Kansas City Symphony / Matthias Pintscher

In his ballet score »Appalachian Spring«, Copland reflects on the origins of the European settlers in the United States. At its center is a newly married couple in Pennsylvania and a joyful celebration featuring square dance and fiddle music. The violin sounds very different in Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s famous Violin Concerto. The composer poured his most intimate feelings into its deeply moving melodies, which will be brought to life this evening by the renowned violinist Gil Shaham on his Stradivarius.

Sergei Rachmaninov, one of the last great composers of the late Romantic era, was one of Tchaikovsky’s favorite pupils and does full justice to his teacher with his gift for melody. His Symphony No. 3 is likewise an example of expressive music that speaks so directly to the heart that the composer himself regarded it as one of his finest works.