Copland & Barber with Renaud Capuçon

Programme

Our series Let Freedom Ring: Celebrating the Sounds of America continues with ‘the greatest American symphony ever written’.

Copland’s Symphony No. 3 won this accolade from its first conductor in 1946, and has held on to the title ever since. It’s full of hope, dignity and heroism, its finale reusing material from the exhilarating Fanfare for the Common Man (see 19 October). Copland himself said that he wanted it to express ‘the euphoric spirit of the country’ after the Second World War.

Barber’s Violin Concerto vies with the Adagio for Strings as his most popular work. It has one of the most lyrical, serene openings in classical music, and the second movement features a dreamy oboe solo. The fiendish perpetual motion finale is a striking contrast – giving Renaud Capuçon the chance to show off his agility as well as his ‘liquid gold’ tone (Bachtrack).

To open, American conductor Ryan Bancroft has chosen Entr’acte by his compatriot, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw. Shaw’s soundscape is full of contrasting textures, evoking raindrops, sighing wind and the sound of the classical guitar using just the string section of the orchestra.

Part of Let Freedom Ring