This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

COPLAND Appalachian Spring, Music for the Theatre, El salon Mexico, Ballads (2) for Violin and Piano, Elegies for Violin and Viola

Bridge Records is a small label that is run by David and Becky Starobin. The label features many, many new works by contemporary composers, recordings of standard rep (see my previous posting of cello music by Rachmaninoff!), music of older compositions that might not have been recorded before, historical performances from the Library of Congress and just plain historical performances. This recording of music by Aaron Copland performed by Steve Richman and the Harmonie Ensemble dates from 2004. If you DON'T have it, and I'm figuring you don't, you're missing a treasure, plain and simple!

Steve Richman opens the recording with the seldom heard Music for the Theatre, the suite's 5 movements being Prologue, Dance, Interlude, Burlesque and Epilogue. Richman and the Harmonie beautifully shape the different moods and feelings of these musically diverse miniatures, of which the Burlesque reminds one of Times Square from Leonard Bernstein's On the Town!

The Ballads for Violin and Piano comprise the second work on the CD. These Ballads date from 1957 and were scrapped as a planned Violin Concerto for Isaac Stern. Oh, one can only wonder and imagine what it would have sounded like had Copland finished it, but we do have these two exquisite short movements. Edited by Philip Ramey, the Andante, the first of the Ballads doesn't sound as developed as the Moderato, the second of the Ballads. But that Moderato jumps out at you being packed with power, beauty and lyricism, reminiscent of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto (written in 1939 and premiered in 1941). These are terrific performances by Eugene Drucker of the Emerson Quartet on violin and Diane Walsh on piano. By the way, this music eventually saw the light of day as part of Copland's Statements for Orchestra.

The Elegies for Violin and Viola were inspired by the suicide of poet Hart Crane and were written in 1932. With Eugene Drucker again on violin and Lawrence Dutton on viola, these two Emerson Quartet friends play these Elegies with deep emotional depth. From a sound perspective they seem to belong to Copland's compositional style of the Piano Concerto and the Symphony with Organ.

The most unusual work on this recording is the arrangement of Copland's El Salon Mexico by none other than Arturo Toscanini! Toscanini needs no introduction to those who know the conducting giants of all time. And what you need to know, if you don't, is that Toscanini was incredibly myoptic: He couldn't see the score on the stand in front of him! There's a wonderful picture of Toscanini standing in front of his beloved NBC Symphony with a score to his nose, screaming out what was on the printed page. So naturally, he had to memorize everything to be able to give the musicians the cues they needed from the score, since Toscanini wasn't about to wear glasses on the podium! In order to do this, Toscanini often arranged the music that he was conducting for piano so that he could study the score, which is probably where this transcription come from. Toscanini never recorded El Salon, which is a shame. One can only surmise that a recording was being discussed, because when you hear this working version there's a great deal of care taken to capture the feel and structure of the music. I know this work well, have listened to it and programmed it many times, and under the phenomenal performance by pianist Diane Walsh I feel as though I'm hearing it anew time and time again.

The first draft the Ballet for Martha, as Copland called it, was instead called Appalachian Spring by the ballet's dedicatee, Martha Graham. Appalachian Spring was written for thirteen instruments, and it's this version with which Steve Richman and his Harmonie Ensemble finish the CD. I know this version very well, being lucky and privileged to have performed it as a student at The Manhattan School and a couple of times thereafter. While this is not the first recording of this version, there is so much here to recommend it! The blend of the woodwinds is just gorgeous: You can't tell where one instrument ends and the next one begins; the balance is exquisite; great care is taken on how the music is shaped right down to the length of the notes. I can't help but think of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 (The Pastoral) which takes place over the course of a day from sun up to sun down, which is what Copland envisioned in his Ballet for Martha. 

This is truly a classic performance, and the whole cd truly classic performances. And I'm not the only one who feels that way: Andrew Farah-Colton, in the September 2004 issue of Gramphone writes that "The disc is filled with freshly conceived, tenderly expressive and superbly played versions of Music for the Theatre and the original 13-instrument version of the Appalachian Spring suite. How exquisitely Steven Richman has the Harmonie Ensemble New York shape the accompaniment in the Interlude of the former work, allowing one to marvel at the deftness of Copland's scoring. Bridge's vivid recording bathes the proceedings in a perfectly clear and flatteringly warm sonic light. Very highly recommended."

I couldn't agree more and couldn't have said it better.

Donald Venezia

Buy Now http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=86116&source=VENEZ

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?