El Salon Mexico conducted by Aaron Copland. This New York Philharmonic Young People's Concert was entitled Aaron Copland Birthday Party and was recorded November 12, 1960
I played flute in the New York Youth Symphony Orchestra on this piece at Carnegie Hall in 1978.. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Copland when he came to a rehearsal and conducted the orchestra on this piece.
APPLAUSE, AND MORE APPLAUSE! Hats off to you sir! I love this piece. I love Copeland's iconic compositions. I loved Bernstein (he achieved sainthood with West Side Story). The NY Philharmonic is a total class act! Long may it live!
Watching Copland almost elevate off the podium as he exhorts the orchestra through those final, magnificent crescendos...it literally brings tears to my eyes. There is nothing like watching a genius conduct his own great composition. And god love Lenny Bernstein for always being the ultimate champion of Copland's incredible oeuvre.
It was in the early 1950s that CBS telecast a Sunday afternoon hour-long program called "Omnibus" that was hosted by Alistair Cooke. It lasted until 1961. The show was along the lines of today's CBS Sunday Morning when Charles Kuralt and Charles Osgood were the hosts. Anyway, it was during a 1953 or 1954 edition of Omnibus that I was introduced to the music of Aaron Copland. I was 9 years old, taken by the claim that he had created an "American sound".....I've been a lover of Copland's works ever since. I attended his 80th Birthday concert at the Kennedy Center when he, Leonard Bernstein and Mstislav Rostropovich all took turns conducting the National Symphony.
Simply marvelous. What couple of titans. I miss the integrity, charisma and genius of both Lenny and Aaron. Eternal gratitude for all the gifts they left behind.
El Salón México fue la primera obra que escuché de Copland, dirigida por Bernstein. Desde entonces ha permanecido en mí como una de las piezas favoritas del autor. Me ha encantado ver este vídeo dirigiéndola él mismo!!
Si lo sabías perdón: Se cuenta que el maestro Aaron Copland compuso esta obra maestra inspirado en el hecho de que un día visitó el Salón Mexico cuando este estaba en sus días de gloria, y el maestro Copland quedo muy impresionado por la fastuosidad del salón y del ambiente, que le daba toda la gente ahí presente bailando danzón, y de ahí le surgió la idea de componer esta obra titulándola con el nombre de aquel lugar que lo había dejado gratamente impresionado: “EL Salón México”.
Sitting in the choir in London's Royal Festival Hall, I saw Copland in the late 60s conducting his own work and Gershwin's Concerto in F. He seemed to be the most charming of men smiling as he conducted throughout all of the pieces and, for those of us who had never seen him before, particularly tall. Most of all, of course, he was a genius and wrote some of the greatest symphonic music of the 20th century that will entertain and inspire for centuries to come.
At the 8:09, 9:34, 10:01, and 11:03 minute marks -- my former teacher, Peter Simenauer, is playing the E-flat soprano clarinet solos. This was Peter's first season with the NY Philharmonic as its associate principal and E-flat soprano clarinetist -- a position he held from 1960 through 1998.
Copland....what else is there to be said! His music captures the true feeling of American (the Southwest in particular) rugged adventure and individualism, ie, Billy The Kid Suite, Fanfare to the Common Man, etc, etc. The strains of his compositions truly are Americana......Matthew Brazille...Long Berach, CA
This symphony is a symphony of memories that I played at a brass band contest 40 years ago. At that time the record being released was limited. It seems like a dream that it is possible to enjoy the performances by composers in modern times.
It would've been an honor to play Mr. Copland's works under Aaron Copland himself. Fun fact, I was born 6 days after Aaron Copland's 100th birthday. I couldn't imagine living in a world where Stravinsky, Copland, and Bernstein were all alive.
Anyone who has ever tried to follow the score to this music will know how complex the rhythms are. It's an ordeal trying to follow it, never mind play it. It's a joy to listen to though.
Ironically, it is easy to conduct because while the players have odd placements of phrases, the "beating" is mostly in fours, twos, or six eights. No worries for the conductor. The fiddle players (especially) have to count like mad.
I don't think the rhythms are that complex though I'm sure they look complex on the page. You have to hear the music and hum it in the shower. What gives me trouble is Up the Neck by the Pretenders, or Spirits in the Material World by the Police though I'm sure the rhythms are trivially simple on the page.
I can hum it. I have never played it in an orchestra. How can musical rhythm be more complex than it sounds? That's kind of an oxymoron, isn't it? Okay, it could look very complex on the page and since musicians have to follow the score it might give them trouble,. To me this music is intuitive whereas something like George Crumb is not intuitive. Bernstein's West Side Story music sounds rhythmically trickier to my ear.
Okay, humming is not playing it. A musical piece can easily be more complex than it sounds. I know many pieces that sound pertty simple when you listen to them, but when you actually play them, they're far more difficult and complex than you think. This is one of them. As the original poster said, it's much more difficult to play than to listen to. And saying that Sting is more difficult to play than Copland is pretty funny.
We played this in the late 80's in high school symphonic orchestra - I think we submitted it to State and won that year. Very challenging piece. Other performances I found didn't do it the justice this one did, thank you for posting.
love all things copeland and bernstein!! and the new york philharmonic audio is great - too bad they didn't have high definition color video back then to go with it.
