“Aaron Copland’s ‘Appalachian Spring’ premiered at a time of global tumult, [when] World War II was still raging,” writes Peter Tonguette in Friday’s (2/26) Columbus Dispatch (OH). “Now, decades later, the Westerville Symphony has chosen the work for its first performance during a comparable period of uncertainty, as the world navigates the ongoing coronavirus pandemic…. Thirteen masked and socially distanced members of the Westerville Symphony recorded ‘Appalachian Spring’ in late January at the historic Everall Barn on North Cleveland Avenue in Westerville. The video can be viewed for free at westervillesymphony.org…. Music Director Peter Stafford Wilson felt this piece was the perfect note on which to return. ‘I don’t think it was by accident that Copland’s populist period came during some of the darkest days in our nation’s history,’ Wilson said… ‘There’s something enormously calming that came out of this whole period in Copland’s writing.’ … It also had special meaning for the musicians who assembled at the barn late last month… ‘Most of (the musicians) had not been playing with other musicians for almost a year.’ … Wilson said that additional online concerts are being planned for the spring, along with more traditional in-person concerts in the fall.”
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