America: Variations on a Theme
A Taste of the 20th Century
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1h 48m
COPLAND Suite from “Appalachian Spring”
GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue
ELLINGTON New World A-Comin’
COPLAND Suite from “The Tender Land”
This program of three quintessentially American composers paints a musical portrait of the country as they knew it: full of promises, tensions, and fraught beauty. In conversation, pianist Marc-André Hamelin reflects on his early exposure to jazz and his approach to interpreting the music of Gershwin and Ellington, and conductor David Robertson considers each piece a lens for the nation itself. The frontier austerity of “Appalachian Spring” and the bustling urban energy of “Rhapsody in Blue” capture the diversity of 20th-century American landscapes, while cultural landscapes emerge from Ellington’s dream of a brighter future and Copland’s groping postwar lament.
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