Journeys to California: Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3
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Robert Spano, conductor
Conrad Tao, piano
San Diego Symphony Orchestra
ADAM SCHOENBERG: Cool Cat
JOHN ADAMS: Century Rolls
RACHMANINOFF: Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44
An exuberant celebration of music by three composers, all of whom came from elsewhere to live in California. The youngest, Massachusetts-born Adam Schoenberg, is famous for his ability to meld popular idioms into energetic pieces for classical audiences and Cool Cat is no exception. This delightful fanfare of an overture celebrates the life of P-22, the world-famous mountain lion who lived for a decade in the hills above Los Angeles. John Adams, one of the most renowned American composers, wrote his piano concerto Century Rolls in the 1990s as a celebration of the great age of American player-piano recordings a century ago by artists such as Jelly Roll Morton and Gershwin. Russian-born Rachmaninoff himself spent much of the last quarter century of his life in the US, becoming a citizen and owning homes in New York and Los Angeles. Rachmaninoff was a huge admirer of American popular music and in the last movement of his Third Symphony we can hear his delight in Hollywood film-music and especially the movies of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
