Copland: Symphony No. 3, Quiet City
Late in his career, Leonard Bernstein returned to the greatest orchestral work by his lifelong friend, Aaron Copland, with a performance that eclipsed all others, including Bernstein's ownprevious recordingof the Symphony no. 3 on Sony. Though Copland's stock still hadn't climbed back to its present height, Bernstein gave the music a grandeur that made you forget how much of a cliché theFanfare for the Common Man--which was worked into the finale of the Third--can be. In fact, many of the world-stopping qualities Bernstein brought to hissecond Mahler cyclefor Deutsche Grammophon seem much in evidence here, with the New York Philharmonic playing as though its collective life depended on it.--David Patrick Stearns