# SS 28.02.15 - Copland #3



## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

Welcome to another weekend of symphonic listening!

For your listening pleasure this weekend:*

Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990)*

Symphony No. 3

1. Molto moderato
2. Allegro molto
3. Andantino quasi allegretto
4. Molto deliberato - Allegro risoluto

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Post what recording you are going to listen to giving details of Orchestra / Conductor / Chorus / Soloists etc - Enjoy!


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

Some classic Americana for this weekend. I'll go with my old standby:

View attachment 64922


Leonard Bernstein/New York Philharmonic


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Bernstein, too - but a later recording. I'll have to try and listen to realdealblues's Bernstein choice too, assuming they have it on youtube somewhere. The cover has a certain poignancy - I'm guessing this is one of the final occasions when the two great men were pictured together for commercial reasons.


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

Bernstein here for me too. This is a piece I essentially know by heart, and one of my desert island discs, but it's always a pleasure to listen to again.


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

The Bernstein for me as well.

An excellent choice this week.
(We can use a bit of Americana in this part of the world right now.)


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I've been so obsessed with my new acquisitions, that I have fallen behind in the SSes. Luckily, they were ones I already knew. This one, however, is one I have never heard, so I will make the commitment.

Horenstein/BBCSO


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

I'll go for Copland's own recording with the London Symphony.










He may not have been a particularly great conductor, but the performance is still pretty impressive.


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## csacks (Dec 5, 2013)

I was so proud about my library. Now I am not. For the last 6 weeks or so I have been listening to, to me, unknown symphonies, thanks to spotify.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

elgars ghost said:


> Bernstein, too - but a later recording. I'll have to try and listen to realdealblues's Bernstein choice too, assuming they have it on youtube somewhere. The cover has a certain poignancy - I'm guessing this is one of the final occasions when the two great men were pictured together for commercial reasons.


I shall go with this one too via the ever reliable Spotify


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## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

Judd & New Zealand Symphony Orchestra


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## AClockworkOrange (May 24, 2012)

realdealblues said:


> Some classic Americana for this weekend. I'll go with my old standby:
> 
> View attachment 64922
> 
> ...


As this is the only recording of the piece I own, I'll be listening to this performance too.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

The two Bernstein recordings are stellar, each with its own merits, and either can easily be a "first choice". Of course, some may consider Copland's own recording definitive, but composers do not necessarily make for the best interpreters of their own works, just as playwrights may not necessarily be the best directors of their work. (At least I was told that at one time.)

I'll opt for a version not as stunning as either of the Bernsteins, and maybe not as definitive as the Copland, or even as forceful as the Judd.

It's Neeme Jarvi's reading on MUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY disc 515305A featuring the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (originally released by CHANDOS, but I don't have that disc). There's nothing like a symphony orchestra from the "heartland" of America doing this _so American _symphony, the Copland Third.

The Jarvi disc features the Roy Harris Third also, so you get what are arguably the two top "greatest American symphonies" on one disc. Neither reading is the best or near definitive, in my opinion, based upon other recordings of both symphonies I have heard. But coupled on one disc, and both being "pretty good" as interpretations (and the music is of the sort that it's so good on its own it's hard to ruin even with a poor interpretation), you can't complain about


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## Autocrat (Nov 14, 2014)

Antal Dorati, Minneapolis Symph.

Spotify of course.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

I'll recreate the concert Bernstein did in December of 1985 starting with.










Followed by the Copland.










http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/06/arts/philharmonic-bernstein-and-3-symphonies-no-3.html


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

What a coincidence.

I was not even aware of this week's symphony, and when I opened up "New Posts" I found that I was listening at that very moment to this work (Bernstein - like so many others).

I just finished the first movement of Symphony #3 after finishing listening to the "Organ" Symphony earlier on this disc. 

My appreciation for both these works is so much greater from headphone listening than it was last week when I listened while driving.

Kind of a Copland day for me - there were two great Copland songs on the Arleen Auger CD I just finished a couple of hours ago.


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## Autocrat (Nov 14, 2014)

Autocrat said:


> View attachment 64970
> 
> 
> Antal Dorati, Minneapolis Symph.
> ...


Sound quality was very poor, so swapped to Copland/LSO.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Coincidently, this work was discussed on the BBC4 program "Symphony" last night, along with Ives 2, Shostakovich 1, 7 & 9, Sibelius 7 and RVW 3.
I'm about to listen to the Naxos recording (New Zealand SO / James Judd), so it's 'Billy the Kid' first and then the 3rd symphony.


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## Zarathustra (Dec 21, 2013)

Bernstein NY

I enjoyed the work, will get back to it soon but had this feeling that I'm going to get bored of it soon. Perhaps something to do with some of my favourites I only GET at the 7th or so try.

What are your opinions of this work? Does it have staying power?


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I find that it's a work that I feel I ought to like much more than I do. After the initial engagement of the first movement, to me it meanders rather too much (especially in the 3rd movement) until eventually we come to the finale and the 'Fanfare' theme that most will recognise, which grabs the attention again. After this, a whole lot more happens in that last movement, which really is wonderful, powerful and evocative. 
The Judd recording on Naxos is a bit 'muddy' and probably doesn't do justice to the symphony as a whole, I must try to listen to a Bernstein recording some day.


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## nightscape (Jun 22, 2013)

Haydn man said:


> elgars ghost said:
> 
> 
> > Bernstein, too - but a later recording. I'll have to try and listen to realdealblues's Bernstein choice too, assuming they have it on youtube somewhere. The cover has a certain poignancy - I'm guessing this is one of the final occasions when the two great men were pictured together for commercial reasons.
> ...


Me too, but on CD


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Oue and Minnesota on Rdio.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I discovered a recording by Slatkin/St. Louis SO in my collection, so that is the one that I played. It's very good, but Bernstein will always be the prefered one for me.


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