (Pas-de-deux continued; First murder) 2:54
14. Scenes ix-x (The Courtroom); The Noneymoon Couple sworn in) 1:30
15. Scene xi (The Chorus-girls' dance with doves) 2:18
16. Scene xii (Second Pas-de-deux with murder) 3:45
17. Scenes xiii-xiv (The Courtroom; the Waiter is sworn in) 1:24
18. Scene xv (The Chorus-girls' third dance) 1:29
19. Scene xvi (Third Pas-de-deux and Murder) 3:24
20. Scenes xvii-xviii (The Verdict; The Courtroom) 1:57

Grohg performed by the Cleveland Orchestra ; other selections performed by the London Sinfonietta. All works conducted by Oliver Knussen.

Grohg was recorded in Severance Hall, Cleveland, Ohio on May 3, 1993. Other selections were recorded in Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, UK on June 29-30, 1993

Upgrade to FLAC: THE COPLAND COLLECTION - LATE ORCHESTRAL WORKS (1948-1971)

2009-01-15T09:43:00.005-05:00

This is a valuable and distinctive collection, presenting as it does one of Copland’s toughest orchestral works. The Orchestral Variations of 1957 are in fact an orchestration of the Piano Variations of 1930, for long counted Copland's most astringent piece, uncompromising in idiom, pithy and epigrammatic in argument. They represent an ultimate in Copland's early development, after which he felt free to release his more open inspirations. You might argue on principle that 27 years later the composer had no business to play about with them, but in fact, as this fine performance makes very clear, the orchestral version may be a radically different work, but it is a deeply impressive one, quite individual in Copland's oeuvre.

In an interview with Copland published on the sleeve of the original LP issue he admits that though the orchestration diminishes the purely percussive element in the writing, there remains in orchestral terms a hard-bitten sound. He explains that he added no more than a few imitative voices to the original piano score. "With the perspective of 27 years it was not difficult to use the original as a piano sketch with orchestral possibilities". Brief as the variation theme is (a mere eleven bars) there is a cell of four notes merely (E-C-E flat-C sharp) which forms the core of the whole work. The variations are all very brief until the twentieth one leads into a coordinating coda, comparatively extended. Starting at the fifteenth variation Copland relaxes into a more scherzando style with characteristic seven- and five-in-a bar rhythms.

The Preamble for a Solemn Occasion, written in 1949 for the United Nations to commemorate the first anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, is occasional music in the best sense—a characteristic Copland piece that goes well enough with the two major works, but emotionally says very much less.

In 1964 the London Symphony Orchestra celebrated its sixtieth anniversary; for the occasion Copland was commissioned to write a work, and in due course his Music for a Great City arrived. In this original LP issue of this recording it is suitably packaged, you would think, with a sleeve showing the dome of St. Paul's (see images included with download), a few hundred surrounding roofs, and a few thousand surrounding chimney pots. Indeed, the opening movement of the music is entitled "Skyline". The second "Night Thoughts", the fourth "Toward the Bridge". Which bridge? Tower? Westminster? Waterloo? The clue is given in the third movement: "Subway Jam". And further investigation reveals that Copland's Great City is indeed a newer one than London; it is the New York apostrophized in the 1961 film Something Wild, for it was Copland's score for this film which he rehashed as his tribute to London.

If the processes of thought, where suitability for the occasion is concerned, are not very clear, the music itself certainly is; it is a glorious welter of large-orchestral sound, relieved by quieter and altogether more intimate, personal moments. One can agree readily enough that a wider audience than that of those few film-goers who listen to the music may well find it highly enjoyable.

I already knew The Red Pony Suite in the version which Previn recorded for this same company with the St Louis Symphony—the American coupling for the Britten Sinfonia da Requiem on his first symphonic recording. Copland with the New Philharmonia is fresh and effective, but I confess that I was slightly disappointed by the relative lack of swagger in the most memorable of the numbers, the "Walk to the Bunkhouse". Copland understates it slightly, but some may prefer that.

Copland is one of the few composers who does not have to talk down to his audience in his film music. In each one of these colourful, atmospheric vignettes you get the feeling of Copland uninhibitedly enjoying himself, jotting down his ideas with less weight upon him than in his major works but with comparable intensity to Beethoven in his Bagatelles—equally chips from the master's workbench. This is the very essence of Copland's wide-open-spaces style, just as much as Appalachian Spring or The Tender Land, and as ever the open-eyed simplicity of some piece is always liable to clutch you by the throat just as the famous "Shaker Hymn" does in Appalachian Spring.

The less familiar Three Latin American Sketches of, originally, 1959 are less ebullient than the composer’s better-known El Salon Mexico and Danzon Cubano.In 1971 Copland added a third piece to the Sketches, the Venezuelan "Estribillo", to the original two, to make a finale (but now used as opener). Nevertheless that, collectively, the three sketches are less overwhelming than El Salon Mexico, and less dignified than the Danzon Cubano, is no hardship at all: their extended passages of comparative repose do certainly improve the balance of the record side of Latin-American music as a whole.

Nevertheless, if it is repose that is primarily sought, the listener will find it in greatest abundance in Dance Panels, another first time recording. This is a ballet score of, again, 1959. The ballet itself having no story, Copland obviously felt free to give the music its own balance of styles and durations, creating something much closer to an independent, symphonic, listening piece than is always possible in the medium.

In the process he created a great deal of beauty: if he is lyrical at extended length it is in splendid quality, and also splendidly contrasted for the ear with the livelier, but no less direct and simple, sections of the score. This is a most winning piece and it seems odd that it should only have received its first recording years after it was first composed. E.M. & M.M.

Disc 1:

The Red Pony, Film Suite For Orchestra (1948)
1. I. Morning On The Ranch
2. II. The Gift
3. III. Dream March And Circus Music
4. IV. Walk To The Bunkhouse
5. V. Grandfather's Story
6. VI. Happy Ending

7. Preamble For A Solemn Occasion (1949)

Orchestral Variations (1957)
8. Theme: Grave
9. Variation I - Varation XX
10. Coda: Subito lento moderato

Dance Panels (1959, Revised 1962) (Ballet In Seven Sections)
11. I. Introduction: Moderato (Tempo di Valzer); Espressivo un poco rubato
12. II. Allegretto con tenerezza (un poco rubato)
13. III. Scherzando; Moderato
14. IV. Pas de trois. Lento
15. V. Con brio
16. VI. Con moto
17. VII. Molto ritmico; Coda; come prima; Moderato

London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland except 1-6, New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland

1-6 Recorded at EMI Studios, London on May 31, 1972; 7 Recorded at Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London on June 14, 1964; 8-10 Recorded at Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London on October 26, 1968; 11-17 Recorded at EMI Studios, London on FRebruary 12 & November 29, 1969

Disc: 2
1. Connotations For Orchestra (1961-1962)

2. Down A Country Lane (1962)

Music For A Great City from Something Wild film score (1963-1964):
3. I. Skyline
4. II. Night Thoughts
5. III. Subway Jam
6. IV. Toward The Bridge

7. Inscape (1967)

Three Latin-American Sketches
8. Estribillo (1971)
9. Paisaje Mexicano (1959)
10. Danza de Jalisco (1959)

London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland except 1 & 7 New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein and 8-10 New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland

1 Recorded at Philharmonic Hall on September 23, 1962; 2 Recorded at Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London on October 26, 1968; 3-6 Recorded at Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London on June 13-14, 1964; 7 Recorded at Philharmonic Hall on October 17, 1967; 8-10 Recorded at EMI Studios, London on June 1, 1972

LEONARD SLATKIN/ST. LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: APPALACHIAN SPRING (COMPLETE)

2009-01-09T06:56:00.003-05:00

It was Eugene Ormandy who persuaded Copland to reinstate and re-orchestrate those pages of music that he had omitted from the orchestral suite. In contention are several minutes of music leading up to the final tutti statement of the Shaker hymn Simple gifts; by no means the most inspired or accomplished music in the score, perhaps—and particularly when divorced from the physical drama on stage—but a substantial and dramatic sequence building from under a cloud of anxiety, with driving, stuttering ostinatos and the urgent summons of brass and alarm bell. Moments of consolation and repose come and go—one senses the hopes and fears of the settlers—until confidence is fully restored with the Shaker hymn emerging affirmatively from the crisis, its effect to my mind greatly heightened by the uncertainty of what has gone before. At least those were my thoughts at the close of Slatkin's persuasive and big-hearted reading. And I can see why he should have chosen Copland's full orchestral garb in preference to the pithier chamber original. I don't recall these contentious 'extra' pages making anything like such an impression in the composer's complete CBS recording of the original version.

Grohg (the 'h' inserted "to avoid alcoholic connotation!"), Copland's earliest ballet, a 'vampire ballet' inspired by the German expressionist movie Nosferatu, was never staged or even choreographed. Some of its music was later recycled for the Dance Symphony, but "Cortege macabre" was one of two sections salvaged for concert purposes. It was Copland's first orchestral score and the second to be performed. And it is very much as the title would suggest: a grisly processional, disrupted briefly by the energetic "Servitors' Dance" (echoes of Barber's Medea—Slatkin himself has pointed to the similarities) and building to a resplendent trill and glissando-laden entrance for Grohg himself.

Of the two remaining pieces, Letter from home was commissioned by Paul Whiteman and the American Broadcasting Company and premiered on radio less than two weeks before the Washington premiere of Appalachian Spring. It belongs very much within that nostalgic, rather homely rural America context. As does John Henry— originally designated "A railroad ballet for small orchestra" but later revised for this larger orchestra some years later. The folk-hero/construction worker of the title was said to have pitted his manual skills against a steam hammer—and won, "at the cost of his own life". And Copland's energetic little tone-poem, another radio commission, is replete with the strains of steel and steam trains and one of those very heroic, prairiefied outdoor themes. All three of these shorter pieces might be deemed curio rather than vintage Copland, but anyone at all interested in the development of his music will want to hear them—at least once. Slatkin and his orchestra do them proud. Warm, sumptuous recording. E.S.

1. Appalachian Spring (complete ballet) (1945) 36:33
2. Cortége macabre from “Grohg” (1922-25, revised 1932) 13:43
3. Letter from Home (1943-1944) 6:39
4. John Henry (1940) 3:45

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin
Recorded at Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis, MO USA

ERICH KUNZEL & CINCINNATI POPS ORCHESTRA: LINCOLN PORTRAIT & OTHER WORKS

2008-12-30T07:12:00.005-05:00

The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, under the direction of Erich Kunzel, turns in a nice set of performances of a group of Copland’s more “populist” compositions (pieces composed in his less challenging, tonal style). The Lincoln Portrait is the featured selection on this disc, and is one of Copland’s best-known and most widely performed and recorded compositions. For those unfamiliar with Copland’s musical tribute to the 16th president of the United States, the piece is a three part composition for standard orchestra and solo speaker. The speaker recites text selected by Copland from Abraham Lincoln’s letters and speeches, supported by Copland’s original music, which includes the interpolation and free use of two popular tunes of Lincoln’s time.

