Aaron Copland was able to extract America's character and aspirations and place them into music without sentimentality. His best-known works were ballets like Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, and Rodeo. But he also wrote music for film scores including The Red Pony and Our Town - one of the most melancholic pieces of classical music ever written.
Fortunately we have many great Copland recordings to choose from including conductors Michael Tilson Thomas, the composer himself, and Leonard Bernstein. Recently Joann Falletta of the Buffalo philharmonic released a recording of the Red Pony and Rodeo on Naxos which is excellent.
Appalachian Spring is his most popular composition and can take you out of yourself, especially if you listen to it while gazing out a window at a tree (which near guarantees a peak experience). Tilson Thomas' recording of this piece and Billy the Kid won a Rosette from Gramophone.
In the playlists below the pieces are separated so when you play them they will not run together. Try "Our Town" first. It is a short suite taken from Copland's score of the movie of Thornton Wilder's play that explored the everyday lives of average citizens in a typical New Hampshire town in the early 1900's. If you haven't seen this you are in for an experience as it is as much a masterpiece of theater as Copland's score is of music. By a coincidence, Copland actually lived in the small New Hampshire town from which Wilder drew his story. An account of Copland's involvement with Our Town is
here.
The El Salon Mexico selection is the composer conducting and if you limited your Copland recordings to just those with him at the podium you wouldn't go wrong.
The final piece is Bernstein's recording of Rodeo and, as you would expect, the Jewish, cosmopolitan, socialite from Manhattan just nails it.
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