Aaron Copland: Piano Concerto, El Salón México, Appalachian Spring, Old American Songs

Featuring

Leonard Bernstein
Aaron Copland
Maurice Abravanel
Antal Doráti
William Warfield
New York Philharmonic

Utah Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
Columbia Symphony Orchestra

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Composer Biography

Aaron Copland, an American composer, conductor, and writer, is often called 'the Dean of American Composers' and is known for forging a distinctly 'American' style of composition.

Composition History

Copland's Piano Concerto was first performed by Serge Koussevitzky, conducting his Boston Symphony, with Copland himself as the soloist.

Recording & Production

This album features Aaron Copland himself as the piano soloist in his Piano Concerto, recorded in New York in 1964 with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Copland consciously developed a 'vernacular' or 'populist' style in the 1930s to reach a larger audience and create a 'home-spun musical idiom,' believing this simpler style was also serious.

Compositional Technique

The Piano Concerto, written in 1926, features strong elements of popular music, with jazz influences in its harmonic and rhythmic basis rather than just the tunes.

Composer Biography

Copland studied with the noted pedagogue Nadia Boulanger in Paris, who inspired his broad musical tastes.

Recording & Production

Aaron Copland also conducts the Columbia Symphony Orchestra in the recording of his Old American Songs, featuring baritone William Warfield.

American Classics: Aaron Copland

Bernstein, Gershwin & Copland: Works

Copland Conducts Copland - Expanded Edition (Fanfare for the Common Man, Appalachian Spring, Old American Songs (Complete), Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes)

McPhee: Tabuh-Tabuhan; Sessions: The Black Maskers; Thomson: Symphony On A Hymn Tune; The Feast of Love

Copland Conducts Copland - Expanded Edition (Fanfare for the Common Man, Appalachian Spring, Old American Songs (Complete), Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes)