Bernstein and Copland

From the edgy energy of the street dancing Sharks and Jets and the raw exhilarating shout in the school gym’s “Mambo” to the elegantly tender embrace of first-love teens, Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story captured the pulse of a generation as it transformed Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. All of the drama and pathos, the joy and sorrow of that story is captured in his Symphonic Dances.

Contrasting with Bernstein’s brash brilliance is Aaron Copland’s sublime Appalachian Spring Suite. With its serenely lovely opening that seems to summon the sunrise over the mountain and its profoundly beautiful setting of the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts,” it’s a portrait of a time, a place, and a people.