Have you watched the NY Phil's new "free online" performance of the Copland Fanfare for the Common Man yet?

UPDATE: Well, I thought of one more (smallish)
thing we could do -- see the end of the post

If you haven't watched it yet -- or even if you have! -- check it out on the Philharmonic's website.

In 1942 Copland composed Fanfare for the Common Man to support America’s effort during World War II. He settled on this title because, as he put it, “It was the common man, after all, who was doing all the dirty work in the war and the army.” He later added, “He deserved a fanfare.” Today, the title could just as easily apply to the healthcare workers and other essential frontline workers who have helped us through the COVID-19 pandemic.

This newly recorded performance was conducted by David Robertson in January 2021 at St. Bartholomew’s Church.

-- the NYPhil website introduction to the video performance

by Ken

Sorry I haven't been able to summon the follow-through to share any of the things I've wanted to. It's just one of those times for me, and it really has nothing to do with the pandemic, except insofar as it adds a layer of complication to all the preexiting complications. I thought I'd at least share this swell video offering from the NY Phil, which has been around for quite a while (I see it was posted on January 16), and I've been meaning to do something with it, so now I'm just passing it along.

And you know, for once I'm not only going to say it but do what I've said, and not say anything more.


OKAY, WELL, MAYBE JUST ONE MORE THING --
WELL, MAKE IT TWO, I GUESS (YOU'LL SEE)

Why don't we listen again to the two classic performances of the Fanfare we've already heard?

COPLAND: Fanfare for the Common Man


New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, cond. Columbia-CBS-Sony, recorded in Philharmonic Hall, Feb. 16, 1966

London Symphony Orchestra, Aaron Copland, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded in Walthamstow Town Hall, Oct. 26-29, 1968

We should probably say a few words about the Fanfare's compositional history -- how after its composition in 1942 it was incorporated into the final movement of Copland's Third Symphony (1944-46), in a beefed-up version that's now usually incorporated in stand-alone performances of the Fanfare. But I did say I wasn't going to say anything more, didn't I?


UPDATE: I KNOW WHAT I SAID, BUT THERE IS
ONE MORE SMALLISH THING WE COULD DO

I confess that I don't listen to the Copland Third Symphony much. It's a piece I really don't know well. It occurred to me that, knowing just that Copland did incorporate the Fanfare for the Common Man into its final movement, we could maybe listen to that final movement. So why don't we?

So here it is, not in Lenny B's 1966 Columbia recording but in the later one, from 1985, made by Deutsche Grammophon, also with the New York Philharmonic, in what was no longer Philharmonic Hall (and not yet David Geffen Hall) but Avery Fisher Hall.

COPLAND: Symphony No. 3: iv. Molto Deliberato


New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, cond. DG, recorded live in Avery Fisher Hall, Dec. 10, 1985

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