Repertoire: The BEST Copland Third Symphony 

I was in the audience as the Oregon Symphony version was recorded. One hell of a live performance. I am very happy you liked it too and picked it as your favorite!

I grew up with the Everest Copland recording on LP. I loved the piece from the first time I heard it. When I was a kid, my parents didn't have a lot of records of "crazy modern music" as they called it. This symphony was one of my first experiences with music written AD (After Debussy). I love the Bernstein recording on Columbia. It's great. I've never heard any of the others - something to do. Yay. In college I drove from Cincinnati to Saint Louis and stayed with friends so I could hear Slatkin conduct it along with some variations by Ginastera. Such a great concert. The audience went nuts!

I LOOOOOOOVE your videos. Thank you, David.

The Dallas/Meta recording was my first Copland 3(the recording that I learned the music from,and will always hold a special place in my heart) but the St.Louis recording is the one that taught me to appreciate the music.

Boy, better late than never. I bought my score and LP (Bernstein/NY #1) in fall of 1968 and was STUNNED to hear the cut near the very end. I thought the recording must have included a defective edit, but then heard Copland's Everest recording with the same cut. Now, all these years later, I finally catch up and discover that Lenny (Slatkin, not Bernstein) recorded the Original, Un-Cut version, which I finally listened to today (June 9, 21), following along diligently with my original score. So, to quote our host...WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE ABOUT IT??! The cut passage is 42 seconds long and adds the symphony's opening theme back into the general jubilation. It's certainly not (IMO) enough to cause a ruckus that requires the 8-measure cut. I mean...as long as your'e being excessive, you might as well revel in it. LR

I love this work and appreciate your thoughtful review of many recordings, some of which I didn't know existed. I was surprised that you didn't mention the premiere recording featuring Antal Dorati and the Minneapolis Symphony on a superbly recorded Mercury LP. I know you like Maestro Dorati's way with Copland, having so highly recommended his Appalachian Spring CD (which is fantastic, thank you!)

Atlanta/Levi is my absolute favorite of the many 3rds I own. Very noble & dark yet appropriately powerful when necessary. The orchestra plays fantastic and the sonics as you stated are top notch. Minnesota/Ouie is another one to have. I’ve been meaning to purchase the Oregon symph release and looking forward to hearing there brass.

I see it as triumphant & I love it.

I've been listening to the Oregon Symphony recording, and it is indeed terrific, with plenty of "air" around the orchestra. By the way Dave, that recording is taken from live concert performances, which makes it all the more special.

I'm really enjoying your You Tube reviews and comparisons. Regarding the Copland 3...To me the DG Bernstein is the ultimate recorded performance. It was one of the first classical CDs I purchased when it was first released and I have most of the other major recordings. LB just gets everything right though it is definitely stretched to it's limits. But the playing is amazing especially the brass. Epic. I also love the mono Dorati on an original Mercury LP. Still has bass that hit you in the stomach and the recording allows you to hear all the details in the winds and string articulation. I will buy the Oregon Sym. version on your recommendation and let you know what I think!

It took me quite awhile to warm up to Copland’s 3rd. I’m not sure why because noisy bombast is usually very much my thing; now I absolutely adore it. Bernstein may be the master maestro of this work is almost as much his as it is Copland’s in my mind. HOWEVER, my two favorites are Copland on Everest and Slatkin’s first. They’re both incredibly exciting. I’ve heard wonders about that Minnesota Orchestra and I may just grab it as a birthday for myself on vinyl. I absolutely love the bold neoclassicism of that Carlos Kalmar Robert Kurka disc you recommended and I’ve been listening to it quite a bit, so I’ll check out Kalmar here too.

So agree about the Kalmar! I live exactly next door to Schnitzer, where Oregon (Or-y-gun not Ory_gone) Symphony performs. Very sad that Kalmar's final season with the group has been canceled through next year due to the pandemic...

I remember a performance by the LA Philharmonic in 1985, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf. The other work on the program was the Brahms violin concerto performed by Anne Sophie-Mutter, who was making her L.A. debut. Leinsdorf practically conducted the Brahms on auto-pilot. The second half of the concert was the Copland Third Symphony which must have taken up all of the rehearsal time. Leinsdorf's tempo was perfect--just slightly on the slow side for the benefit of the players, most of whom must have been playing the symphony for the first time. I remember the Slatkin/St Louis cd released on RCA, which had recently become a German label when it was acquired by BMG.

