Copland

Aaron Copland Symphony No 3; George Walker Sinfonia No 5

London Symphony Orchestra. Sir Antonio Pappano

LSO Live LSO0916

Release dateL: 5 June 2026

More information here

Aaron Copland's Third Symphony is one of those works that seems to contain an entire continent within its bars. Composed in the dying days of the Second World War, it reaches towards the horizon with the confidence of a nation steeling itself for brighter times, its vast sonic landscapes shaped by a mind equally at home in the concert hall and on the open plains. Sir Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra bring it to life here with a performance that is, in every sense, the real thing.

The first movement establishes the mood with luminous woodwind writing and strings of aching beauty, and the LSO's playing throughout is superb. The brass arrive with vibrant assurance in the second movement, their colours richly layered in a way that fully honours Copland's masterly orchestration; and here, there is already a fleeting premonition of things to come — a hint of the famous Fanfare for the Common Man, woven in with a subtlety that rewards close listening. The third movement, developing into an irresistible dance, showcases the orchestra at its finest: impeccably balanced, rhythmically alive, with a sense of joyful precision that speaks to the breadth of the LSO's collective talent.

Then the fanfare itself arrives in the finale—not with a blaze of trumpets, but as a breath of wind drifting across the prairie, so soft and inevitable that the familiarity of the theme feels entirely fresh. What follows is a lesson in compositional resourcefulness: the way Copland fashions an entire movement from that seed, transforming and building until the final bars blaze away in a thrilling, unabashed celebration, is a reminder of why this work occupies such a central place in the American canon. The percussion throughout adds depth and weight with characteristic assurance, and Pappano draws from the orchestra every ounce of colour and rhythmic energy that Copland demands.

The coupling is a well-considered decision. George Walker's Sinfonia No 5, Visions — the composer's final work, written as a response to the 2015 massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina — is a searing, unrelentingly modernist piece suffused with grief and anger. Its jagged harmonies and restless energy speak of an artist whose communicative language remained utterly individual to the last, yet within that turbulence there is space for reflection and a sense of the groundbreaking legacy Walker leaves behind. The LSO and Pappano capture the drama and the pain with complete conviction.

A disc that earns its place in any collection.