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Donald Macleod explores Copland’s personal life and its impact on his work.

This week of programmes explores Aaron Copland’s most productive decade, and features some of his best-loved works in full. During this time Copland hit his prime. He became recognised as America’s leading composer, winning the Pulitzer Prize in Music and an Academy Award for his work in Hollywood.

He toured Europe and South America, absorbing diverse influences from each, and composed key works including his Third Symphony, Appalachian Spring, Lincoln Portrait, Fanfare for the Common Man and Rodeo.

We get a sense of how Copland’s personal and professional interests developed over the 1940s and learn about his friendships and challenges during and in the aftermath of World War II.

In this episode, Donald Macleod examines Copland’s artistic and personal relationships, and their impact on his work. Victor Kraft was the most important romantic relationship of his life, but by the early 40s it had begun to unravel, with the composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein embroiled too.

Las Agachadas (The Shake-Down Song)
United States Army Field Band Soldiers' Chorus
Finley R. Hamilton, conductor

Sonata for violin and piano
Gil Shaham, violin
André Previn, piano

Fanfare for the Common Man
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin, conductor

Appalachian Spring Suite (version for 13 instruments)
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Produced by Iain Chambers for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales