“When Aaron Copland composed the ballet Appalachian Spring for Martha Graham’s eponymous company [for its world premiere] at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., he wrote the work for a 13-piece chamber orchestra,” writes Jane Levere in an article posted last Tuesday (5/10) at New York classical radio station WQXR.com. “The orchestra pit in the library’s auditorium couldn’t accommodate a larger group of musicians. Copland subsequently transformed the ballet score into a suite for full orchestra in 1945, but this included cuts and changes in several areas. Since the 1950s, orchestras have shown interest in restoring these cuts to the orchestral score.” A new score, commissioned by the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, “finishes what Copland started, yielding an orchestral version of the entire ballet.” The new orchestral version of Appalachian Spring was given its world premiere on May 11 by the Meadows Symphony Orchestra and Meadows Dance Ensemble at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The new version will also be performed on June 10, during the League of American Orchestras’ National Conference, “by the Baltimore Symphony under conductor Marin Alsop and with dancers from the Baltimore School for the Arts.”
Posted May 17, 2016
