AARON COPLAND (1900-1990)
Appalachian Spring (1944)
We think of Aaron Copland’s music as quintessentially, idiomatically American—optimistic, vital, confident, with an underlay of tenderness and nostalgia. Yet he was a composer of many styles. Like other artists of his generation, he spent some of his formative years in Paris, then a hotbed of revolutionary ferment, under the influence of the remarkable pedagogue Nadia Boulanger and in the company of icons like Stravinsky, Hemingway, Joyce, and Picasso. Upon his return to America in 1925 he wanted to create uniquely distinctive American music—a goal he successfully achieved. Of his four stylistic periods, he is loved most for his “Americana” phase (1936-1949), which includes El salón México, Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and of course, the ballet on this program. He composed Appalachian Spring for Martha Graham, the legendary American dancer, realizing their long-held dream of a collaboration. The dancer named the ballet Appalachian Spring, after a Hart Crane poem. Graham and Copland provide the scenario: “a pioneer celebration in spring around a newly-built farmhouse in the Pennsylvania hills in [the 1830s]. The bride-to-be and the young farmer-husband enact the emotions, joyful and apprehensive, that their new domestic partnership invites. An older neighbor suggests now and then the rocky confidence of experience. A revivalist and his followers remind the new householders of the strange and terrible aspects of human fate. At the end the couple is left quiet and strong in their new house.” Though originally scored for just 13 instruments, most audiences know and love the suite that Copland arranged for full orchestra that perfectly preserves the simplicity, immediacy, and gentleness of the original. The Philharmonic introduced this music in 1945, the year it won the Pulitzer Prize. You’ll hear dance and fiddle tunes, and of course the beloved “Simple Gifts,” based on a Shaker hymn.

AARON COPLAND (1900-1990)
Old American Songs (1950 and 1952; orchestrated 1954 and 1958)
Among Aaron Copland’s most popular compositions are his two sets of Old American Songs for voice and piano and later for voice and orchestra. He composed the first set of five in 1950, and orchestrated it in 19543; the second set was written in 1952 and orchestrated in 1958. Interestingly, the first set was commissioned by two Englishmen—baritone Peter Pears and pianist/composer Benjamin Britten—for performance at the Aldeburgh Festival in England. The songs hark back to a simpler time: 19th century texts and a variety of popular musical sources, to which the orchestrations lend a rich and colorful canvas. Copland was also successful at expressing the mood and emotion of each song. The first set of five songs consists of “The Boatmen’s Dance” (a minstrel song – 1843); “The Dodger” (a campaign song, probably for Grover Cleveland); “Long Time Ago” (a ballad); “Simple Gifts” (a Shaker song); and “I Bought Me a Cat” (a children’s song). Copland said: “Everyone seemed to enjoy singing and hearing Old American Songs I so much that I decided to arrange a second set in l952.” They are “The Little Horses (a lullaby); “Zion’s Walls” (a revivalist song); “The Golden Willow Tree” (an Anglo-American ballad); “At the River” (a hymn tune); and “Ching-A-Ring Chaw” (another minstrel song). Copland was not disappointed; these songs, too, were well received. Perhaps the most affecting of the two sets is “Simple Gifts,” which Copland had already used so beautifully in the ballet Appalachian Spring . And as for which is the most fun, it surely is “I bought Me a Cat,” which introduces a whole menagerie (plus a wife!), complete with sound effects. Artist-in-Residence Thomas Hampson will sing selections from each book.

GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
An American in Paris (1928)
Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic this delightful ballet started life while Gershwin was enjoying the heady atmosphere of 1920s Paris; he finished it in New York. He had come a long way from his Russian immigrant roots. His parents changed young George’s life when they bought him an upright piano and lessons. At age 16 he sought his fortune in Tin Pan Alley, and burst onto the scene in 1920 with the song “Swanee,” recorded by Al Jolson. He taught himself orchestration and collaborated with his older brother Ira on many of America’s greatest songs. He went on to create several beloved American classics of the concert hall: Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F, and An American in Paris. Gershwin wrote at length about his delightful “rhapsodic ballet,” which was choreographed and danced memorably by Gene Kelly in the 1951 movie An American in Paris. He said, “My purpose here is to portray the impression of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city and listens to various street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere.” When the piece kicks into a bluesy style, the composer continues, “our American friend…has succumbed to a spasm of homesickness.” But ultimately, the American visitor “once again is an alert spectator of Parisian life.” Listen for the characteristic French car horns as you imagine ambling along Parisian boulevards.

