Copland: Quiet City, Symphony No. 3, Appalachian Spring Suite (Remastered) Georges Mager, Louis Speyer, Boston Symphony Orchestra & Serge Koussevitzky

• Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990):
• 1 Quiet City 10:21
• Symphony No. 3:
• 2 Symphony No. 3: I. Molto moderato, with simple expression 09:56
• 3 Symphony No. 3: II. Allegro molto 07:21
• 4 Symphony No. 3: III. Andantino quasi allegretto 08:30
• 5 Symphony No. 3: IV. Molto deliberato (Fanfare); Allegro risoluto 13:41
• Aaron Copland:
• 6 Appalachian Spring Suite 23:18
• Total Runtime 01:13:07

Info for Copland: Quiet City, Symphony No. 3, Appalachian Spring Suite (Remastered)

Koussevitzky conducts the fourth-ever performance of Coplands Great American Symphony

"To have them gathered together on a single recording, conducted by the man and played by the orchestra who were in every way present at the creation, is the gift of a lifetime" (Fanfare)

Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3, regarded by many as the "Great American Symphony", was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky and received its first performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under his baton. The première came in Boston's Symphony Hall on October 18, 1946, and it was repeated there the following night. Thereafter orchestra and conductor took it to New York, with a third performance in Brooklyn's Academy of Music on 15 November, and the following afternoon, this unbroadcast concert in Manhattan's Carnegie Hall (billed on the programme as the works "First performance in New York"). If the New York Times' critic remained to be totally convinced, the audience reaction was ecstatic, with a lengthy ovation lasting many minutes after the final climax.

The existence of the present recording was practically unknown until very recently. Not only is it the earliest recording of this work, it is the only known recording of Koussevitzky performing the masterwork he'd commissioned. A combination of detective work and a certain degree of informed guesswork suggests it was cut live, directly onto a set of acetate 78rpm discs by Carnegie Hall's in-house recording company as a single-copy record of the performance, quite possibly made privately for the composer himself. The discs show variable wear, from relatively clean to quite damaged, and there were a number of times during the lengthy and difficult restoration process where I longed for an alternate copy to work from. In the absence of this option I've done the best possible with the latest and most advanced digital restoration technology available, and beg understanding of the impossibility of achieving a consistently high sound quality throughout. That said, there is much to enjoy here, and long sections remained relatively unscathed.

The companion recordings, both also receiving their first releases, date from the same era of immediate postwar performances at a time when one senses relations between orchestra, conductor and composer were being warmly nurtured. Both again were sourced from acetate discs, in generally better condition and of similar original recording quality. The Appalachian Spring Suite hails from a radio broadcast from Hunter College in New York City, whilst Quiet City is almost certainly also a live radio broadcast from Boston. (Andrew Rose)

"These performances are eloquent, compelling, and remind us of the peerless instrument Koussevitzky maintained during his quarter century at its helm" (Fanfare)

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Serge Koussevitzky, conductor

Digitally remastered

Serge Koussevitzky “Sergey Aleksandrovich Kusevitskii (known in the West by the French spelling of his name, Serge Koussevitzky) one of the great conductors of the twentieth century American orchestral scene and a champion of newer music, closely studied the great conductors he encountered as an orchestra player and at concerts, particularly Arthur Nikisch.

During the difficult years after the 1917 Bolshevik coup and the subsequent civil war, he continued to conduct in Moscow through 1920, when he permanently left for the West. He presented a series of concerts called Concerts Koussevitzky in Paris, again featuring new music: Ravel, Honegger, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev. These concerts included the world premiere of the Ravel orchestration of Mussorgsky's PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION; it soon became a concert staple in both Europe and America.

In 1924, Koussevitsky was chosen as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. With the BSO, he continued his tradition of championing the new music he found around him, thus giving vital exposure to great American composers, such as Copland, Barber, Bernstein, Carter, Hanson, Harris, and a host of others over the years. During the 1931 season, he commissioned a series of commemorative works for the orchestra's fiftieth anniversary, yielding a treasury that included Stravinsky's SYMPHONY OF PSALMS and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G. Beginning in 1935, he annually brought the orchestra to the summer Berkshire Festival, organized by Henry Hadley in 1934, becoming its music director and making it part of the BSO's operation. Koussevitzky established the Berkshire Music Center (now Tanglewood Music Center) in conjunction with the festival in 1940, making it into one of the premier American educational institutions where young musicians could polish their craft and network. After his wife died in 1941, Koussevitsky set up a foundation to commission works in her memory. Britten's opera PETER GRIMES was one of the first works that resulted.

Until his death in 1951, he continued to direct both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Berkshire Festival, recording frequently. (Joseph Stevenson, AMG)

This album contains no booklet.