The speaker for this recording of Lincoln Portrait is the famous actress, Katherine Hepburn, whose shaky voice (due to age – almost 80 at the time of this recording- and tremors similar to those of Parkinson’s sufferers) made her a rather odd choice, an emphatic contrast to the stronger-voiced performers who have narrated the Portrait such as Henry Fonda, Charlton Heston, James Earl Jones, and dozens more. However, she gets through it quite nicely and her performance is all the more affecting and touching for her disability.

In addition to Hepburn, we get one set of the two-set Old American Songs, well sung by baritone Sherrill Milnes. The Old American Songs in question are folk songs and ballads chosen and assembled by Copland and arranged for singer and orchestra (initially for singer and piano, but later orchestrated). “Long Time Ago” is incredibly beautiful and is my personal favorite among the five songs in the first set. The fourth song, “Simple Gifts,” is the famous Shaker melody utilized by Copland in his famous ballet score, Apalachian Spring.

The balance of the CD sports several lesser-known but excellent Copland pieces for orchestra. These include The Promise of Living from Copland’s opera, The Tender Land and Jubilee Variations, which receives here its premier (and only, to my knowledge) recording. This is a delightful and very easy-to-listen-to disc with less-complex but highly enjoyable Copland music. Scoredaddy

1. John Henry: A Railroad Ballad for Orchestra (1940)
2. Lincoln Portrait (1942) Katherine Hepburn, speaker
3. The Promise of Living from The Tender Land (1954)
4. Old American Songs, Set 1: The Boatmen's Dance, The Dodger, Long Time Ago, Simple Gifts, I Bought Me (1950) Sherrill Milnes, baritone
5. Jubilee Variations (1945)
6. Ceremonial Fanfare (1969)
7. An Outdoor Overture (1938)

Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, conducted by Erich Kunzel
Recorded in Music Hall, Cincinnati Ohio USA on September 22, 1985 and September 15-16, 1986

Upgrade to FLAC: BERNSTEIN CONDUCTS COPLAND

2008-12-23T14:07:00.005-05:00

Here is an upgrade on a disc I had posted over one year ago. Originally posted in MP3 @320, it was the second CD presented on this blog and it has become the #1 most downloaded title here. These are magnificent recordings and dare I say, definitive versions of these signature compositions in Copland's oevre.

These are, of course, Aaron Copland's landmark works and are the pieces he is most remembered for. As stated above, Bernstein recorded what many beleive to be the definitive renditions of these compositions, although there are many, many other fine ones out there, a few of which have already been posted in these pages. Scoredaddy

Happy is the composer who has an advocate as passionate and talented as Leonard Bernstein. These Copland performances have been the preferred versions since they were first issued--better even than the composer's own, later recordings. Originally they were spread over two discs, but thanks to the extended playing time of the compact disc, you can now get all three great Copland ballets together, along with the ever popular Fanfare for the Common Man. Bernstein brings to this music the right sharpness of rhythm but also a typically open-hearted warmth. He coaxes a virtuoso response from the New York Philharmonic, which knows this music as well (or better) than anyone. Self- recommending. David Hurwitz

Fanfare for the Common Man (1942)
1. Molto deliberato (2:00)

Recorded at Philharmonic Hall, New York City, NY USA on February 16, 1966

Appalachian Spring - Suite (1943-1944)
2. Very Slowly (2:43)
3. Allegro (2:42
4. Moderato (3:52)
5. Fast (3:35)
6. Subito Allegro (3:44)
7. As At First (Slowly) (1:15)
8. Doppio movimento (6:45)

Recorded at Manhattan Center, New York City, NY USA on October 9, 1961

Rodeo – Four Dance Episodes (1942)
9. Buckaroo Holiday - Allegro con spirito (7:00)
10 Corral Nocturne - Moderato (4:02)
11. Saturday Night Waltz - Introduction - Slow Waltz (4:11)
12. Hoe-Down - Allegro (3:06)

Recorded at Manhattan Center, New York City, NY USA on May 2, 1960

Billy The Kid – Suite (1938)
13. Introduction. The Open Prairie (3:15)
14. Street In A Frontier Town (3:22)
15. Mexican Dance And Finale (2:01)
16. Prairie Night (Card Game At Night) (4:22)
17. Gun Battle (1:49)
18. Celebration (After Billy's Capture) (2:22)
19. Billy's Death (1:19)
20. The Open Prairie Again (1:47)

Recorded at the St. George Hotel, Brooklyn, NY USA on October 20, 1960

On all: New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein

EDUARDO MATA, DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: SYMPHONY NO. 3/DANZON CUBANO/EL SALON MEXICO

2008-12-02T17:05:00.005-05:00

Eduardo Mata's splendid recordings of Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3, Danzón Cubano, and El Salón México with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra are perennials in EMI's catalog, deservedly so for their remarkable energy, splendid orchestral color, sympathetic interpretations, and wide dynamic range. Mata's renderings of Copland's music -- whether brusque and angular, or smooth and serene -- feel natural, authentic, idiomatic, and as hardy as Leonard Bernstein's popular performances or Copland's own authoritative readings. Since fans still have their pick of their legendary versions on Sony, there is little reason to argue that Mata's recordings are in any way superior. However, they are perhaps equivalent in value, balancing both Bernstein's rawness and Copland's softer touch, and yet never sounding derivative or false. In a blindfold test, it might be difficult to distinguish Mata's recordings from either, so faithful is he to the scores and to their brash spirit.

Symphony No. 3 (1944-1946)
1. Molto moderato, with simple expression 11:00
2. Allegro molto 8:07
3. Andantino quasi allegretto 8:52
4. Molto deliberato 13:10

5. Danzon Cubano (1944) 7:50

6. El Salon Mexico (1933-1936) 10:45

Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eduardo Mata
Recorded at Cliff Temple Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas USA on May 13-14, 1986

Upgrade to FLAC: SOMETHING WILD - ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK (1961)

2008-11-24T07:05:00.004-05:00

Who would have guessed that Aaron Copland's last film score would receive its first commercial release 42 years after it was recorded?

Something Wild, a 1961 film starring Carroll Baker, was a box-office flop, so distributor United Artists nixed a proposed soundtrack album despite its composer's fame.

New York film-music buff Mark Leneker, doing research into Copland's music four years ago, discovered that Copland had assembled a 35-minute album mockup and that a handful of copies were privately pressed and given to friends.

Leneker contacted the film's director, Jack Garfein, who now lives in Paris (and who, at the time of the film, was Carroll Baker's husband). It turned out that Garfein's current wife had discovered a mint, sealed copy of the LP in the family attic.

Copland conducted a 55-piece orchestra in the music, which is stylistically different from his earlier, more familiar Americana scores like Of Mice and Men (1939) and The Red Pony (1949). Because the film's subject matter is grim and violent (Baker plays a suicidal rape victim in New York City), the composer's idiom is more contemporary, incorporating jazz influences, serialism and occasional dissonance.

Copland adapted the score into a concert work, Music for a Great City, which was premiered in 1964. For those who prefer this suite, Music for a Great City is available in two recorded versions: Copland's own, with the London Symphony Orchestra (Sony 47236), and Leonard Slatkin's, with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (RCA 60149).

Something Wild is a welcome addition to the recent resurgence of interest in Copland's film music. Jonathan Sheffer's 2000 collection (Telarc 80583) of obscure Copland includes suites from The City (a documentary presented at the 1939 World's Fair), The Cummington Story (documentary short, 1945) and The North Star (1943).

More familiar to many listeners will be the Americana classics – Of Mice and Men, Our Town (1940) and The Red Pony – which are regularly performed in concert and have been the subject of multiple recordings over the years. Slatkin's Music for Films collection (RCA 61699) is comprised of a seven-movement suite from The Red Pony, nine minutes from Our Town and the five-movement Music for Movies, which includes two pieces from The City, two from Of Mice and Men – the barley-wagon and threshing sequences – and one from Our Town.

What caps the Slatkin CD is an eight-minute suite from The Heiress, Copland's Oscar-winning 1949 score – including the composer’s Prelude that director William Wyler dropped in post-production in favor of an orchestral arrangement of the plot-specific chanson, "Plaisir d'Amour." Jon Burlingame

Track listing

1. New York Profile (02:48)
2. Park At Night (01:27)
3. Subway Jam (02:16)
4. Mary Ann Resigned (02:01)
5. Incarceration and Nightmares (07:06)
6. Escape Through The City (07:23)
7. Love Music (01:57)
8. Walk Downtown (03:11)
9. Episode On The Bridge (04:51)
10. Mother Alone (00:57)
11. Reunion (01:05)

Total Duration: 00:35:02

ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA: APPALACHIAN SPRING, SHORT SYMPHONY, 3 LATIN AMERICAN SKETCHES, QUIET CITY

2008-11-18T12:41:00.003-05:00

Copland originally wrote ''Appalachian Spring'' for 13 instruments, all that could fit in the pit for the 1944 premiere of the Martha Graham ballet - a version he suppressed once the suite for full orchestra caught on. With his concise and rhythmically exciting ''Short Symphony'' (1933) he did something of the reverse; since it proved too difficult for many orchestras, he made a sextet setting, which we are likelier to encounter. Here are variants on both originals - the ''Spring'' Suite in a chamber orchestration (the 13 instruments plus extra strings), the symphony in a chamber orchestra reduction devised by Dennis Russell Davies - along with chamber orchestra renditions of ''Quiet City'' and ''Three Latin American Sketches.'' Orpheus plays with verve if not an especially original point of view. In DG's recording, close and striking, the ''Short Symphony'' is a real grabber. Mark Swed

With exceptionally vivid sound, bright and immediate, giving a realistic sense of presence, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's collection makes for a very distinctive Copland record of four works in which the composer is at his most approachable. The version of Appalachian Spring recorded here is neither the usual orchestral suite nor the ballet version, but a combination of the two which I cannot remember hearing on record before. In this version, published in 1958, Copland simply makes the same cuts as in the orchestral suite, but keeps the light, transparent scoring of the 13-instrument ballet version, though on his authority the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra augment the string section. The result is a delight, with each instrument cleanly identifiable, underlining the wide-open-spaces freshness of Copland's inspiration. The rhythmic bite is sharpened with the prominent piano giving the texture a distinctive colouring. The extra strings add a degree of sweetness without inflation.

The scale of performance in the other works, too, is most winning. The jaggedly obvious Stravinskyan echoes in the first movement of the Short Symphony are underlined by the closeness of the performance. Though this work, written between 1931 and 1933, uses triple woodwind, horns, trumpets, piano and strings, the absence of heavy brass and percussion prompted the composer himself to suggest that it is ''an enlarged chamber orchestra''. That is just the impression that a performance on the Orpheus scale conveys, with the relatively intimate acoustic of the Performing Arts Center at New York State University, Purchase, concentrating the sound, adding to the impact, though without aggression.

