Post by erik on Dec 16, 2023 23:41:03 GMT -5
A three-movement orchestral suite from Aaron Copland's unfairly neglected 1954 opera The Tender Land is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
Copland: SUITE FROM “THE TENDER LAND”
Though it is often thought of as a failure by many critics, Aaron Copland’s 1954 opera The Tender Land, originally made for the [I}NBC Television Opera Workshop[/I] (though the network in the end rejected it), is in fact emblematic of what the “Dean of American Composers” was all about, and, in many ways, what America itself was all about. . Focusing on the trials and tribulations of a farm family in the Midwestern United States, the opera got its first performance at the New York City Opera in August 1954, with Thomas Schippers conducting. Initially, it received quite poor reviews (the poorest of Copland’s entire career); and this initial failure was considered by the music historian Christopher Patton to be a function of the contrast of its having initially been written for television, and not a legitimate opera stage. Over time, however, and thanks to performances of the opera in a smaller format akin to the 13-instrument version of the composer’s classic 1943 ballet Appalachian Spring, The Tender Land eventually reached a good place in the American music lexicon. Some of that was due to the three-movement suite the composer extracted from the opera in 1958. Consisting of “Introduction And Love Music”, “Party Scene”, and the now-immortal closing number “The Promise Of Living” (the latter one of which is also heard in a version for chorus and orchestra), this orchestral suite soon got recorded by many American orchestras, and has since become a concert favorite; the opera itself has also gained in popularity, having been reconfigured for the legitimate opera stage since its abortive 1954 genesis.
Phoenix Symphony Orchestra/JAMES SEDARES (Koch Classics)
Included:
THREE LATIN AMERICAN SKETCHES
SUITE FROM “THE RED PONY”
Copland: SUITE FROM “THE TENDER LAND”
Though it is often thought of as a failure by many critics, Aaron Copland’s 1954 opera The Tender Land, originally made for the [I}NBC Television Opera Workshop[/I] (though the network in the end rejected it), is in fact emblematic of what the “Dean of American Composers” was all about, and, in many ways, what America itself was all about. . Focusing on the trials and tribulations of a farm family in the Midwestern United States, the opera got its first performance at the New York City Opera in August 1954, with Thomas Schippers conducting. Initially, it received quite poor reviews (the poorest of Copland’s entire career); and this initial failure was considered by the music historian Christopher Patton to be a function of the contrast of its having initially been written for television, and not a legitimate opera stage. Over time, however, and thanks to performances of the opera in a smaller format akin to the 13-instrument version of the composer’s classic 1943 ballet Appalachian Spring, The Tender Land eventually reached a good place in the American music lexicon. Some of that was due to the three-movement suite the composer extracted from the opera in 1958. Consisting of “Introduction And Love Music”, “Party Scene”, and the now-immortal closing number “The Promise Of Living” (the latter one of which is also heard in a version for chorus and orchestra), this orchestral suite soon got recorded by many American orchestras, and has since become a concert favorite; the opera itself has also gained in popularity, having been reconfigured for the legitimate opera stage since its abortive 1954 genesis.
Phoenix Symphony Orchestra/JAMES SEDARES (Koch Classics)
Included:
THREE LATIN AMERICAN SKETCHES
SUITE FROM “THE RED PONY”