Conducts American Composers

Among American performers who played "Rhapsody In Blue", Leonard Bernstein may not have given the most fastidious, note-perfect performance, but he made this impressive recording with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra in 1959 a true reflection of his charismatic, flamboyant personality. "Symphony No. 3," William Schuman's most well- known symphony, received it's best performance to date under Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. It opens with a passacaglia, long-breathed and vast, which turns into a muscular, big-boned and colorful fugue. And last but not least is the "Suite No. 2" from Edward MacDowell, the American composer who was most acclaimed a century ago