What I would give for a time machine that would allow me to go back and see this concert in person with Bernstein and Copeland together. Thank you so much for uploading this! BTW: The filming of this is surprisingly modern, with multiple, mobile camera perspectives, not just one or two fixed cameras as was more common then (and even today). Also a bit surprised this rendition as overseen by the composer is a bit more even paced and lower energy than some of the other recordings of this I have heard...
I can remember as a child placing the LP for this on our huge hi-fi, setting it turning and just lying on the floor in front of its huge speakers and letting its sound pour over me. I get it that Copland was inspired by the amazing music and dancers at El Salon, but I cannot hear this piece without thinking of the Mexican Revolution... and I swear there are parts having the spirit of the horses of the Villistas and the Zapatistas tearing over the ridge to battle.
WOW! Copland was pure genius. One thing I noticed about this video, however, is that there are no women in the orchestra. I'd say we've come a long way since 1960!
Terry Prater I don't see any blacks or Sikhs either, but there is at least one jew: no prizes for spotting him. People get a job in an orchestra after playing to the required standard at an (often screened) audition and then being a pleasant colleague on the job. These simple criteria limit the number of suitable musicians so much that orchestras couldn't then and can't now afford to be choosy about sex, race or religion.
walter wall Actually, it a well-known fact that both American and Europeans orchestras discriminated against women during much of the 20th century. You mentioned race and religion, but the fact is that those are much smaller percentages of the population than women... definitely a false equivolence. Do your research.
screened auditions are standard now, but weren't till the very late 20th century. Back then, it looked much more "official" or "prestigious" or whatever to have an all male orchestra. It was an expectation. Women could play in community orchestras, but not the big ones.
The Wiener Philharmoniker explicitly forbade women until the 1980s, I believe. The first female member, a harpist, was quite a controversial addition, I think.
Spike Lee She's GOTTA HAVE IT BRUNG ME TO THIS AMAZING ARTIST WOW!!!!!TO BE A FAN OF MUSIC U HAVE TO LUV ALL MUSIC MUSIC IS UNIVERSAL LANGUAGES ARE DIVIDED BUT MUSIC IS TIMELESS
I remember the closing part of this as the closing theme in the late 60's and early 70's for La Hora Nacional (The National Hour), a one-hour radio program produced by the General Directorate of Radio, Television and Film (RTC) of the Mexican Secretariat of the Interior, which airs at 10pm on Sunday nights on all radio stations in Mexico, as required by Mexican broadcasting law.
Muy muy impresionante Festiva Dulce Y termina como México 🇲🇽 Explosiva Hasta que vi la película "Salón México" La conocí. Even Saw the "Salón México" film ( by the way excellent ,master pièce) Just know it Aaron Copland suite Is't a Nice tribute Master work
I heard this for the first time last night (Monday March 15th, 2021) on my way home from work on Iowa Public Radio Classical only it was the last bit so I didn’t know what it was until they said what the piece was and who made it. Because before that to me it had the sound of West Side Story combined with Magnificent Seven, and to me what sounded like a little eastern influence.
Describe Paul Bowles en sus Memorias de nómada, que vino con Aaron Copland a México y uno de los lugares que visitaron fue precisamente el salón de baile ubicado por el barrio de Santa María la Rivera que se llamaba Salón México, y de él se inspiró como una narrativa de esas visitas a ese lugar.
Inspired ❤in Famous Salon Mexico a place for Dancing a place with Great Musicians too Cubans Danzoneras.......but a Place for Hookers a Real Club Nocturno from de 40s and 50s most.........You should see the Movie is Just Fantastic ❤🎉😮😮😮😮..........Viva México Gringos Cabrones🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤❤😂😂😂😂😂😊😊😊😊Viva!!
It's still under copyright, so you won't find it online for free. legally. You might still find the score at a large public library. I remember taking scores from the Chicago Public Library back in the 1970s and copying out the trumpet parts to practice. Certainly a music school ought to have it in their library.
For anyone still looking for an answer to this, I know the Library of Congress has some of Copeland's scores digitized and available in their online collections.
~Mal Reinhören in die Filmszene mit Ricardo Montalban (gespielt von Andre Previn) ....genial: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-S-Q49bIo1v4.html
Since some of you insist on going down this path, why not also mention that there are no men of color in the orchestra---shock! They're all white, middle-aged or beyond---and probably no LGBT's either. Well....on the other hand.... But my point is this: why are so many viewers seemingly OBSESSED with race, gender, orientation, etc?....these were astounding times in American music, and Leonard Bernstein and the NY Phil did more to educate and bring classical music to the country than anyone ever imagined possible. So why not relax, take it for what it is...and just enjoy it.
And Copland and Barber and Menotti and Cowell and...It's just not a thing though back then it was against the law (Cowell spent time in jail for being gay).
No one even brought it up. Could it be that it's actually reactionaries who depend on manufactured moral outrage and imaginary offenses to maintain the pretence that they're at all relevant in the modern world?
I definitely noticed the lack of women. At about 4 minutes in, I began actively looking for them. I didn't find any. As a female brass player myself, I am familiar with lingering sexism (particularly within brass and rhythm sections) but I was very surprised that there wasn't a single woman anywhere. I'm so glad to say that these days I can at least be acknowledged as holding my own, and can wrestle a chair for myself. Some of the men don't like it, but they don't have to!