Aaron Copland Conducts Aaron Copland – Klaus Tennstedt Conducts Mahler – Past Daily Mid-Week Concert

American Institution.

Click on the link here for Audio Player – New York Philharmonic – Aaron Copland, guest Conductor – November 11, 1980 – Part 1

Click on the link here for Audio Player- New York Philharmonic – Klaus Tennstedt, guest Conductor – November 11, 1980 – Part 2

Something historic again this week. The New York Philharmonic in concert from 1980, featuring Aaron Copland and Klaus Tennstedt, guest conductors. Copland was made Honorary Conductor of the Philharmonic on his 70th birthday in 1970 and he frequently returned over the years to lead the orchestra in his own works. This week he’s leading the orchestra (during the first half) in his Symphonic Ode.

The second half is given over to guest Conductor Klaus Tennstedt, who leads the orchestra in Mahler‘s Symphony Number 5.

The concert is broken up into two parts – Part 1 (top player) features the Copland and Part 2 (bottom player) features the Mahler.

Historic concert and the orchestra is top-notch as always. Two major figures in music, sadly no longer with us.

The broadcast date lists it as November 11, 1980, but I believe it was recorded in concert several weeks, if not months earlier.  It’s 1980 for sure though.

Enjoy.

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Artur Balsam And Henri Nosco Play The Music Of Edward Burlingame Hill – 1945 – Past Daily Weekend Gramophone

Henri Nosco: Unsung hero – the go-to guy for the NBC Symphony.

Click on the link here for Audio Player: Edward Burlingame Hill – Concertino for Piano and Orchestra – June 28, 1945 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection

I originally posted this a few years ago on my other long-gone site, but the sound was awful and the player made everything sound worse. I’ve finally gotten around to re-transferring it with hopefully better sound, which is the least I can do for a piece of music and a composer who are both undeservedly obscure in musical history.

Edward Burlingame HIll was an early 20th Century composer whose style closely resembled the Romantic period of music. Conservative in his execution, he composed a lot of pleasant, but not terribly memorable music to begin with. And the passage of time has only heaped on the obscurity.

Still, music of American composers has been a rare commodity for quite some time, save for the usual suspects; Copland, Bernstein and a handful of others. Edward Burlingame Hill is but one of countless American composers going back to the beginnings of this country who have fallen very much by the wayside.

Today it’s HIll’s Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, played by that venerable champion of 20th Century American music Artur Balsam with the NBC (Radio) Concert Orchestra led by Assistant conductor Henri Nosco. The performance, recorded on June 28th 1945 was part of a weekly series NBC put together to spotlight these lesser-lights, Music Of The New World.

A little under 10 minutes and not at all painful to listen to, the music of Edward Burlingame Hill does its level-best not to assault the listener and asks no potent or earth-shattering sociological questions in the process.

It occurred to me that not all music has an unwritten obligation to change the world. Some music can just be the charming and engaging dinner guest and nothing more.

I can go along with that.

Music Of Hartley, Pursell And Nelson – America’s Composers 1953 – Past Daily Weekend Gramophone

Composer William Pursell during his foray into Pop Music.

Click on the link here for Audio Player: [audio https://pastdaily.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/americas-composers-program-7-1953.mp3]

Continuing this week with American Composers of the 1950’s. This broadcast, part of the America’s Composers series features the Eastman School Student Symphony conducted by Howard Hanson in music by Student composers, studying at the school at the time of this broadcast on March 16, 1953.

Of the composers mentioned in this broadcast, one made a brief foray into the Pop Music world. William Pursell (or Bill Pursell) had a number of hit singles in the early 1960’s and had recorded extensively for Columbia Records before resuming his career in contemporary Classical Music. The other two, Walter Hartley and Ron Nelson have long and distinguished careers in the world of Academia.

All of them have an impressive number of compositions under their belt and are three more reasons why American Classical Music needs to be given a closer look than the passing glance its currently getting. There are a lot more out there than Aaron Copland, in case you didn’t notice. Just sayin’.

Here’s what’s on the player tonight:

1. Walter Hartley: Ballet Music For Orchestra

2. William Pursell: Christ Looking Over Jerusalem

3. Ron Nelson: Savannah River Holiday

It’s a safe bet none of these pieces are available on commercial recordings of any kind, and with the exception of Pursell’s pop material, none of it has been made heard since these first performances. It’s a reminder  that the world of music is huge and vast – and probably not all of it can be heard in one lifetime.

But you can try. . .

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