Composer: Aaron Copland (14 November 1900 - 2 December, 1990)
Work title: Symphony No.3
Instrumentation: Piccolo, 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 2 clarinets in B-flat, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns in F, 4 trumpets in B-flat, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, tenor drum, snare drum, triangle, tam-tam, glockenspiel, xylophone, anvil, claves, ratchet, whip, tubular bells, wood block, piano, celesta, 2 harps, and strings.
Performers: Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor), National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (orchestra)
Date of performance: 23/8/2008
Venue: Royal Albert Hall
0:42 - I. Molto moderato - with simple expression
10:18 - II. Allegro molto
18:25 - III. Andantino quasi allegretto
27:55 - IV. Molto deliberato
41:21 - Applause
Symphony No.3 was Aaron Copland's final symphony, written between 1944 and 1946.
Written at the end of World War II, it is known as the essential American symphony that fuses his distinct "Americana" style of the ballets (Rodeo, etc.) with the form of the symphony, which has generally been a European-dominated musical form. The Fanfare for the Common Man, written in 1942, is used as a theme in the fourth movement. Various fragments from Fanfare are also used for primary thematic material in the first three movements.
The first movement opens with a simple theme in the woodwinds and strings, which is echoed warmly throughout the orchestra, before quickly heightening into a brassy fanfare (in which we get our first hints of the Fanfare for the Common Man theme).
The movement ends as peacefully as it started, but we are quickly snapped out of the reverie with the thunderous timpani thump that launches the lively scherzo into action.
The whirling second movement features a dashing, boisterous theme, settling into gentler, pastoral segment but ending exuberantly.
The third movement opens slowly and contemplatively, featuring Copland's typically sparse and almost ambiguous harmonies. It digresses into a frisky dance-like passage, vaguely Latin American in tone, before transitioning uninterrupted into the finale, where we hear a pianissimo version of the Fanfare for the Common Man, and then the fanfare in its full glory.
The duration of this movement is spent primarily with the development and recapitulation of the Fanfare melody: Copland gives it a dazzling contrapuntal treatment while at the same time managing to introduce an entirely new theme. The symphony closes majestically with a final reprise of both the Fanfare and the symphony's opening motif.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._3_(Copland)
Source video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bpOGZ5iKlpjSioE.html