The hushed musical city-scape of Quiet city on this scale may not be quite so mistily evocative as with a full orchestra, but the intensity is if anything even greater, particularly when the trumpet and cor anglais soloists are so characterful. The Three Latin American Sketches date from several decades later. The second and third were written for the 1959 Spoleto Festival, and in 1971 Copland added the first to make the present effective triptych of fast, slow, fast, with the Latin-American rhythms of the final ''Danza de Jalisco'' particularly catchy.

In all this music the cutting edge of Copland's invention is enhanced in performances as immaculately drilled as these. Though there is nothing heartless about them there is a consistent sense of corporate purposefulness, of live communication made the more intense by the realism of the recording. Edward Greenfield

1. Appalachian Spring: Suite (1944-1945) 25:26

Symphony No 2 "Short Symphony" (1932-1933)
2. I. Tempo = 144 (incisivo) 4:27
3. II. Tempo = circa 44 5:27
4. III. Tempo = 144 (preciso e ritmico) 5:46

5. Quiet City (1939) 9:26
Stephen Taylor (English Horn), Raymond Mase (Trumpet)

Three Latin American Sketches (1972)
6. Estribillo 3:11
7. Paisaje Mexicano 3:30
8. Danza de Jalisco 3:39

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Recorded in March, 1988 at the Performing Arts Center, State University of New York, Purchase, NY USA

LEO SMIT: AARON COPLAND'S COMPLETE MUSIC FOR SOLO PIANO

2008-11-11T10:47:00.008-05:00

Here’s a change of pace for FANFARE FOR AARON COPLAND. Instead of the orchestral music Copland was most renowned for, we offer a survey of his compositions for solo piano, performed by the finest interpreter of this repertory.

Among the selections included is Copland's famous "Piano Fantasy," one of the most highly esteemed piano works of the 20th century on which the pianist, Leo Smit, does an excellent job on music not easy to play correctly.

This is daring music, usually challenging, but worth the investment in time that is necessary to fully appreciate these pieces. Scoredaddy

Most of this set was recorded for LP in 1978, but Leo Smit returned to the studios in 1993 to add some recently discovered short pieces. Smit, a friend of Copland and a composer himself, plays all of Copland's piano music with great comprehension. He sustains the flow throughout the difficult half-hour Piano Fantasy, though he doesn't create as much excitement in the Piano Variations as the composer did in 1935 on 78s (now on Pearl GEMM CD 9279). Much of Copland's piano music is occasional works or pieces for students, but the major works in the set make it well worth hearing. Leslie Gerber

Leo Smit (piano)

Disc 1
1 Scherzo Humoristique: The Cat and the Mouse (1920)
2 Piano Variations (1930)
3 In Evening Air (1966)
4 Passacaglia (1922)

Piano Sonata (1939-41)
5 I. Molto moderato
6 II. Vivace
7 III. Andante sostenuto

Two Piano Pieces (1982)
8 Midday Thoughts
9 Proclamation

Three Moods (1920-1921)
10 embittered
11 wistful
12 jazzy

Disc 2
1 Petite Portrait (1921)
2 Sentimental Melody (1926)
3 Piano Fantasy (1955-57)

Four Piano Blues (1926-48)
4 Freely Poetic (for Leo Smit)
5 Soft and Languid (for Andor Foldes)
6 Muted and Sensuous (for William Kapell)
7 With Bounce (for John Kirkpatrick)

8 Midsummer Nocturne (1947)
9 The Young Pioneers (1936)
10 Sunday Afternoon Music (1936)
11 Down A Country Lane (1962)
12 Night Thoughts (Homage to Ives) (1972)

Disc 1, #1,2,4,7 & disc 2, #3-12 were recorded at the Vanguard Studios, New York City in January, 1978

Disc 1, #3,8-12 & disc 2, #1-2 were recorded at Hit Factory, New York City on July 6, 1993

THE COPLAND COLLECTION, COPLAND CONDUCTS COPLAND: ORCHESTRAL & BALLET WORKS (1936-1948)

2008-11-07T10:18:00.005-05:00

Aaron Copland made numerous recordings of his own music, including an extensive series for CBS during the 1960s and '70s, mostly with London orchestras. He was not an especially proficient conductor--consequently, the performances he conducted often lacked pace and rhythmic punch. His last recordings of his most popular scores have been reissued by Sony on an exceptionally well-remastered 3-CD set. These accounts do a good job of conveying the overall shape of the pieces, and they deliver telling characterizations of many episodes. Details emerge that are lost in some other accounts, and there is an appealing gentleness and sweetness to the approach. But the readings do not have as much grip as those of Bernstein and Slatkin, among others, and in spite of the authority they automatically possess, they are not necessarily preferable. Ted Libbey

If you want a prime collection of Copland's more accessible works, this is it. Yes, it's true that Bernstein's recordings of individual pieces are often bolder and livelier; but this set offers the composer's own authoritative view of his work, and for that reason alone it is priceless. In addition, it includes virtually all the orchestral pieces he composed during his "populist phase," from El Salon Mexico (1936) to the Clarinet Concerto (1948). You won't find some of these lesser-known gems, such as An Outdoor Overture (1938) or Letter from Home (1944, written--like Rhapsody in Blue--for Paul Whiteman), on typical single-disc Copland compilations. I'd even go so far as to claim this as one of the four indispensable compilations of American instrumental music from the first half of the twentieth century (the others on my list--in case anyone cares--are Joshua Rifkin playing Scott Joplin, Oscar Levant playing Gershwin, and the Blanton-Webster band recordings of Duke Ellington).

What amazing riches flowed from Copland's pen during the period covered by these three discs! Billy the Kid (1939), Quiet City (1940), Our Town (1940), Fanfare for the Common Man (1942), Rodeo (1942), Lincoln Portrait (1942), Appalachian Spring (1944), and the Third Symphony (1946)--all are here. Some of this music is so familiar, so deeply ingrained in America's cultural consciousness, that we might be tempted to take it for granted. But imagine how much poorer the American concert repertoire would be without it. It's almost impossible, at this point, to conceive of a time when this wonderful music--which is to America roughly what Mussorgsky's music is to Russia, Grieg's to Norway, and Falla's to Spain--didn't exist. It was during the dozen years covered by this collection that Copland pulled away from the pack of his talented contemporaries (Hanson, Thomson, Harris, etc.) and, in a way, but with greater technical sophistication, filled the void left by the tragically early death of Gershwin, whose heyday, 1924-1935, immediately preceded the composition of the works on this collection.

The ballet music is all presented here in the familiar orchestral suites Copland arranged. Most of the selections are played by the London Symphony Orchestra, although the New Philharmonia and the just-plain Philharmonia get cracks at a few key works. The last-named orchestra, for instance, takes on the biggest piece on the program, Copland's Third, the closest thing American music has to a Beethoven's Ninth (although the work's sublime rhetoric has never completely convinced me--it's neither my personal favorite by Copland nor my favorite American symphony . . . but it sure has its moments). In addition to the fine orchestral playing, another treat is that Henry Fonda narrates the Lincoln Portrait--an almost inevitable pick, given the virtually mythic way his acting style embodied the American spirit and the fact that he had portrayed the sixteenth president in John Ford's classic film Young Mr. Lincoln (1939).

The set concludes with what, over the years, has become my favorite work by Copland, the Concerto for Clarinet, Strings, Harp, & Piano, written for and performed here by surely the last century's greatest clarinetist, Benny Goodman. This work effects a concise synthesis between Copland's mature style and his earlier jazz stylings from the 1920s; in addition, the searing eloquence of the opening slow movement seems to me the most profound lyrical writing Copland ever achieved. Stoltzman's recording, ironically enough, swings harder than the king of swing's, but this collaboration between the composer and the man who commissioned it is for the ages.

The only major "populist" scores written after the period this collection covers are the film scores to The Red Pony (1948) and The Heiress (1949). Both can be acquired on an essential Leonard Slatkin CD for RCA. And since this collection doesn't include chamber music, the great Violin Sonata (1943), a kind of more intimate counterpart to Appalachian Spring, will have to be sought elsewhere. (One good option is Gil Shaham/Andre Previn on DG.) A serious Copland collector will also want to grab the other two volumes of the Copland Collection itself. The early set features important works such as the Organ Symphony (1924), Music for the Theater (1925), and the Short Symphony (1932)--but both of the other collections also include long, thorny pieces like the early Symphonic Ode and the late Connotations that can be rather difficult for the average enthusiast to enjoy.

Most of the essential, universal Copland is to be found on this second installment of the Copland Collection, and I would definitely recommend it as the place to start exploring Copland's magnificent contribution to American music. It has been a wonderful and treasured companion of mine for many years, and it also serves to conjure up a timely and inspiring vision of open prairies, nocturnal cityscapes, and the populist, humane values that America should, ideally, epitomize. ADB

CD I (Total timing-73:00)

1. EL SALON MEXICO (1933-1936) (11:25)
New Philharmonia Orchestra
(Produced by Paul Myers; Engineered by Mike Ross-Trevor & Robert Gooch; Recorded at the EMI Studios, Landon, May 31, 1972)

2. AN OUTDOOR OVERTURE (1938) (8:57)
London Symphony Orchestra
(Produced by Richard Killough & John McClure; Engineered by Hellmuth Kolbe & John Guerriere; Recorded at Walthamstow, London)

BILLY THE KID (ORCHESTRAL SUITE) (1939)
3. Introduction: The Open Prairie (3:22)
4. Street in a Frontier Town (6:37)
5. Prairie Night (Card Game at Night) (3:08)
6. Gun Battle (2:30)
7. Celebration (after Billy's Capture) (2: 13)
8. Billy's Death (1:28)
9. The Open Prairie Again (1:46)
London Symphony Orchestra
(Produced by Paul Myers; Engineered by Hellmuth Kolbe & Ed Michalski; Recorded at Walthamstow, London, November 28 & 29, 1969)

10. QUIET CITY (1940) (9:48)
William Lang, Trumpet• Michael Winfield, English Horn London Symphony Orchestra
(Produced by Richard Killough & John McClure; Engineered by Hellmuth Kolbe & John Guerriere; Recorded at Walthamstow, London, November 6, 1965)

11. JOHN HENRY (1940, revised 1952) (3:58)
London Symphony Orchestra
(Produced by Paul Myers' Engineered by Robert Gooch & Mike Rassirevor; Recorded at Walthamstow, London, October 26 & 29. 1968)

12. OUR TOWN (1940) (11:01)
London Symphony Orchestra
(Produced by Richard Killough & John McClure; Engineered by Hellmuth Kolbe & John Guerriere; Recorded at Walthamstow, London, October 2 & 3, 1967)

13. LAS AGACHADAS (The Shake-down Song) (1942) (3:03)

(Lyrics: Spanish Traditional)
New England Conservatory Chorus (Lorna Cooke de Varon, Director)
(Produced by Richard Killough; Recorded at 30th Street Studio, New York City, March 29, 1965)

14. FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN (1942) (3:15)
London Symphony Orchestra
(Produced by Paul Myers & Richard Killough; Engineered by Raymond Moore, Hellmuth Kolbe & Robert Gooch; Recorded at Walthomstow, London, October 26 & 29, 1968)

CD 2 (Total timing- 77:02)

RODEO (Four Dance Episodes) (1942)
1. I-Buckaroo Holiday (7:44)
2. II-Corral Nocturne (3:46)
3. III-Saturday Night Waltz (4:41)
4. IV-Hoedown (3:31)
London Symphony Orchestra
(Produced by Paul Myers; Engineered by Hellmuth Kolbe & Ed Michalski; Recorded at Walthomstow, london, October 26,1968)

MUSIC FOR MOVIES (1942)
5. New England Countryside (from The City/ (6: 10)
6. Barley Wagons (from Of Mice and Men) (2:34)
7. Sunday Traffic (from The City) (2:42)
8. Grovers Corners (from Our Town) (3: 10)
9. Threshing Machines (from Of Mice and Men) (3:04)
New Philharmonia Orchestra
(Produced by Paul Myers; Engineered by Robert Gooch & Mike Ross Trevor; Recorded at EMI Studios, London, June 6, 1974)

APPALACHIAN SPRING (Suite from the Ballet) (1945)
10. Very slow (2:46)
11. Fast (3:03)
12. Moderato (3:37)
13. Fast (3: 30)
14. Still Faster (4:05)
15.As at first (slowly) (1:07)
16. Calm and Flowing (3:12)(Shaker tune: Simple Gifts)
17. Moderato; Coda (3:22)
London Symphony Orchestra
(Produced by Paul Myers & Richard Killough; Engineered by Raymond Moore, Hellmuth Kolbe & Robert Gooch; Recorded at EMI Studios, london, November 9 & 10, 1970)

18. LETTER FROM HOME (1943-1944) (7:20)
London Symphony Orchestra
(Produced by Paul Myers; Engineered by Robert Gooch & Mike Ross Trevor; Recorded at Wolthomstow, london, October 26,1968)

19. DANZON CUBANO (Orchestral Version) (1944) (7:11)
London Symphony Orchestra
(Produced by Paul Myers; Engineered by Mike Ross Trevor & Robert Gooch; Recorded at EMI Studios, London, November 9 & 10, 1970)

CD 3 (Total timing-76:01)

LINCOLN PORTRAIT (1942)
1. Lento (4:17)
2. Subito allegro (3:29)
3. "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history .... " (7:18)
Henry Fonda, Narrator
London Symphony Orchestra
(Produced by Paul Myers & Richard Killough; Engineered by Raymond Moore, Hellmuth Kolbe & Robert Gooch; Orchestral portion recorded at Wolthomstow, London, October 26 & 29, 1968; Narration was recorded in New York, June 7, 1971)

SYMPHONY NO.3 (1944-1946)
4. I-Molto moderato-with simple expression (10:20)
5. II-Allegro molto (8:46)
6. III-Andantino quasi allegretto (9:55)
7. IV-Molto deliberato (14:45)
Philharmonia Orchestra
(Produced by Roy Emerson; Engineered by Mike Sheody & Mike Ross Trevor; Recorded at EMI Studios, London, October 22 & 24, 1976)

8. CONCERTO FOR CLARINET, STRINGS, HARP & PIANO (1947-1948) (16:45)
Benny Goodman, Clarinet
Laura Newell, Harp
Abba Bogin, Piano
Columbia Symphony Strings
(Produced by John McClure; Recorded at Manhattan Center, New York City, February 20, 1963)

ALL SELECTIONS CONDUCTED BY THE COMPOSER

Upgrade to FLAC: THE TENDER LAND (AN OPERA IN THREE ACTS)

2008-11-03T10:07:00.003-05:00

Aaron Copland didn't have the theatrical instinct of a George Gershwin or even a Gian Carlo Menotti, but that didn't keep him from writing one of the best operas we have in the "American" vein. The Tender Land was composed in 1953 on a commission from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II--who since the premiere of Oklahoma! 10 years earlier could afford such largesse--and received its premiere on April 1, 1954 at the City Center in New York. Concerning a girl transformed into a young woman by her first experience of love, The Tender Land is set in the American Midwest during the 1930s. The libretto by Horace Everett (a pseudonym of Erik Johns) was inspired by photographs taken by Walker Evans of a rural, Depression-era mother and her daughter that had appeared in James Agee's book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

The music is cut from the same cloth as that of Appalachian Spring--the melodic, easygoing, folkish vein that Copland could manage about as easily as breathing. Lightly scored (calling for winds and brass in twos) and with spoken dialogue in the style of the musical stage, the score has come to be regarded as one of Copland's finest, as he himself believed it to be. You couldn't get a more authentic cast than the one heard here, consisting entirely of good American singers whose delivery is appropriately nonoperatic, and including Minnesota native Elisabeth Comeaux in the central role of Laurie. Philip Brunelle leads the forces of the Minnesota-based Plymouth Music Series in an idiomatic if slightly underpowered performance that comes from the Heartland and goes straight to the heart. Ted Libbey

Although the folk-tinged ballet scores that made Copland the quintessential American composer of the early 1940's are outside the scope of this selection, he worked along similar lines well into the 50's. ''The Tender Land,'' his 1956 opera about a girl's coming of age on a Midwest farm, is the culmination of this style, offering both the orchestral warmth and evocativeness of ''Appalachian Spring'' and the homey vocal writing of ''Old American Songs.'' Its attractions include a gorgeous quintet (''The promise of living''), an infectious barn dance (''Stomp your foot'') and a touching finale. The Brunelle recording, with Elisabeth Comeaux as Laurie and Dan Dressen as Martin, does the score full justice. Allan Kozinn

Disc: 1
1. The Tender Land: Prelude
2. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 1: The Front Yard Of The Moss Home
3. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 1: 'Two Little Bits Of Metal'
4. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 1: The Arrival Of The Postman
5. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 2: Opening The Package
6. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 2: 'This Is Like The Dress I Never Had'
7. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 2: Dance And Exit
8. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 3: Laurie's Entrance: 'Once I Thought I'd Never Grow
9. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 3: Ma's Entrance
10. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 3: 'Remember The Boy That Used To Call'; Ma's Exit
11. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 4: Entrance Of Martin And Top
12. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 4: Martin And Top Enter The Farmyard
13. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 4: Duet: 'We've Been North'
14. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 4: Grandpa Meets The Boys
15. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 4: Trio: 'A Stranger May Seem Strange That's True'
16. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 4: Interlude - Martin And Top Make Horseplay
17. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 5: The Invitation
18. The Tender Land: Act One, Scene 5: Quintet - 'The Promise Of Living'
CD1 Duration: 42:23

Disc: 2
1. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 1: The Graduation Eve Supper
2. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 1: The Supper Ends
3. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 1: Grandpa's Toast: 'Try Makin' Peace'
4. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 1: Laurie's reply: 'Thank You, Thank You All'
5. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 1: The Invitaition To Dance
6. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 1: The Dance: 'Stomp Your Foot Upon The Floor'
7. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 2: Dance Music And Dialogue
8. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: Party Music Back In The House
9. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: Top's Song: 'Oh, I Was Goin' A-Courtin'
10. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: The Dancing Resumes
11. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: Duet: 'You Dance Real Well'
12. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: 'Laurie...You Know, Laurie'
13. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: Duet: 'In Love? In Love?'
14. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: 'The Tender Land'
15. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 4: Grandpa's Confrontation
16. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 4: Party Farewell
17. The Tender Land: Act Three: Introduction
18. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 1: Entr'acte
19. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 1: Duet: 'Laurie, Laurie...'
20. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 1: Martin Alone: 'Daylight Will Come In Such Short TIme'
21. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 1: Dialogue
22. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 1: Top's Aria: 'That's Crazy' And Exit Of Martin And Top'
23. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 2: Interlude: Daybreak
24. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 2: 'The Sun Is Coming Up'
25. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 2: Laurie's Farewell
26. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 2: 'All Thinking's Done'
CD2 Duration: 64:12

Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of The Plymouth Music Series Minnesota, directed by Philip Brunelle
Recorded October, 1989 at Ordway Music Theatre, St Paul, Minnesota

DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES/ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S: MUSIC FOR THE THEATRE, MUSIC FOR MOVIES, QUIET CITY, CLARINET CONCERTO

2008-11-01T14:32:00.004-04:00

Davies and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s have recorded a number of discs dedicated to Copland’s work. I like this one the best, especially their version of Quiet City, which comes off quite beautifully.

Dennis Russell Davies is a noted champion of living composers and modern music including Hans Werner Henze, William Bolcom, Lou Harrison, Alan Hovhaness, John Cage, Philip Glass, Giya Kancheli, Arvo Pärt, Virgil Thomson, and Aaron Copland. He has commissioned, premiered and recorded numerous pieces by living composers, along with the standard classical works. Of note are the recordings of Copland's Appalachian Spring with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in 1979 for which he won a Grammy Award; Arvo Pärt Fratres and Miserere; and many of Philip Glass's operas and symphonies including his 5th symphony which is dedicated to Davies. Lou Harrison's 3rd Symphony is also dedicated to Davies.

Upon the discs release in 1989, the New York Times called these performances “sharply articulated, lean-textured readings.” I would have to agree. They have a small, chamber feeling to them, very transparent and spare. To me, this is how Copland’s music sounds best, especially of these small-scale pieces. They are delicate and can easily be overwhelmed by overzealous forces.

William Blount acquits himself very well on the Clarinet Concerto, a piece commissioned and first performed by jazz bandleader Benny Goodman. Blount is a New York musician who has performed Copland’s concerto hundreds of times. His familiarity with the work is pleasingly obvious when listening to this recording.

Music For The Theatre (1925)
1. Prologue (6:09)
2. Dance (3:16)
3. Interlude (5:43)
4. Burlesque (3:15)
5. Epilogue (3:50)

6. Quiet City (1940) (10:02)

Music For Movies (1943)
7. New England Countryside (6:02)
8. Barley Wagons (2:24)
9. Sunday Traffic (2:28)
10 The Story Of Grover's Corners (3:05)
11. Threshing Machines (2:58)

12. Clarinet Concerto (1948) (16:36)

Dennis Russell Davies conducting Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

William Blount, clarinet on #12
Recorded in 1988

Upgrade to FLAC: MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS/UTAH SYMPHONY & MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR: CHORAL WORKS

2008-10-23T14:23:00.003-04:00

Copland did not compose an extensive repertory of choral music but this is a pleasant sampling which includes the then-premier recordings of Four Motets and Canticle of Freedom composed in 1921 and 1955 respectively.

