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Aaron Copland (1900
- 1990)
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 The
Copland Collection - 1936-1948
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
 Celluloid
Copland / Sheffer, Eos Orchestra
Telarc has come up with
a real novelty--four Copland scores new to CD. All date from his
populist period of accessible Americana tinged with modernism and
all make for fascinating listening. From Sorcery to Science
accompanied a puppet show plugging the history of drugs for the
1939 World's Fair. Its often witty score begins with a fanfare,
segues to chinoiserie, and winds up with a flag-waving march. The
City, written for a World's Fair film extolling social
engineering, includes some of Copland's finest music in the simple
vein, from bucolic rural portraiture to urban bustle complete with
blaring auto horns. Copland's music for The Cummington Story,
a government documentary about refugee resettlement, is austerely
moving; he later used it in his Clarinet Concerto's slow movement.
The North Star, a Hollywood World War II epic
about Nazis devastating a Russian village, drew an effective score
from Copland, huge chunks of which sound like leftovers from
Prokofiev's Alexander
Nevsky. Topnotch sound and performances make this
essential for Copland fans. --Dan Davis
 Copland
conducts Copland
"Although Bernstein may be thought of as
the premier conductor of Copland's music, these performances under
the baton of the conductor himself are far superior in my humble
opinion. In Bernstein's hands, for example, the hoedown from Rodeo
is much too fast, Copland draws the music out and instead of
cowboy music you have a true masterpiece of classical music.
Listen to them consecutively, it is night and day. Same with
Fanfare. It's also tough to beat the magnificent William
Warfield's version of the Old American Songs, next to a version
such as Marilyn Horne's, these (no knock on Ms. Horne) have
gravitas and beauty. The sound quality on this disc, especially
the tracks played by the LSO recorded at Walthamstow, is nothing
short of astonishing, sounding better than the vast majority of
modern digital recordings. A must." -- Anonymous Review
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From Sony Classics
Excerpt:
Aaron Copland was the pioneer of American music
-- he showed the world how to write classical music in an American
way. He was born in 1900, when Americans were rarely recognized as
composers in the music world. So Copland went to Europe for
serious study, and, in the 1920s, wrote pieces with the flavor of
jazz. European classical composers were also influenced by jazz at
this time, as they were searching for new ways to bring their
music into the 20th century...
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By Paul
Varnell
Originally appeared August 30, 2000, in the
Chicago Free Press.
Copland's homosexuality was quietly known but
little advertised during his lifetime. It has now been elaborately
documented, however, in Howard Pollack's recent biography, "Aaron
Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man."
Despite being born in less tolerant times, after
a brief late adolescent period of discomfort Copland apparently
accepted his homosexuality with equanimity..
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In political life as in his music, Aaron Copland
decorously hid his Emotions
By David Schiff
for the Atlantic Monthly
Excerpt:
In a written response to the committee Copland
gave the impression that he had routinely signed many petitions
and letters out of a concern for personal liberties but without
any broader political involvement. Few watching the hearings would
have suspected the depth of his political sympathies, which he
shared with his good friends Harold Clurman, the theater director,
and Clifford Odets, the playwright. Nor would many have detected
Copland's anxiety as a gay man in the face of a menacing sexual
subtext from the closeted prosecutor Roy Cohn, whose manner of
repeating the word "Cooooommunist" Copland imitated in
private for friends...
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By Greg Sandow
Excerpt:
Who was this man who helped define the sound of
America? To begin with, he was the exception to all sorts of
unwritten rules, starting (obviously) with the one that said
classical music couldn’t relate to everyday American life.
Having broken that rule, he also broke the related one that said
classical composers in the United States had to be more European
than American. Finally, as a gay, left-wing, French-educated Jew
from Brooklyn, he also demolished any assumptions that only
mainstream folks from the heartland could express the deepest
spirit of America...
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Names Index:
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