The Copland Corral

Started by karlhenning, April 10, 2007, 05:12:59 AM

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The new erato

This is one of the best records of any american songs I know of, and at giveaway price as well:


karlhenning

Review of a fairly recent performance of the Third Symphony.

scottscheule

Quote from: karlhenning on June 27, 2007, 06:45:30 AM
Review of a fairly recent performance of the Third Symphony.

Little preachy.

Mark G. Simon

Quote from: karlhenning on June 27, 2007, 06:45:30 AM
Review of a fairly recent performance of the Third Symphony.

Actually, he doesn't have a single word to say about the performance of the 3rd symphony.

karlhenning

QuoteThe 4th movement, with the musical material that's also used in "Fanfare for the Common Man," went especially well.

More space was devoted to the Danielpour and the Gershwin, to be sure.

Hector

Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on April 11, 2007, 05:09:09 PM
I agree. I love MTT. He just comes across as sincere and really love music. When he talks about music he is not showing off what he knows and trying to patronize you but is just sharing some aspect of the music that he finds interesting.



Pity he is such a boring conductor of Mahler.

Not that it matters, who is going to pay over the odds for this stuff, anyway, San Franciscans? :-\

Joe Barron

#46
Just a few quick Copland notes:

I'm currently working up Copland's three selections from Our Town on the piano, and I've finally got the first piece down to the point where it actually sounds like something. The music is outwardly very simple, but there are some tricky fingerings and wide chords — C, A, D, that sort of thing — that have required careful practice. And it's so quiet and transparent that any little mistake is magnified tenfold.

Second movement is even trickier, with a lot of hand-over-hand positions. I've made it to the final repeat, and if and when I'v mastered thhat, I'll go on to the last movement, which consists largely of block chords.

Listened to the chamber version of Appalachian Spring yeasterday and it's still with me. Certainly one the of the most fortuitous pieces to have stuck in your head!  :D

hornteacher

Quote from: Joe Barron on June 29, 2007, 08:47:25 AM
Listened to the chamber version of Appalachian Spring yeasterday and it's still with me. Certainly one the of the most fortuitous pieces to have stuck in your head!  :D

Yes, and having heard the chamber version, its hard to go back to the orchestral version.

Joe Barron

Quote from: hornteacher on June 29, 2007, 03:01:24 PM
Yes, and having heard the chamber version, its hard to go back to the orchestral version.

Agreed.  ;)

not edward

I've got this version of the chamber Appalachian Spring, and I just don't find it grips me. Is it the performance, perhaps? (I do like the performance of the Capricorn Concerto that follows it, though.)

"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

Joe Barron

Quote from: edward on June 29, 2007, 06:29:21 PM
I've got this version of the chamber Appalachian Spring, and I just don't find it grips me. Is it the performance, perhaps? (I do like the performance of the Capricorn Concerto that follows it, though.)

I don't know this recording. I do know I love the chamber version of the complete ballet (not juust the suite) that Copland conducted for Columbia. The St. Paul Chamber Symphony version with Dennis Russell Davies is the only chamber version of the suite I know. That's what I listened to the other day, and that's what stayed with me.

Bogey

Quote from: edward on June 29, 2007, 06:29:21 PM
I've got this version of the chamber Appalachian Spring, and I just don't find it grips me. Is it the performance, perhaps? (I do like the performance of the Capricorn Concerto that follows it, though.)



I am having some difficulty invisioning Hogwood conducting Copland....enjoy them both greatly, but.....

But he seems to pulled off Barber from your account Edward so I guess I need to recognize his range a bit more.
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

hornteacher

Quote from: edward on June 29, 2007, 06:29:21 PM
I've got this version of the chamber Appalachian Spring, and I just don't find it grips me. Is it the performance, perhaps? (I do like the performance of the Capricorn Concerto that follows it, though.)
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Get the Michael Tilson Thomas DVD on Copland.  In addition to being a great documentary, it has a complete performance of the chamber version of App Spring as a bonus feature (in high definition and surround sound).  NICE!

http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Score-Copland-American-Sound/dp/B000JGG888/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/105-4924212-6205218?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1183223368&sr=1-3

Catison

Quote from: Joe Barron on June 29, 2007, 07:05:08 PM
I don't know this recording. I do know I love the chamber version of the complete ballet (not juust the suite) that Copland conducted for Columbia. The St. Paul Chamber Symphony version with Dennis Russell Davies is the only chamber version of the suite I know. That's what I listened to the other day, and that's what stayed with me.

For an outstanding chamber version of Appalachian Spring, look no further than these fine recordings by Wolff.  This recording is honestly in the top 10 things I have in my collection.

The second disc is the one referred to by erato above.
-Brett

dtwilbanks

So, is all that music we hear in the old Western movies based on Copland's compositions? Or was someone doing it before him?

karlhenning

Copland found a very personal mode of compositionally intersecting musical Americana with various musical lessons learnt from Stravinsky.  So no one had done that at all like Copland, before Copland.

dtwilbanks

Quote from: karlhenning on October 10, 2007, 07:58:26 AM
Copland found a very personal mode of compositionally intersecting musical Americana with various musical lessons learnt from Stravinsky.  So no one had done that at all like Copland, before Copland.

But you know what I mean?: That Western-sounding music? I was thinking Copland started all that, but then I remembered Dvorak's 9th.

scottscheule

I know the prevalence of American sound in Dvorak's 9th is contentious, but I never thought of the symphony as Americana--certainly not in the same way as Copland's wide open "prairie" textures.

dtwilbanks

Quote from: scottscheule on October 10, 2007, 09:44:28 AM
I know the prevalence of American sound in Dvorak's 9th is contentious, but I never thought of the symphony as Americana--certainly not in the same way as Copland's wide open "prairie" textures.

Parts of it sound like "Americana" to me, but certainly not the piece as a whole.

karlhenning

Quote from: dtw on October 10, 2007, 09:52:06 AM
Parts of it sound like "Americana" to me, but certainly not the piece as a whole.

Part of that is retro-fit;  the tune from the Largo did get 'adopted' as a spiritual.