The more widely-known Old American Songs was originally assembled by Copland for voice and piano and later set for voice and orchestra by the composer. The choral version of Old American Songs was arranged by Irving Fine, Raymond Wilding-White, and Glenn Koponen.

Michael Tilson Thomas has long been an able interpreter of Aaron Copland's works and, in fact, was hand-selected by the composer himself to conduct the chorus for these recordings. Copland had originally planned to handle the conducting chores himself but was too ill to participate.

Background information on this recording can be found in the scanned liner notes contained in the download. For a history and analysis of these compositions, see the comments.

Old American Songs, Set I (1950)
1. The Boatmen's Dance 3:03
2. The Dodger 2:05
3. Long Time Ago 3:10
4. Simple Gifts 1:21
5. I Bought Me A Cat 2:12

Old American Songs, Set II (1952)
6. The Little Horses 3:11
7. Zion's Walls 1:44
8. The Golden Willow Tree 3:20
9. At The River 2:43
10. Ching-A-Ring Chaw 1:33

11. Canticle Of Freedom (1955) 13:46

Four Motets (1921)
12. Help Us, O Lord 2:50
13. Thou, O Jehovah, Abideth Forever 2:29
14. Have Mercy On Us, O My Lord 4:11
15. Sing Ye Praises To Our King 1:41

Recorded in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah in 1986

JONATHAN SHEFFER/EOS ORCHESTRA: CELLULOID COPLAND (FILM MUSIC)

2008-10-21T11:07:00.003-04:00

When one thinks of pure musical "Americana", most likely the name Aaron Copland comes to mind. One of the perennial American composers, his music undoubtedly shaped the way we think of American music - and film scoring. While he only scored 10 films, he was nominated for three Academy Awards and won an Oscar for The Heiress. Many people might think of his "Fanfare for the Common Man" or "Appalachian Spring" concert works, and others might think of Of Mice and Men and Our Town for his film scores. "Celluloid Copland" is a new compilation album that has been released which covers four more Copland projects: From Sorcery to Science, The City, The Cummington Story, and The North Star.

From Sorcery to Science was actually a puppet show at the Hall of Pharmacy at the 1939 World's Fair. While basically an infomercial (as most things were at the fair), Copland's music quickly bounced around different world styles, yet somehow remained American at its core. With a triumphant brass "Opening Fanfare", the show began. "The Chinese Medicine Man" and "African Voodoo" use ethnic percussion and scoring, and feel Chinese and African in style, but the tunes themselves are pure Copland. "Finale: The March of the Americas" is a glorious cue full of proud glory and beaming pride: medicine will help us all!

The City was a short documentary done in 1939. The film begins by showing the differences between an idyllic small New England town and a dirty grimy industrial city, where everyone is miserable ("The Steel Mill", "Sorrow of the City"). The main unifying theme is lyrical and complex; it reminds me of something that John Williams would be writing today. The excitement builds a little bit at "Fire Engines at Lunch Hour", where a whistle is put to good effect, along with a tense orchestra, and plenty of Americana. "End Title: The Children" is another fanfare moment, done in the classic Copland style. It's because of his work on this film that he ended up composing Of Mice and Men, and his sporadic (and somewhat short) Hollywood career began.

A suite from The Cummington Story is presented on this album as well. A tender and emotional piece, the documentary follows war refugees as they begin new lives in a small Massachusetts town. This is a great suite of music, and the arrangement by conductor Jonathan Sheffer did a wonderful job keeping the music flowing.

The final suite on the album is from The North Star. A World War II film actually written during WWII, it depicted the Nazi's savage attack on a Russian village. The ending wasn't very upbeat, so famed lyricist Ira Gershwin was brought in to help lighten the atmosphere to send "a cheery message of hope". Here Copland moved away from Americana, and tackled a more Russian style. "Main Title" is a good overall cue, giving you a taste of things to come. The sad, melancholy orchestra in "Death of the School Boy" lead up to the exciting "Song of the Guerillas". Featuring Gershwin's lyrics, Copland's main fanfare is brought to life with depth and complexity. It's an excellent track, and leads directly into the battle suite, contained in "North Star Battle", "The Children's Return" and "Guerilla's Return". Here Copland shows his flare for action cues, with fast moving strings and brass mixed with percussion hits. Stylically similar to some of Prokofiev's music in Alexander Nevsky, this suite is dramatic and exciting - and pretty different from the rest of the music on the album.

The performances by the Eos Orchestra, under the baton of Jonathan Sheffer are quite good, and the sound quality is excellent. This Telarc release has a running time of just about an hour, and for those out there who have very little exposure to Aaron Copland's music, I would have to strongly urge you pick it up. While it may not compare to some of his more "classic" film scores such as Our Town or The Red Pony, this is a great album to have, and I'm sure anyone who gets it will not be disappointed. Dan Goldwasser

From Sorcery to Science (1939)
1. Opening Fanfare 0:10
2. The Chinese Medicine Man 1:44
3. The Witch's Cauldron 1:50
4. The Alchemist 1:23
5. African Voodoo 1:37
6. The Modern Pharmacy 1:08
7. Finale: March of the Americas 1:59

The City (Suite) (1939)
8. Main Title: New England Countryside 4:42
9. The Steel Mill 2:20
10. The Sorrow of the City 2:44
11. Fire Engines at Lunch Hour 2:13
12. Taxi Jam 1:55
13. Sunday Traffic 2:45
14. The New City 4:10
15. End Tite: The Children 1:04

16. The Cummington Story (Suite) (1945) 9:55

The North Star (Suite) (1943)
17. Main Title 2:17
18. Death of the Little Boy 2:13
19. Going To School 1:50
20. Damian is Blind 2:55
21. Song of the Guerrillas 1:11
22. North Star Battle 1:42
23. The Children's Return 1:03
24. Guerillas Return 1:51
25. Leaving the Village 2:16

Jonathan Sheffer conducting the Eos Orchestra
Recorded March 15-20, 2000 at The Performing Arts Center, Purchase College, Purchase, NY USA

LOUIS LANE/ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: APPALACHIAN SPRING, RODEO, FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN

2008-10-11T16:00:00.004-04:00

"Louis Lane and the Atlanta Symphony offer fine performances and remain at the head of the pack for uncompromising audiophile sound." - Fanfare

The Lane/Atlanta SO recording comprises three of Copland’s best-known works, and is a decent, if unspectacular, introduction to his works. Some years ago I would have said that "A Fanfare for the Common Man" is Copland’s most famous work. It was written on commission by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; ten composers were commissioned to write patriotic fanfares to "foster patriotic spirit" during World War II. Copland’s is the only of these fanfares to survive in the repertory (although I’ve always wanted to hear the others; I wonder if they’re recorded anywhere). The "Fanfare" opens with a mighty pounding of the drum, followed by a breathtaking trumpet theme which is then expanded by the rest of the brass. The "Fanfare" demands spectacular sound, but to my ears the Louis Lane/Atlanta Symphony recording here is a bit muted and flat, which is curious given that Telarc Digital recordings tend to the "spectacular" side. The other works on the disc fare better: the "Appalachian Spring" and "Rodeo: Four Dance" "Episodes" are well-done, with the sound opening up a bit. Conductor Lane gives the inner movements of "Rodeo" a nice lilt, and the "Buckaroo Holiday" is also well-shaped. I do think that he takes the "Hoe-Down" (which, thanks to the long-running advertising campaign for American beef, is now indisputably the most well-known of all of Copland’s works) a bit too fast. The Atlanta players, particularly the brass, keep up quite well, but some of this music’s charm is lost in Lane’s trip to the races. His "Appalachian Spring" is also brisk, which tends to keep the score’s most dramatic segments from achieving their true potential. But it, too, is well-played by the orchestra.

This spectacular recording, recorded in 1981 and released in 1982, won kudos from the critics for both sound and performance. One of the earliest available CDs, it was known to audiophiles the world over for the stunning clarity and sound of its opening track, containing Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man.

1. Fanfare For The Common Man (1942) 3:20

Rodeo, Ballet Suite (1942)

2. Buckaroo Holiday (7:21)
3. Rodeo - Corral Nocturne (3:42)
4. Rodeo - Saturday Night Waltz (4:05)
5. Rodeo - Hoe Down (3:15)

6. Appalachian Spring, Ballet Suite (1943-44) 22:25

Louis Lane conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Recorded at Atlanta Symphony Hall, Atlanta, GA USA on May 24, 1982

UPGRADING TO LOSSLESS

2008-09-22T18:13:00.002-04:00

This blog is poised to return in early October. Upon its return, FANFARE FOR AARON COPLAND will be upgraded to FLAC. FLAC is a lossless codec which allows more judicious compression, resulting in larger files than MP3 but vastly improved sonics. All new posts will be done in FLAC while previously posted items will gradually be upgraded to the superior format. See you soon!

UPDATE

2008-08-31T22:38:00.001-04:00

For those who may be wondering, updates to this blog WILL eventually resume. My family and I are relocating abroad (from USA to South America) and all my belongings, including CD's and computer equipment, are currently in an ocean container sailing southbound. It will be at least another month (end September) until I am up and running once again. Thank you for your patience...

DANZON CUBANO, THREE BLUES, OUR TOWN SUITE - AARON COPLAND & LEO SMIT, PIANISTS

2008-07-02T10:04:00.005-04:00

Buster at Big 10-Inch Record was kind enough to lend me the use of this post, which originally appeared on his fascinating blog. I urge everyone to spend some time browsing through and sampling his eclectic collection. Please see the link to his blog below.

Here are Buster's notes from his original post:
Aaron Copland made several records of his own music as a conductor, but only a few as a pianist. Even in this, he only participates in Danzon Cubano. The leading player throughout is Leo Smit, something of a Copland specialist. The selections from Our Town are familiar from the orchestral score. These piano versions are superb. The real find (to me) is the set of Three Blues. In their simplicity and tone, they are reminiscent of Gershwin's Three Preludes. In this piece and the other items, Copland's debt to Satie is apparent.

This was an early 10-inch LP on the Concert Hall label. I've never seen a reissue of it - strange considering Copland's popularity.

I met Copland once a long time ago at a master class. I remember he was mildly critical of one of the student's compositions. The young composer, I heard later, was devastated. Buster

Big 10-Inch Record can be found here: http://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/

1. Danzon Cubano Suite (transcribed for two pianos) 6:40

2. Three Blues (4:25

"Our Town" Suite

3. Story of Our Town (3:19)

4. Conversation at the Soda Fountain (2:24)

5. Resting Place on the Hill (3:52)

Aaron Copland & Leo Smit (pianos) on track #1

Leo Smit, Solo Piano on all other selections

OLIVER KNUSSEN/CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA & LONDON SINFONIETTA: GROHG, HEAR YE! HEAR YE!

