American Music Champions
Serge Koussevitzky By George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress) via Wikimedia Commons
Two of the most famous conductors in the U.S. in the 1930s and 1940s were strong supporters of American music. Serge Koussevitzky in Boston and Leopold Stokowski in Philadelphia frequently programmed American composers, whether their audiences liked it nor not. Koussevitzky was a strong supporter of the music of Aaron Copland, and in 1944 the Boston Symphony made the first, historic, recording of Copland's "Appalachian Spring" ballet.
On this week’s Classics of the Phonograph, Saturday at 11 am on WILL-FM 90.9, we will hear some of these conductors' American music recordings.