Connotations for Orchestra

Just imagine for a minute you are at the Lincoln Centre’s opening night back in 1962. You’re there with the great and the good. You’ve paid the $200 ticket price and you’re dressed up the the nines in your tuxedo or evening dress.

The music programme includes Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Mahler and the Dean of American Composers – Aaron Copland. The Copland piece is a new commission, Connotations for Orchestra. Always a bit of a risk but you’re thinking, he’s going to bring his A game to the table – an event like this is going to get the full on Americana treatment. You’d probably be expecting “Appalachian Spring 2″ or “Rodeo 2″.

In Connotations for Orchestra, Copland certainly delivered but something that no one was expecting!

Accessibility rating

**

Commissioned by

New York Philarmonic Orchestra to commemorate the opening of Philarmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall)

Important dates

Composed – 1961-62

Premiere performance – 11 September 1962 Philharmonic Hall, New York, USA; Leonard Bernstein, New York Philarmonic Orchestra

Duration

~ 19.5 minutes

Related works

Symphonic Ode

Piano Variations

Symphony No. 3

Instrumentation
3 Flutes; Piccolo; 2 oboes; Cor Anglais; 4 clarinets (inc E flat and Bass clarinet)

6 French horns; 4 trumpets; 4 trombones; 1 tuba

Timpani; Piano; Clesta; Glockenspiel; Vibraphone; Xylophone; Conga drum; Cymbals; Metal sheet; Tam Tam; Triangle; Temple Block; Wood block; Bass Drum; Side Drum

16 First Violins; 16 Second Violins; 12 Violas; 12 Cellos, 6 Double bases

Number of performances since 1980

15

Recordings:

Number of recordings: 3

Orchestra	Conductor	Album	Duration	Label	Year
New York Philarmonic	Leonard Bernstein	Copland: Appalachian Spring; Rodeo; Billy The Kid; El Salòn México	20	Deutsche Grammophon	1991
Juilliard Orchestra	Sixten Ehrling	William Schuman: In Praise of Shahn / Aaron Copland: Connotations / Roger Sessions: Suite from The Black Maskers - The Juilliard Orchestra	20	New World Records	1989
BBC Philharmonic	John Wilson	Copland Orchestral Works 4 – Symphonies	18.42	Chandos	2018

If you like this then why not try this:

Alan Hovanhess – Symphony No 49 Mount St Helens

This may seem a strange choice. Alan Hovanhess abhorred atonality so almost certainly wouldn’t have liked Connotations. However, the volcanic eruption of Mount St Helens means that there’s a great deal of noisy brass and percussion in this piece.