Although it is temporally close to his big, populist works of the World War II era, Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3 (1946) is not quite part of that group, even if the composer gave it an end-of-war program. Rather, it's a reflection on that style from a composer trained in the best French academic tradition. For sampling, go no further than the finale, which is based on the Fanfare for the Common Man of three years earlier, developing its material symphonically rather than in the episodic manner of the original piece. It's ...
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Although it is temporally close to his big, populist works of the World War II era, Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3 (1946) is not quite part of that group, even if the composer gave it an end-of-war program. Rather, it's a reflection on that style from a composer trained in the best French academic tradition. For sampling, go no further than the finale, which is based on the Fanfare for the Common Man of three years earlier, developing its material symphonically rather than in the episodic manner of the original piece. It's fascinating, and it might easily be paired with that work, although there's much to be said for conductor Leonard Slatkin's more ambitious pairing here. Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, in fine, energetic form (although more so in the symphony), join the Symphony No. 3 instead with the rather rare Latin American Sketches, finished in 1972 and ultimately Copland's final orchestral work. Two of the Sketches date from the late 1950s in piano versions; they are not in his...
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