2008-05-16T11:49:00.005-04:00

Two of the pieces on this splendid collection received their premier recordings: the ballet scores Grohg and Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Both are rich, rigorous works and are wonderfully interpreted by these first-tier orchestras under the direction of Oliver Knussen. The third piece, Prelude For Chamber Orchestra, is actually Copland's rearrangement of his Organ Symphony's first movement. Scoredaddy

This music is hardly recognizable as that of America's greatest composer of ballet music. These are very early works of a composer fresh from Europe and from studying under Nadia Boulanger, who taught Copland to rely on folk sources for his music. This, for Copland, meant jazz. Grohg (written in 1922-25, revised in 1935) was Copland's first orchestral work, inspired by the German film Nosferatu, about a sorcerer bringing corpses alive to dance for his pleasure. If the only Copland you're interested in is the one who wrote Appalachian Spring, then this isn't for you. Still, the music is engaging and instructive. Paul Cook

Grohg - Ballet in One act (1922-25, revised 1932)
1. Introduction, Cortège and Entrance of Grohg 7:40
2. Dance of the Adolescent 6:27
4. Dance of the Streetwalker 3:42
5. Grohg imagines the Dead are mocking him 4:41
6. Illumination and Disappearance of Grohg 1:59

7. Prelude for chamber orchestra 6:04 (1924, arranged 1934)

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! - Ballet in One act (1934, version for small orchestra, 1935)
8. Scene i (Prelude) 1:36
9. Scenes ii-iv (The Courtroom; Dance of the Prosecuting Attorney; Danse of the Defense Attorney; Quarrel) 4:48
10. Scene v (The Nightclub hostess sworn in) 0:47
11. Scene vi (The Chorus-girls' first dance) 3:31
12. Scene vii (First Pas-de-deux) 2:49
13. Scene viii (Pas-de-deux continued; First murder) 2:54
14. Scenes ix-x (The Courtroom); The Noneymoon Couple sworn in) 1:30
15. Scene xi (The Chorus-girls' dance with doves) 2:18
16. Scene xii (Second Pas-de-deux with murder) 3:45
17. Scenes xiii-xiv (The Courtroom; the Waiter is sworn in) 1:24
18. Scene xv (The Chorus-girls' third dance) 1:29
19. Scene xvi (Third Pas-de-deux and Murder) 3:24
20. Scenes xvii-xviii (The Verdict; The Courtroom) 1:57

Grohg performed by the Cleveland Orchestra ; other selections performed by the London Sinfonietta. All works conducted by Oliver Knussen.

Grohg was recorded in Severance Hall, Cleveland, Ohio on May 3, 1993. Other selections were recorded in Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, UK on June 29-30, 1993

A COPLAND CELEBRATION, VOLUME TWO

2008-01-24T15:21:00.000-05:00

We follow here with an essential collection featuring many of Aaron Copland's most important chamber and vocal works. Also present is one of the most famous (and some think best) interpretations of Copland's landmark LINCOLN PORTRAIT with an interesting turn on the narration by poet Carl Sandburg. His approach is unique and is radically different from any performance I've heard elsewhere. The orchestra is directed by Andre Kostelanetz, who had originally commissioned the work from Copland and conducted its debut performance in 1942.

Both sets of OLD AMERICAN SONGS are sung on this recording by William Warfield, who gave the U.S. premier performances with Copland on the piano as well. These were later set by Copland for voice and orchestra. TWELEVE POEMS OF EMILY DICKENSON is Copland's major contribution to setting poetry to music, a brilliant song cycle and his most significant vocal work. This is Copland's early recording of the work with mezzo-soprano Martha Lipton. He later rerecorded the cycle with Adele Addison.

The chamber pieces are facinating, especially his early VITEBSK for piano, cello, and violin. All are quite modern in feeling, marked by spiky motifs and complex rhythmic structures. The collection closes with Oscar Levant at the piano with some excerpts from BILLY THE KID, as arranged for solo piano by composer Lukas Foss.

DISC 1

1. Vitebsk, Study On A Jewish Theme (1929)

Aaron Copland (piano)
Earl Carlyss (violin)
Claus Adam (cello)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York City, NY on October 28, 1966

Sextet For Clarinet, Piano And String Quartet (1937)
2. I. Allegro vivace
3. II. Lento
4. III. Finale

Aaron Copland (piano)
Harold Wright (clarinet)
Julliard String Quartet:
Robert Mann (violin)
Raphael Hiller (viola)
Earl Carlyss (violin)
Claus Adam (cello)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York City, NY on October 27, 1966

Piano Quartet (1950)
5. I. Adagio serio
6. II. Allegro giusto
7. III. Non troppo lento

Aaron Copland (piano)
Robert Mann (violin)
Raphael Hiller (viola)
Claus Adam (cello)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York City, NY on October 28, 1966

Duo For Flute And Piano (1970-71)
8. I. Flowing
9. II. Poetic, Somewhat Mournful
10. III. Lively, With Bounce

Aaron Copland (piano)
Elaine Shaffer (flute)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio on December 11&14, 1972

DISC 2

1. Lincoln Portrait (1942)

The New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andre Kostelanetz.
Carl Sandburg (narrator)
Recorded in New York City, NY on March 16, 1958

Twelve Poems Of Emily Dickinson (1949-50)
2. I. Nature, The Greatest Mother
3. II. There Came A Wind Like A Bugle
4. III. Why Do They Shut Me Out Of Heaven?
5. The World Feels Dusty
6. V. Heart, We Will Forget Him
7. VI. Dear March, Come In!
8. VII. Sleep Is Supposed To Be
9. VIII. When They Come Back
10. IX. I Felt A Funeral In My Brain
11. X. I've Heard An Organ Talk Sometimes
12. XI. Going To Heaven!
13. XII. The Chariot

Martha Lipton (voice)
Aaron Copland (piano)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York City, NY on December 22, 1950 and April 4, 1952

Old American Songs -Set 1 (1950)
14. The Boatmen's Dance (Minstrel Song, 1843)
15. The Dodger (Campaign Song)
16. Long Time Ago
17. Simple Gifts (Shaker Song)
18. I Bought Me A Cat

Old American Songs -Set 2 (1952)
19. The Little Horses (Lullaby)
20. Zion's Walls (Revivalist Song)
21. The Golden Willow Tree
22. At The River (Hymn Tune)
23. Ching-A-Ring Chaw (Minstrel Song)

William Warfield (voice)
Aaron Copland (piano)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York City, NY on August 16, 1951 (Set 1) and August 18, 1953 (Set 2)

Billy The Kid 1938)
24. I. The Open Prairie
25. II. Street In A Frontier Town
26. V. Celebration Dance (After Billy's Capture)

Oscar Levant (piano)
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York City, NY on September 1, 1949

LATE ORCHESTRAL WORKS (1948-1971)

2008-01-03T10:15:00.000-05:00

Here is a two-disc collection released in 1991 of late works for orchestra, most of them composed during Copland’s final productive years.

Some of these pieces were composed for other mediums and were adapted by Copland for orchestra. Orchestral Variations and Down A Country Lane were both written for solo piano while the suites The Red Pony and Music For A Great City were adapted from motion picture scores.

This is a near-perfect anthology of Copland’s latter day output. Please see comments for full details on many of the works.

Disc: 1

The Red Pony, Film Suite For Orchestra (1948)
1. I. Morning On The Ranch
2. II. The Gift
3. III. Dream March And Circus Music
4. IV. Walk To The Bunkhouse
5. V. Grandfather's Story
6. VI. Happy Ending

7. Preamble For A Solemn Occasion (1949): Preamble For A Solemn Occasion

Orchestral Variations (1957)
8. Theme: Grave
9. Variation I - Varation XX
10. Coda: Subito lento moderato

Dance Panels (1959, Revised 1962) (Ballet In Seven Sections)
11. I. Introduction: Moderato (Tempo di Valzer); Espressivo un poco rubato
12. II. Allegretto con tenerezza (un poco rubato)
13. III. Scherzando; Moderato
14. IV. Pas de trois. Lento
15. V. Con brio
16. VI. Con moto
17. VII. Molto ritmico; Coda; come prima; Moderato

London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland except 1-6, New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland

1-6 Recorded at EMI Studios, London on May 31, 1972; 7 Recorded at Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London on June 14, 1964; 8-10 Recorded at Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London on October 26, 1968; 11-17 Recorded at EMI Studios, London on FRebruary 12 & November 29, 1969

Disc: 2

1. Connotations (1961-1962) For Orchestra

2. Down A Country Lane (1962)

Music For A Great City (1963-1964):
3. I. Skyline
4. II. Night Thoughts
5. III. Subway Jam
6. IV. Toward The Bridge

7. Inscape (1967)

Three Latin-American Sketches
8. Estribillo (1971)
9. Paisaje Mexicano (1959)
10. Danza de Jalisco (1959)

London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland except 1 & 7 New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein and 8-10 New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland.

1 Recorded at Philharmonic Hall on September 23, 1962; 2 Recorded at Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London on October 26, 1968; 3-6 Recorded at Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London on June 13-14, 1964; 7 Recorded at Philharmonic Hall on October 17, 1967; 8-10 Recorded at EMI Studios, London on June 1, 1972

THE RED PONY - ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK

2007-12-17T09:27:00.000-05:00

FROM THE LINER NOTES:
I wish more audiences could have the experience of watching the movie without any music and then seeing it the second time with music added. I think that would give them a full sense of what music does for making the cold movie screen seem more humane, more touching, and more civilized. -Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland (with William Walton and Sergei Prokofiev) has had to put up with the critics' stubborn notions that movie music and concert music are mutually exclusive; the former being, somehow, not quite worthy of the snob's time ... especially in concert!

According to composer, conductor, writer, educator Aaron Copland (who ought to know), 'I fail to see why, if successful suites like Grieg's Peer Gynt can be made from nineteenth-century incidental stage music, a twentieth-century composer can't be expected to do as well with a film score." (from WHAT TO LISTEN FOR IN MUSIC, McGraw-Hill).

Copland scored less than 10 films. He arranged three Suites from these: MUSIC FOR A GREAT CITY (pulled from Something Wild,196l); 1943's MUSIC FOR MOVIES (from The City, Of Mice And Men, and Our Town); and the most famous, THE RED PONY SUITE, a case where a good soundtrack is perfect for film, and (with a bit of tinkering) just as effective in the concert hall.
THE RED PONY was finished at the beginning of 1948. Efrem Kurtz requested a Suite be made for performance. Copland obliged and Kurtz conducted the Houston Symphony Orchestra for the first performance in October of the same year. It readily stands next to Copland's other, 'populist' pieces; buckaroo ballets like BILLY THE KID (1938) and RODEO (1942); Martha Graham's APPAlACHIAN SPRING (1944); A LINCOLN PORTRAIT (1942); the opera, THE TENDER LAND (1944), and A FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN (1943).

