If you are not greatly
impressed by the orchestral works of
Copland, you’ll get no argument from
me. The best thing of his I’ve heard
is the CBS monophonic Bernstein LP recording
of El Salón México
which genuinely captures the zaniness
of ethnic Mexican musical celebration.
Along with Roy Harris, Copland is often
associated with the "American Style"
- that is, hymn-book harmonies and too
many open fourths and fifths — never
mind that American composers such as
Charles Ives, Alan Hovhaness, Marga
Richter, Philip Glass, George Chadwick,
Amy Beach or Charles Martin Loeffler,
had no need of it. Appalachian Spring
is a long drink of water for one folk-song,
Rodeo is obvious and banal. On
occasion I’ve enjoyed the Dance Symphony.
The Piano Concerto was one of
the works specifically parodied in Shostakovich’s
Piano Concerto #1 and is practically
never heard these days.
Copland’s Third
Symphony, containing the famous
Fanfare for the Common Man (A
definitive exposition of "American
Style"), is a sturdy work and finds
its most effective expression in the
recording with Antal Dorati and the
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, originally
released as LP MG 50018, unfortunately
out of print for many years. When the
Mercury Living Presence CD reissue series
was first announced, this was one of
the recordings specifically mentioned
to be released, yet we have not seen
it yet. Hello! Anybody over there listening?
Or how about Naxos Historical?
All of which is to
say that Copland’s chamber music is
something entirely different. This is
all great stuff — varied harmonies and
no intervalic banalities — well worth
hearing again and again. These two disks
contain every published chamber work
for six players or less, arranged on
the disks in chronological sequence.
All of the performances are superb and
committed.
The Movement for
String Quartet resembles in style,
mood, and quality the best of Shostakovich.
The Prelude for Piano Trio reminds
me of the beautifully mysterious passages
in violin sonatas by Ernest Bloch and
Henry Cowell (Play it in a music quiz
and NOBODY will guess Copland). The
Nocturne for Violin and Piano
starts out with blues chords in the
piano, but stays clear of identifiable
Gershwinisms and stays close to the
mood of the previous piece. On the other
hand Ukulele Serenade is blue
jazz violin and honky-tonk piano all
the way to the rodeo. Vocalise
has a dreamy, wistful, improvisatory
sense to it, more impressionistic (and
less disciplined) than Debussy. The
Lento molto for String Quartet
is quiet but not mysterious, and the
Rondino is well structured and
classic in feeling. Vitebsk uses
a slightly prepared piano and in the
first section is "Shostakovich
meets Prokofiev" in feeling; more
Shostakovich with Cowellian tone clusters
in the second, slower section; and utterly
unclassifiable in the delightfully vigorous
dance that is section three, finishing
with a return to the second style molto
maestoso elegiaco** in section
four. The allegro vivace of the
Sextet is the first work in the
set easily identifiable as Copland with
some sections very reminiscent of Rodeo;
but the lento is prismatic, elegiac
and evocative; the sextet finishes off
with a marcato movement which
is an intriguing mixture of the two
styles.
Of the more substantial
works on disc two, the first movement
of the Violin Sonata is very
identifiably "American" sounding,
but not as good as the Cowell Sonata
(but then, hardly anything is). The
second movement, lento, is fragile,
gorgeous, almost reminiscent of Arvo
Pärt. The allegretto giusto
finale is very original, the closest
we’ve come so far (that is, pretty close)
to a fugue.
The first movement
adagio serio of the Piano
Quartet is just that, a quiet conversation
among friends that heats up and becomes
anguished, then resigned; a mini operatic
scene. The following movement is more
giusto than allegro and
sounds like a political argument — that
ebbs and flows — at a family reunion.
The final movement non troppo lento
sounds like the next morning when everyone’s
sorry for all the things they said the
night before, realising that the next
time they see each other, it will be
another funeral. Set to words, gestures
and voices, this work could make a tidy
chamber opera/ballet about an extended
family gathered together to bury a loved
one, with the three acts subtitled,
Mourning Before The Funeral, At The
Wake, and Sad Parting. The notes suggest
that the work began as an experiment
in 12-tone composition, but I didn’t
pick that up from listening.
The Duo begins
with a long unmetered flute solo, with
"Fanfare for the Common Man"
hiding just offstage. The piano comes
in and the two dance as in a Martha
Graham ballet. The balletic feeling
continues through the remaining movements,
with the flute definitely as the star,
the piano supporting. This is not surprising
because Copland wrote much ballet music,
some of it much more sophisticated than
Rodeo. This work was Copland’s
last organised composition and he tended
to look back at earlier works. The In
Memoriam Igor Stravinsky and In
Memoriam Beatrice Cunningham are
brief occasion pieces both with a mood
of light sadness.
All of which goes to
say that if you thought two hours of
Copland would be too much of just one
thing you could hardly be more wrong.
Also I must comment
that I appreciate the organisation of
the music on the disks in strict chronological
order. As a former librarian and serious
collector, I don’t see much value in
these "programmed" concerts***.
I am most concerned with being able
to find a work quickly when I want to
hear it. Very few will want to listen
uninterruptedly to two hours of Copland
chamber music at one sitting, however
the works are ordered. Although it’s
a surprisingly intriguing and pleasant
two hours.
And, last but not least,
the double jewelcase is of a new design
I’ve not seen before, much more durable
and less likely to come apart or break
in handling.
*I had to copy them
down for you from the player listing
on the computer screen.
**In this and much
of what follows I’m using these terms
descriptively, not quoting from the
score, to which I don’t at the moment
have access.
***There are rare exceptions,
of course, most notably Paul Jordan’s
take on Orgelbüchlein.
Paul Shoemaker
Derek
Bermel, clarinet; Michael Boriskin, piano; Paul
Lustig Dunkel, flute; Nicholas Kitchen, violin;
Wilhelmina Smith, cello. 
