Mid-Century American Musical Negotiations: TMC Orchestra plays Barber, Copland, and Bernstein, by Larry Wallach

The Cast of "Billy the Kid." Featuring Erick Hawkins, Eugene Loring, and Lew Christensen, center, 1938. Photo George Platt Lynes. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. © Estate of George Platt Lynes.

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra concert of American Music, July 6, 2011

Samuel Barber, Second Essay for Orchestra (1942)
Ken-David Masur conducting

Aaron Copland, Billy the Kid ballet suite (1938)
Robert Treviño conducting

Leonard Bernstein, Symphony no. 2, “The Age of Anxiety” (1948)
Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducting, Nolan Pearson piano

Tanglewood mounts a big spectacular every year on July 4th, with James Taylor, the Boston Pops, and fireworks. An equally appropriate, and perhaps more nuanced, way to acknowledge the role music plays in our national consciousness is to offer a program such as the one which occurred two days later in Ozawa Hall. While each work on this program counts as a classic, and the first two have undoubtedly been played in more than one pops concert, the conjunction of the three offers a thoughtful way to experience and appraise the work of three defining figures of 20th century American music.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International journal for the Arts!







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