There's no need to have read Steinbeck's novel or seen the picture; the music doesn't need visual cues to make sense. It survives solely on the composer's ability to combine touching melodies, kinetic rhythms, and dramatic harmonies into a powerful whole.

Those familiar with the Suite will hear a good deal of music never before on record. There are fresh thematic treatments; extended sequences (some which were not in the film or the Suite); and some segments which could have easily been lifted right out of the score and added to the Suite (an inspiration to some future arranger, perhaps). As marvelous as THE RED PONY SUITE is, it could have been much, much longer.

1. "Tom's Theme/The Ringmaster (chickens into horses)": Tom Tiflin's (Peter Miles) Theme is the exuberant, naive melody based on a C triad, alternating between dominant and tonic chords in F. The original Ringmaster music (called "Circus Music" in the Suite) is about three times longer than that which appears in the film, suggesting that quite a few chickens ended up on the cutting room floor.

2. "The Clipping/Walk To The Bunkhouse": Tom idolizes and idealizes Billy Buck (Robert Mitchum), the glib, horse-smart cowboy who works for Tom's father. Copland's music for "The Clipping" (the title referring to a news article about Billy's horse, Rosie) is a series of Thirds, airily sprinkled around the key of C. The music uses mellow winds and strings. There is a sincerity and warmth which shows the true relationship between Tom and Billy.
Walk To The Bunkhouse, conversely, is musical shorthand for Tom's idealization of Billy, the consummate cowpoke. Copland uses a three against-two syncopation, relaxed, masculine trumpet and even more relaxed strings. This gives a feel of wide-open-spaciness that has been much copied by Copland successors like Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith. The section closes with Tom's Theme and a variant ending of Ringmaster.

3. "Tom And The Pony/The Storm": A different variation of "Tom's Theme" segues into "The Storm", a quick, expressive, marcato gyration of dry strings, woodwinds and horns.

4. "The Gift/The Red Pony Debuts-Tom's School Friends/Homecoming": The section starts with a dreamy, evening mood, the orchestration perfectly capturing the emotions of a young boy whose wish for a pony has been fulfilled. Copland used instrumention and structure as delicate as the foal's first steps.

"Tom's Schoolfriends" has a reedy, brisk, staccato theme in C#; there is a taunting, prankish bounce to this music, depicting the kind of 'friends' who tend to come around just when their prying isn't needed.
"Homecoming" is an anguished undercurrent to the icy reunion of Tom's parents (Myrna Loy and Shepperd Strudwick). Copland's score defines the emotional tension and turmoil of the scene, a cinematic dimension which only music can express.

5. "The Knights At Arms": As Tom makes his dusty way to school, his mind turns the dirty trail into Medieval mists; the trees behind him become castles, and his beating of a stick against his lunchpail swells into a powerful, soul-stirring march. Copland matched the crystallizing fantasy of Knights on Horseback by modulating his March into an orchestral tutti that gleamed like so much Hollywood armour. The splendor is shattered by yells from Tom's chums. The end is buffoonish, a tuba solo taking over the musical masses.

6. "Shall We Gather At The River": Robert Lowry's beautiful hymn is given the finger-clunk treatment by Tom's mother, This is an excellent example of source music adding the appropriate touch, Mrs, Tiflin's piano playing illustrating that all is not right with the family.

7. "Moth 'Round A Flame": This is where the Tiflin troubles began. Grandfather (Louis Calhern), an old saw who once trekked the West when men were men (etcetera), is telling a story at the dinner table. It soon becomes apparent that everyone has heard these stories ... over ... and ... over ... and ... over! Copland creates a dissonant, monotonous dirge which makes us feel like we, too, have heard Grandfather's ramblings before. A moth soon gains everyone's attention. Flitting flutes and tremulo strings illustrate that it is a mere insect, not Grandfather's umpteenth telling of tougher times, which holds the family's interest.

8. "Night/Grandfather's Story-Westerin'": Low reeds signal disaster. The Pony, already sick, runs off into the night and dies.

In "Grandfather's Story", Tom, the only Tiflin to enjoy Grandpa's retellings, is told the real reason Grandfather clings to the past. There was once a pioneering push to the sea, a thrill of exploring, the exhilaration of conquest. When people like Grandpa met the Pacific, it was allover. Now his breed was dying out, ''westerin' isn't a hunger any more." There is an encompassing, rich passion to Copland's music. As effectively as he made Grandfather's first stories tedious, he makes this new confession sound courageous, but distant. It builds to a harsh, drum-beaten march, with trumpets sounding like the last, lonely vestiges of "Westerin'."

9. "The Pony Gets Sick/Rosie At The Pond": This sequence begins with a painful, two-note motif, thrown from strings to winds, and back again, finally descending to the lowest depths of the clarinet. It ends with a sequence for Tom sitting sadly by the water, being playfully nudged by Billy's horse, Rosie.

10. "After The Vulture Fight-He Let Him Die": Throbbing strings and cold clarinets accompany Billy as he carries the slashed Tom home after the boy's fight to ward buzzards off the Pony's body. Tom blames Billy for the Pony's death.

11. "Tom's Theme/I Want Rosie's Colt": Billy offers Tom Rosie's Colt. After getting over the death of his own horse (and his grudge against Billy), he accepts. Even though this sequence happens at the end of the film, Copland introduces new material to show Tom's changing attitude and maturity. -Thomas J. Clement

About This Recording
This album has been produced from the original Republic Pictures 78rpm disc masters at the soundtrack recording sessions in 1948. Because these records were not made with commercial release in mind, the monaural sound quality varies. Surface noise due to age and condition of the acetate originals has been minimized as much as possible in making the transfer to the tape from which this album was produced.

MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS/UTAH SYMPHONY & MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR: CHORAL WORKS

2007-12-04T09:12:00.000-05:00

Copland did not compose an extensive repertory of choral music but this is a pleasant sampling which includes the then-premier recordings of Four Motets and Canticle of Freedom composed in 1921 and 1955 respectively.

The more widely-known Old American Songs was originally assembled by Copland for voice and piano and later set for voice and orchestra by the composer. The choral version of Old American Songs was arranged by Irving Fine, Raymond Wilding-White, and Glenn Koponen.

Michael Tilson Thomas has long been an able interpreter of Aaron Copland's works and, in fact, was hand-selected by the composer himself to conduct the chorus for these recordings. Copland had originally planned to handle the conducting chores himself but was too ill to participate.

Background information on this recording can be found in the scanned liner notes contained in the download. For a history and analysis of these compositions, see the comments.

Old American Songs, Set I (1950)
1. The Boatmen's Dance 3:03
2. The Dodger 2:05
3. Long Time Ago 3:10
4. Simple Gifts 1:21
5. I Bought Me A Cat 2:12

Old American Songs, Set II (1952)
6. The Little Horses 3:11
7. Zion's Walls 1:44
8. The Golden Willow Tree 3:20
9. At The River 2:43
10. Ching-A-Ring Chaw 1:33

11. Canticle Of Freedom (1955) 13:46

Four Motets (1921)
12. Help Us, O Lord 2:50
13. Thou, O Jehovah, Abideth Forever 2:29
14. Have Mercy On Us, O My Lord 4:11
15. Sing Ye Praises To Our King 1:41

Recorded in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah in 1986.

YOEL LEVI/ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: THIRD SYMPHONY & MUSIC FOR THE THEATER

2007-09-26T10:31:00.000-04:00

The Boston Symphony's Serge Koussevitzky hurried offstage, excitedly kissed several dowagers who had come up to congratulate him. He had just conducted the world premiere of Aaron Copland's Third Symphony. Said he: "There is no doubt about it—this is the greatest American symphony. It goes from the heart to the heart. He is the greatest American composer. Of course."

In the same auditorium 19 years ago Dr. Koussevitzky had led the first performance of Brooklyn-born Aaron Copland's raucous Jazz Concerto. On that evening Bostonians had hissed; some had laughed out loud; some had accused Dr. Koussevitzky of insulting them.* In those days, Aaron Copland was the kind of cacophonous enfant terrible in the U.S. that Igor Stravinsky had once been in Paris. If audiences were no longer disturbed by these terrible children, it was for different reasons. Igor Stravinsky had waited for the public ear to become attuned to his jazzy dissonances. Aaron Copland had modified his harmonies to please the public.

If 45-year-old Copland could be considered the top U.S. composer, the small stature of his colleagues had something to do with it. His technical competence far outshone his inventiveness. His first popular success, El Salon Mexico (1936), was full of Mexican folk tunes. He borrowed folk and hymn themes for his ballet scores (Billy the Kid, Appalachian Spring) and his movie music (Our Town). The Third Symphony, which Boston heard last week, varied from tenderness to brassy choirs which led a Boston Post critic to call it "Shostakovich in the Appalachians."

More often than he borrowed from others, Aaron Copland has borrowed from himself. The Third's opening movement uses a tonal device from Appalachian Spring (1944); the fourth movement intricately develops the theme of Fanfare for the Common Man (1942). Yet there was enough original music in the Third's 40 minutes, and so skilled a reworking of the old, that it would undoubtedly add to Aaron Copland's popularity—a kind of popularity that seemed to keep him too busy to be a great composer.
From TIME Magazine, Monday, Oct. 28, 1946

This most popular of Copland's symphonies---from whose final movement Fanfare for the Common Man was later excerpted---is represented by only four recordings, of which Yoel Levi's is by far the best: meditative, earnest, sumptuous, and overwhelming by turns, this is a definitive performance. As is Telarc's recording, not nearly as too-much-of-a-good-thing as usual: the bass drum in the Fanfare section is accurately stupendous. Squarely in the "stellar" category. Igor Kipnis

The companion piece on this disc is another recording of Music For The Theater, a more complete background of which is forthcoming.

