Copland: Symphony No. 3

Album review

Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3, or, as he preferred to call it, Third Symphony, is generally classed with his populist, Americanist works of the late 1930s and early 1940s, and indeed it quotes and is partly built on one of the most popular of those works, the Fanfare for the Common Man of 1942. Yet a fuller overview makes clear that it doesn't quite fit with the likes of Rodeo and Appalachian Spring, or even really the Fanfare, which it alters and puts into new contexts; it might be regarded as a fantasy on the Fanfare. There are few or no hints of popular music, folk rhythms, or jazz, which were the hallmarks of Copland's popular style. By the standards of the time, the work was oriented toward tonality, but less so than Copland's other works of the period, and really it belongs in a class by itself. It is the distinctive combination of the elevated symphonic tradition with middle-period Copland that conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony capture in this live 2018 recording. From the work's early champion Leonard Bernstein on down, conductors have favored high-energy approaches to the work, but Tilson Thomas is careful, detailed, and often noble. The Fanfare is present, but rather than overwhelming the rest of the music, its open fifths shimmer through delicately, and the alterations of the pure Fanfare in the finale's introduction are emphasized. The delay of Tilson Thomas' retirement ceremonies in San Francisco were occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic, and this has been all to the good as various gems from the vaults have surfaced. This release earned a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Orchestral Performance.

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