In September 2009 Alan Gilbert began his tenure as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, the first native New Yorker to hold the post.

For his inaugural season he introduced a number of new initiatives: the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, held by Magnus Lindberg, and Artist-in-Residence, first held by Thomas Hampson; an annual three-week festival; and CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic's new-music series. In the 2009–10 season he led the Orchestra on a major tour of Asia in October 2009, with debuts in Hanoi and Abu Dhabi. He also took the Philharmonic to nine cities on the EUROPE / WINTER 2010 tour in January–February 2010, and is conducting world, U.S., and New York premieres. Also in the 2009–10 season, Mr. Gilbert became the first person to hold the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School, a position that includes coaching, conducting, and hosting performance master classes.

Highlights of Mr. Gilbert's 2008–09 season with the New York Philharmonic included the Bernstein anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall and a performance with the Juilliard Orchestra, presented by the Philharmonic. In May 2009 he conducted the World Premiere of Peter Lieberson's The World in Flower, a New York Philharmonic Commission, and in July 2009 he led the Philharmonic's Concerts in the Parks and Free Indoor Concerts, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer, and performances at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado.

In June 2008 Mr. Gilbert was named conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, following his final concert as its chief conductor and artistic advisor. He has been principal guest conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra since 2004, and he has conducted other leading orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, including the Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco symphony orchestras; the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras; and the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich's Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Orchestre National de Lyon. In 2003 he was named the first music director of the Santa Fe Opera.

Alan Gilbert studied at Harvard University, The Curtis Institute of Music, and The Juilliard School. From 1995 to 1997 he was the assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra. In November 2008 he made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams's Doctor Atomic. His recording of Prokofiev's Scythian Suite with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award, and his recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 9 received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. On May 15, 2010, The Curtis Institute of Music awarded Mr. Gilbert an Honorary Doctor of Music degree.

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American baritone Thomas Hampson has performed in the world’s preeminent concert halls and opera houses and with many of today’s most renowned musicians and orchestras; he also maintains an active interest in teaching, music research, and technology. An important interpreter of German romantic song, he is known as a leading proponent of the study of American song through his Hampsong Foundation, which he founded in 2003 to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding. In the 2009–10 season Mr. Hampson becomes The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic as well as the Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence. In these roles he will perform three programs with the Orchestra, appear on the Orchestra’s European tour, give a recital in Alice Tully Hall, and present three lectures entitled “Listening to Thought” as part of the Orchestra’s Insights Series.

Much of Mr. Hampson’s 2009–10 season is devoted to his “Song of America” project. In collaboration with the Library of Congress, Mr. Hampson is performing recitals and presenting master classes, educational activities, exhibitions, and broadcasts across the country and through a new interactive online resource, www.songofamerica.net; as part of the project, he has just released a new album, Wondrous Free — Song of America II, on his own label, Thomas Hampson Media. Other engagements include Mendelssohn’s Elijah, led by Kurt Masur in Leipzig; Verdi’s Ernani and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with Zurich Opera; Verdi’s La traviata at The Metropolitan Opera; solo recitals throughout the United States and in many European capitals; and the galas of the Vienna Staatsoper and the new Winspear Opera House in Dallas.

Raised in Spokane, Washington, Thomas Hampson has released more than 150 albums that have received many honors, including a Grammy Award, two Edison Prizes, and the Grand Prix du Disque. He has been named Kammersänger of the Vienna Staatsoper; Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Republic of France; and Special Advisor to the Study and Performance of Music in America by Dr. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress. Other accolades include the Austrian Medal of Honor in Arts and Sciences (in 2004), and the Edison Life Achievement Award (2005). Mr. Hampson last appeared with the New York Philharmonic on September 20, 2001, in Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, led by Kurt Masur in memory of 9/11.

Find additional upcoming performances with Thomas Hampson