Symphony No. 3 (1944-46)
1. Molto moderato, with simple expression 10:33
2. Allegro molto 09:15
3. Andantino quasi allegretto 10:33
4. Molto deliberato, freely at first 13:30

Music for the Theatre, Suite For Small Orchestra (1925)
5. Prologue 05:59
6. Dance 03:27
7. Interlude 05:14
8. Burlesque 03:08
9. Epilogue 03:45

Recorded in Symphony Hall, Atlanta GA USA on February 18-19 & April 14-18, 1989

THE TENDER LAND (OPERA IN THREE ACTS)

2007-09-07T09:50:00.000-04:00

Aaron Copland didn't have the theatrical instinct of a George Gershwin or even a Gian Carlo Menotti, but that didn't keep him from writing one of the best operas we have in the "American" vein. The Tender Land was composed in 1953 on a commission from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II--who since the premiere of Oklahoma! 10 years earlier could afford such largesse--and received its premiere on April 1, 1954 at the City Center in New York. Concerning a girl transformed into a young woman by her first experience of love, The Tender Land is set in the American Midwest during the 1930s. The libretto by Horace Everett (a pseudonym of Erik Johns) was inspired by photographs taken by Walker Evans of a rural, Depression-era mother and her daughter that had appeared in James Agee's book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. The music is cut from the same cloth as that of Appalachian Spring--the melodic, easygoing, folkish vein that Copland could manage about as easily as breathing. Lightly scored (calling for winds and brass in twos) and with spoken dialogue in the style of the musical stage, the score has come to be regarded as one of Copland's finest, as he himself believed it to be. You couldn't get a more authentic cast than the one heard here, consisting entirely of good American singers whose delivery is appropriately nonoperatic, and including Minnesota native Elisabeth Comeaux in the central role of Laurie. Philip Brunelle leads the forces of the Minnesota-based Plymouth Music Series in an idiomatic if slightly underpowered performance that comes from the Heartland and goes straight to the heart. Ted Libbey

Although the folk-tinged ballet scores that made Copland the quintessential American composer of the early 1940's are outside the scope of this selection, he worked along similar lines well into the 50's. ''The Tender Land,'' his 1956 opera about a girl's coming of age on a Midwest farm, is the culmination of this style, offering both the orchestral warmth and evocativeness of ''Appalachian Spring'' and the homey vocal writing of ''Old American Songs.'' Its attractions include a gorgeous quintet (''The promise of living''), an infectious barn dance (''Stomp your foot'') and a touching finale. The Brunelle recording, with Elisabeth Comeaux as Laurie and Dan Dressen as Martin, does the score full justice. Allan Kozinn

CD1 Duration: 42:23

Disc: 2
1. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 1: The Graduation Eve Supper
2. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 1: The Supper Ends
3. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 1: Grandpa's Toast: 'Try Makin' Peace'
4. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 1: Laurie's reply: 'Thank You, Thank You All'
5. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 1: The Invitaition To Dance
6. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 1: The Dance: 'Stomp Your Foot Upon The Floor'
7. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 2: Dance Music And Dialogue
8. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: Party Music Back In The House
9. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: Top's Song: 'Oh, I Was Goin' A-Courtin'
10. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: The Dancing Resumes
11. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: Duet: 'You Dance Real Well'
12. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: 'Laurie...You Know, Laurie'
13. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: Duet: 'In Love? In Love?'
14. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 3: 'The Tender Land'
15. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 4: Grandpa's Confrontation
16. The Tender Land: Act 2, Scene 4: Party Farewell
17. The Tender Land: Act Three: Introduction
18. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 1: Entr'acte
19. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 1: Duet: 'Laurie, Laurie...'
20. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 1: Martin Alone: 'Daylight Will Come In Such Short TIme'
21. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 1: Dialogue
22. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 1: Top's Aria: 'That's Crazy' And Exit Of Martin And Top'
23. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 2: Interlude: Daybreak
24. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 2: 'The Sun Is Coming Up'
25. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 2: Laurie's Farewell
26. The Tender Land: Act Three, Scene 2: 'All Thinking's Done'

CD2 Duration: 64:12

Recorded October, 1989 at Ordway Music Theatre, St Paul, Minnesota

SOMETHING WILD - ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK

2007-09-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

Track listing

1. New York Profile (02:48)
2. Park At Night (01:27)
3. Subway Jam (02:16)
4. Mary Ann Resigned (02:01)
5. Incarceration and Nightmares (07:06)
6. Escape Through The City (07:23)
7. Love Music (01:57)
8. Walk Downtown (03:11)
9. Episode On The Bridge (04:51)
10. Mother Alone (00:57)
11. Reunion (01:05)

Total Duration: 00:35:02

GERARD SCHWARZ & DAVID SHIFRIN - CLARINET CONCERTO, MUSIC FOR THE THEATER, QUIET CITY, & DANCE PANELS

2007-08-17T15:53:00.000-04:00

Music for the Theater (1925), is a suite in five parts for small orchestra, which makes use of syncopated and polymetric rhythms, and "blue" intervals. Copland had no particular play in mind for his work; rather, his music was intended to evoke the variety of moods found in many plays of the day, the romantic or contemplative interlude, the dance-like burst of excited activity, even a parody of burlesque. Brightened with trumpets, trombone, and clarinet, the music evokes jazz and popular song while remaining distinctively Copland's: listen for the sudden changes in metre, the irregular time signatures, the way the spaces inside the music can fill up or empty out in a heartbeat. And the relaxed lyricism of the Prologue, Interlude, and Epilogue is already uniquely his own; what's more, it's uniquely American. Not bad for a 24-year-old.

Quiet City is a well-known composition for trumpet, cor anglais, and string orchestra by Aaron Copland. In 1940, Copland knitted together the ten-minute piece from the incidental music he had written the previous year to accompany Irwin Shaw's play of the same name. The play had been commissioned for the Group Theatre by Harold Clurman and was directed by Elia Kazan. Although the play was dropped after only two Sunday performances, most likely due to internal dissension (see Richard Shickel's discussion in his 2005 biography of Elia Kazan, pp. 75-78), the music endured thanks to Copland's distilled version. Copland's decision to replace the original instrumentation, a chamber quartet of clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, and piano, with a larger ensemble of strings, trumpet, and cor anglais, has tended to deepen rather than sacrifice the intimacy and poignancy of the music. The piece was premiered on January 28, 1941, by conductor Daniel Saidenberg and his Saidenberg Little Symphony in New York City. Quiet City evokes the nocturnal introspections of the dwellers of a great city, beginning in stillness before slowly building up to a climax and then receding into silence again. The voice of the lone trumpeter, joined by that of the dark-toned cor anglais, rises and falls against the clear sound of the strings, in a cathartic release of the nostalgia, melancholy, regrets, and anxieties that distressed individuals in an urban society feel most acutely at night. According to Copland, the piece was "an attempt to mirror the troubled main character of Irwin Shaw's play," who had abandoned his Jewishness and his poetic aspirations in order to pursue material success by Anglicizing his name, marrying a rich socialite, and becoming the president of a department store. The man, however, was continually recalled to his conscience by the haunting sound of his brother's trumpet playing. Continuing the assessment in his own autobiography, Copland observed that "Quiet City seems to have become a musical entity, superseding the original reasons for its composition," owing much of its success to its escape from the details of its dramatic context.

Dance Panels (1959, revised 1962): In seven "movements". Copland at his most Copland-esque. Long pastroal melodies, bouncy tunes, a snare drum here or there. This is film music without a film, the "dawn" opening on a single pitch with offstage horns, ending with a return of the opening material after a deus ex machina trumpet solo that brings the becoming dissonant festivities to a jarring halt and the dawn rises again. Underplayed and enjoyable. The panel technique allows him to experiment with several different moods, which I'm coming more and more to realize is the essence of Copland's language. Consider even his first piece, the piano work: The Cat and the Mouse, in a way this is similar and stands rather separeate from the more "abstract" proclamatory works like the Piano/Orchestral Variations. The orchestration is consistently lovely and here is an interesting point to be aware of - in Copland's music we are hearing a sound orchestrated for the instruments, instead of the instruments playing the music - its a subtle difference. There is the blending of sounds that is so French - back to the Impressionists and forward to the Spectralists - that differs in so many ways from a contrapuntal style as in, say Carter or Ruggles.

1. Concerto for Clarinet & Orchestra (1948) 15:47

David Schifrin (clarinet)

Music For The Theater (1925)

2. Prologue 5:45

3. Dance 3:12

4. Interlude 5:07

5. Burlesque 3:07

6. Epilogue 3:43

David Schifrin (clarinet)

Mark Hill (English horn)

Neil Baum (trumpet)

7. Quiet City (1940) 8:57

Mark Hill (English horn)

Neil Baum (trumpet)

Dance Panels (1959, rev 1962)

8. Introduction: Moderato 3:35

9. Allegretto con tenerezza 4:11

10. Scherzando 4:06

11. Pas de trois: Lento 4:25

12. Con brio 3:28

13. Con moto 1:29

14. Molto ritmico 4:49

New York Chamber Symphony conducted by Gerard Schwarz

BERNSTEIN CONDUCTS COPLAND

2007-08-13T13:30:00.000-04:00

Happy is the composer who has an advocate as passionate and talented as Leonard Bernstein. These Copland performances have been the preferred versions since they were first issued--better even than the composer's own, later recordings. Originally they were spread over two discs, but thanks to the extended playing time of the compact disc, you can now get all three great Copland ballets together, along with the ever popular Fanfare for the Common Man. Bernstein brings to this music the right sharpness of rhythm but also a typically open-hearted warmth. He coaxes a virtuoso response from the New York Philharmonic, which knows this music as well (or better) than anyone. Self- recommending. David Hurwitz

On all: New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein

EARLY ORCHESTRAL WORKS (1922-1935)

2007-08-06T14:53:00.000-04:00

Of the eight works, three are conducted by Leonard Bernstein, who is often considered the definitive interpreter of Copland’s music. The rest are under the direction of the composer himself.

Disc: 1

Dance Symphony (1922-1925)
1. I. Introduction: Lento; Molto allegro; Adagio molto 7:02
2. II. Andante moderato 6:03
3. III. Allegro vivo 4:56

London Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Aaron Copland
Recorded at Walthamstow Town Hall, London UK on October 2&3, 1967

Two Pieces For String Orchestra (1923, 1928)
4. Lento molto 5:42
5. Rondino 4:23

London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland
Recorded at Walthamstow Town Hall, London UK on November 6, 1965

Symphony For Organ & Orchestra (1924)
6.: I. Prelude: Andante 6/8 5:54
7. II. Scherzo: Allegro molto 3/4; Moderato 4- 7:30
8. III. Finale: Lento; Allegro moderato 4/4 11:00

New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein
E. Power Biggs, organ
Recorded at Philharmonic Hall (Avery Fisher Hall), New York City, NY USA on January 3, 1967

Music For The Theatre (1925)
9.: I. Prologue 5:46
10. II. Dance 3:13
11. III. Interlude 5:19
12. IV. Burlesque 3:13
13. V. Epilogue 3:51

New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein
Recorded at the St. George Hotel, Brooklyn, New York USA on December 15, 1958

Disc: 2

Concerto For Piano & Orchestra (1926)
1. I. Andante sostenuto 6:50
2. II. Molto moderato (molto rubato) 9:18

New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein
Aaron Copland, piano
Recorded at Philharmonic Hall (Avery Fisher Hall), New York City, NY USA on January 13, 1964

Symphonic Ode (1927-1929)
3. Symphonic Ode 19:47

London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland
Recorded at Walthamstow Town Hall, London UK on October 2&3, 1967

Short Symphony (Symphony No. 2) (1931-1933)
4. Short Symphony (Symphony No. 2) 15:30

Statements (1934-1935)
5 I. Militant 2:44
6. II. Cryptic 3:21
7. III. Dogmatic 1:47
8. IV. Subjective 3:31
9. V. Jingo 2:33
10. VI. Prophetic 3:34

London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Aaron Copland
Recorded at Walthamstow Town Hall, London UK on November 5, 1965