I know Manny Laureano, the first trumpet player of the Minnesota Orchestra. I asked him earlier this year which records he’s most proud of making with that orchestra, and he told me: Copland 3rd, Oue Bernstein album, Oue Mahler 7th, Vänskä Sibelius 1, 2, 5, Vänskä Ein Heldenleben, Oue Symphonia Domestica, de Waart Alpine Symphony, de Waart Rite of Spring, Oue

Come on now, is there no one else out there that vastly prefers the "restored" original ending? Lenny did him wrong! The reprise of the first movement theme is so key for me. The 2017 Slatkin album with Detroit is now for me the ultimate recording/performance of this symphony that is closer to my heart than any other classical work.

I had for several years a primitive boom box derived cassette of a transcription by the Philadelphia Orchestra from the late Eighties of a performance of the Copland Third in the Teatro Cologne, Buenos Aires conducted by Riccardo Muti. It represented the South American premiere of the work, and was performed as viscerally, yet virtuosically (?) as any orchestral performance I have ever heard, as if the ink on the pages of the score had yet to dry. I think there is, at times, an element of tension between conductor and musicians as to how the tune goes, but that only elevates the musicality. Would make a fine historic pressing by the Orchestra.

I didn't know about the revision of the ending until I was at a performance with Alsop/Cleveland and the finale went off in an unfamiliar direction. I like the revision! Slatkin's first recording (with St. Louis) and Oue/Minnesota (which has better sound than Levi's, including a BIG BASS DRUM) are my favorite performances.

Of course, I own both Bernstein-versions (preferring the CBS, but the quiet moments in the DG-recording are incredibly beautiful). The Kalmar-recording is until now unknown to me, but I'll change that. I know Kalmar from his time in Vienna - then, he was one of the young and fiery conductors, and at first a specialist for the uncommon repertoire. But when he conducted the classic stuff, it was also great. He had a youthful energy without turning works in something which they aren't. I liked him very much, when he was chief conductor of the Niederösterreichische Tonkünstlerorchester. And then, suddenly, I lost him out of sight. It's a pleasure that you rate his Copland-recording so high. I'm eager to listen at it!

Hey, that Judd/NZ sounds great! My copies are Copland/Everest and Lenny/DG. The Everest is the one iI grew up with.

With your Appalachian Spring recommendation by Dorati, you got me hooked on Copland! Hope you are doing well. =)

It does not surprise me that Eiji Oue conducted Copeland well because he was a student of Bernstein. His first (post-Bernstein) professional orchestra was with the Erie Philharmonic. While in grad school I had a subscription to the Philharmonic season series and In 1990 Bernstein died. Oue changed the next concert program to include Barber's Adagio, in remembrance of Bernstein, then the overture to Candide. It was a moving and memorable concert.

That Naxos Third sound great.

The Third Symphony is somewhat anomalous for Copland -- an abstract work in his populist style. Interestingly, once he took his big swing at the Great American Symphony, he never went there again. For the most part, his later works do not suffer from "importantitis," as Sondheim described the malady that rendered many of Bernstein's late works more than a little overwrought. It never ceases to delight me that so much of the music we use for high school graduations (we had Lincoln Portrait, of course), 4th of July Pops and other super-American celebrations was composed by a leftist gay Jew. What a great country! (And the Kalmar is fabulous -- thanks!)

Love the scherzo! But here's an idea! A stokowski version! With cow bells, organ and chorus with words by Whitman in the finale! I can hear you groan!

Listening to you describing that you felt the revised version was much better reminded me of a question I have had for several years. I heard Bernstein's Billy the Kid and Apllachian Spring when I was in high school and have listened and loved them into my eighth decade. Years ago I discovered the Cowboy Waltz of Billy the Kid on the recording by Leonard Slatkin. It is lovely. Recordings of the Suite don't have it and there are few recordings of the full ballet. Would you know why such beautiful music would be ignored?

Sorry, the Bernstein/NYPO is in class by itself, mainly because it’s played by the NYPO at its pinnacle. The fact that LB was the conductor is just the lagniappe.

I totally agree about the Kalmar-- and I have most of the others. I recommend Kalmar's other Pentatone recordings with the Oregon Symphony as well. All have idiotic album titles which are guaranteed to keep someone from investigating! But it's worth taking the time!

