MUSIC

American Symphony Orchestra: American Expressions

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2023
7:00 PM

Bryant Park, Midtown, Manhattan

Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION

Leon Botstein may not be a great conductor, but he sure is a great programmer. This program is devoted to the 1920s, a great time for Western Art Music, not least in the U.S. Among other threads traced in this program, Western Art Music went jazz-crazy in that decade, to its great benefit — not least in America, the home of jazz. (Of course, issues of appropriation and exploitation of the culture of the victims of one of the biggest crimes in human history muddy the waters here.) Anyway, a program of George Antheil, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Aaron Copland, and John Alden Carpenter has enormous appeal. And I’ll bet that especially in this company, early Florence Price will seem less waterlogged than in her symphonies that are currently in vogue.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Best Sichuan isn’t really the best Sichuan. But it’s very good Sichuan.