Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was one of the leading spirits in American music in the 20th century and few U.S. composers, especially during the 30s, 40s and 50s, were not in some way influenced by his music. While his early works were considered austere and appealed primarily to a musical elite, he developed a more accessible style into which he incorporated the peculiarly American elements of jazz, folk music and spiritual melodies. In the words of the noted music critic Harold Schonberg, he was “the urbane, respected symbol of a half century of American music… Copland made the break that took American music into a powerful, modern, very personal kind of speech.” In this program, Copland performs some of his favorite compositions with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. The program was recorded in 1976.
Copland, El Salón México
Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was one of the leading spirits in American music in the 20th century and few U.S. composers, especially during the 30s, 40s and 50s, were not in some way influenced by his music. While his early works were considered austere and appealed primarily to a musical elite, he developed a more accessible style into which he incorporated the peculiarly American elements of jazz, folk music and spiritual melodies. In the words of the noted music critic Harold Schonberg, he was “the urbane, respected symbol of a half century of American music… Copland made the break that took American music into a powerful, modern, very personal kind of speech.” In this program, Copland performs some of his favorite compositions with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. The program was recorded in 1976.
Copland, Clarinet Concerto
Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was one of the leading spirits in American music in the 20th century and few U.S. composers, especially during the 30s, 40s and 50s, were not in some way influenced by his music. While his early works were considered austere and appealed primarily to a musical elite, he developed a more accessible style into which he incorporated the peculiarly American elements of jazz, folk music and spiritual melodies. In the words of the noted music critic Harold Schonberg, he was “the urbane, respected symbol of a half century of American music… Copland made the break that took American music into a powerful, modern, very personal kind of speech.” In this program, Copland performs some of his favorite compositions with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. The program was recorded in 1976.
Copland, Hoe down from the Ballet “Rodeo”
Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was one of the leading spirits in American music in the 20th century and few U.S. composers, especially during the 30s, 40s and 50s, were not in some way influenced by his music. While his early works were considered austere and appealed primarily to a musical elite, he developed a more accessible style into which he incorporated the peculiarly American elements of jazz, folk music and spiritual melodies. In the words of the noted music critic Harold Schonberg, he was “the urbane, respected symbol of a half century of American music… Copland made the break that took American music into a powerful, modern, very personal kind of speech.” In this program, Copland performs some of his favorite compositions with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. The program was recorded in 1976.
Copland, Suite from “The Tender Land”
Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was one of the leading spirits in American music in the 20th century and few U.S. composers, especially during the 30s, 40s and 50s, were not in some way influenced by his music. While his early works were considered austere and appealed primarily to a musical elite, he developed a more accessible style into which he incorporated the peculiarly American elements of jazz, folk music and spiritual melodies. In the words of the noted music critic Harold Schonberg, he was “the urbane, respected symbol of a half century of American music… Copland made the break that took American music into a powerful, modern, very personal kind of speech.” In this program, Copland performs some of his favorite compositions with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. The program was recorded in 1976.
Copland, Lincoln Portrait
Soon after the United States was drawn into World War II, André Kostelanetz approached three American composers with the suggestion of composing three musical portraits of eminent Americans, to express the ‘magnificent spirit of our country.’ The proposal resulted in Virgil Thomson’s “The Mayor La Guardia Waltzes’, Jerome Kern’s “Portrait for Orchestra of Mark Twain’, and Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait”. The score is dedicated to André Kostelanetz, who conducted the first performance at a pension fund concert of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in Cincinnati on 14 May 1942. Our concert featuring the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein was recorded in London in 1976.
Gershwin, An American in Paris
Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin – two musicians inseparably linked with America – form an exuberant and stimulating combination in this program with the New York Philharmonic. Gershwin was one of the American composers Bernstein revered the most and one who, along with Mahler, Copland and Blitzstein, exerted a great influence on him as a composer. For his senior thesis at Harvard University, for example, Bernstein set out to show that Gershwin and Copland had created a national musical style by responding creatively to jazz and Latin-American influences. And when his musical “On the Town” was premiered in 1944, one critic described it as “an energetic blend of Stravinsky and Gershwin.” If anyone could do justice to Gershwin’s spirited, swinging style, it was unquestionably Leonard Bernstein.
Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto in D major, op.35
This recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto Op. 35 documents the fruitful, long-standing relationship between conductor Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. From 1936 to 1980, Ormandy shaped this orchestra into a fine instrument which set standards particularly in its performances of late-Romantic and early 20th-century music. Israeli-born violinist Itzhak Perlman began his career in the United States and is widely acclaimed both as a chamber musician (with Barenboim and others) and as a soloist with the world’s leading orchestras.
Mendelssohn, Violin Concerto in E minor, op.64
The violinist Kyung-Wha Chung made her international breakthrough at her London debut performing the Tchaikovsky concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra under André Previn. She has since concertized with all the world’s greatest orchestras and most eminent conductors, such as Sir Georg Solti. “The last of the great international orchestral and operatic maestri” (The Times), Sir Georg Solti is a living testament to the elegance and impeccable tastefulness of Central European music-making. Solti’s remarkable partnership with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra began in 1954, when he first led the orchestra at the Ravinia Festival. After returning to conduct the ensemble several times during the following years, he was named Music Director in 1969 and held this post for a phenomenal 22 years. He is credited with greatly extending and enhancing the orchestra’s worldwide reputation. His recordings of Mendelssohn’s works with the Chicago Symphony date from the late 1970s and represent a mellower, more lyrically accented phase in the partnership between Solti and his orchestra.
Bruckner, Symphony No.6 in A major
Sir Georg Solti (1912-1997), one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, was a testament to the elegance and impeccable tastefulness of Central European music-making. Born in Budapest in 1912, he studied with Béla Bartók, Ernö von Dohnányi, Zoltán Kodály and Leo Weiner. In 1937, Toscanini chose him to be his assistant at the Salzburg Festival. After the war, Solti was appointed Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera. Further stations in his career were the Frankfurt Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the London Philharmonic. His remarkable partnership with the Chicago Symphony began in 1954; he was named Music Director in 1969 and held this post for a phenomenal 22 years. He is credited with greatly extending and enhancing the orchestra’s worldwide reputation. Solti died in September 1997, just before his 85th birthday. Although this is the only one of his symphonies that Bruckner never revised, the Sixth still managed to be mangled by well-wishing friends and conductors who felt they knew what Bruckner had really wanted to express… Not until the mid 20th century was the work published in its original version. The composer himself never heard a complete performance of his Sixth, which did not take place until 11 February 1899, more than two years after the composer’s death. It was conducted by Gustav Mahler, albeit in a radically cut and reorchestrated version.