Mr Hurwitz: I just now listened to Oue recording on RU-vid. Simply marvellous (though the french horns and the brass in general could be better and maybe snarl a little!). Just ordered through Amazon. I have the Bernstein version on D.G (OOH!). One question. When composers conduct or accompany often the tempi are either "too fast" or "Too slow". Rachmaninoff plays his third concerto. It is quite marvellous and at that tempo the music is (at least to my ears) magnificent and not even a slightly banal. His solo works as well. Ravel's own version of the Bolero is quite "slow". This business of just how the tempi must go can become hugely debatable is it not? Hari

How about an ideal list of the 10 Best American Symphonies?

I will definitely check out the Kalmar performance. I've heard Levi,Slatkin's first recording, both versions by Bernstein, Copland's remake for Sony (with the Philharmonia), and the recent MTT/SFSO. Levi's recording was his first as ASO music director and was released amid great expectations; it's good and well recorded but, as you say, somewhat sluggish. MTT is very good in the quieter sections (beautiful work from the woodwinds) but reigns in the full orchestra in louder sections and at climaxes; it all sounds too rigid and controlled, as if he's afraid to let the brass and percussion cut loose. Copland's remake is slack and lacks tension, with seriously under-nourished brass contributions, it sounds like a very competent run-through. I would be interested in your thoughts on the MTT/SFSO recording.

For what it's worth, Mercury reissued a remastered version of the original mono Dorati recording (I believe the first recording of the symphony) in Vol. 3 of the Mercury Living Presence Collectors Edition in 2015. The sound is amazingly good for its age and Dorati gives the symphony its all. At one time one or another of the online download outfits offered the single work for sale as a full AIFF download, though I can't remember which one.

I honestly don't know how people can complain about bombast here while gleefully countenancing Brucker finales that sound like they were written by a precocious megalomaniac third-grader.

When was the revision made to the finale? Does Dorati use the original ending? Or how about Szell in his live 1947 NYP air check?

I have grown to love this work, but it took me a while to get there. I now fully appreciate the bombastic nature of the work, and much more. I haven't heard the Pentatone recording yet, but it has been on my list of items to get. So I will have to move forward with obtaining that sooner, rather than later. The Dorati mono is one that I actually hold in very high regard, even with the mono sound. This is one of those works that actually benefits from the sound in the old Northrop Auditorium (very boomy back of stage sound), which seems to amplify the impact of the percussion. I find the climaxes in this recording extremely exciting! No doubt, the gloriously recorded Reference Recordings disc with Eiji Oue is tons of fun. A good piece to get to know, for those who don't.

After commenting I found a 2018 Testament release of Copland conducting his third symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic (!!!!!!) in 1970. Have you heard this recording? If so (I have to ask) what is your opinion?

George Antheil was invoking the plains of Trenton, NJ.

Great review! Thanks. I believe that the Sony Copland is with the Philharmonia Orchestra.(Royal?) And isn't the Third a celebration of the end of the Second World War?

Imagine if Svetlanov had got his hands on this symphony...

Brilliant survey . Thanks. It was Copland’s birthday yesterday. A coincidence or deliberate?

Totally agree about the original ending. It kills all momentum. I have heard both the Slatkin/Detroit and John Wilson recordings. I downloaded the Kalmar a while back but it has been sitting in my queue. Your review will move it up the priority list. One I like that was not mentioned is the recent San Francisco Tilson Thomas recording. It has a live feel and the sonics are pretty darn good. My favorite live performance was Alsop with Philadelphia. I sat behind the orchestra. The brass played their hearts out! Alsop definitely has a feel for the piece.

Thank you for such thorough and clear coverage. I’ve loved Copland’s 3rd since I was a teen (I’m 71!), especially the first and fourth movements. But now you have me curious, I must listen to the Slatkin old-ending recording, if only to enjoy hating it. Thank you for being spare on the criticism, when critics complain about every little thing I tend to disbelieve them. One more thing, I was among those disappointed at the 4th movement’s re-use of old material, and I did not know until watching this review just how that came to be. Thank you for that too. - e@

Wait a second, you actually consider the first mvmnt “celebratory?” Tons of tension and quite bleak imo.

There's so much great stuff in this work, but, the ending has to go.