A feeling of happiness comes over the listener when the delightful Appalachian Spring ballet suite is heard. Aaron Copland pulls out all the emotional stops for a work by the groundbreaking choreographer Martha Graham. Her 1944 ballet depicts a dance‑like wedding celebration taking place in a nineteenth‑century religious Shaker community. Copland’s ecstatic music moves every soul, then and now.

That positive energy is sustained by colleague Samuel Barber with the orchestral work Medea’s Dance of Vengeance. The relaxed Barber shifted effortlessly from style to style, with a fondness for neo‑romantic melancholy. Martha Graham also managed to enlist Barber for a ballet score. In their Medea, the audience is swept along in a dance spectacle about jealousy and revenge.

Barber also believed in the power of old America. In the picturesque Knoxville: Summer of 1915, long, languid summer evenings and endless childhood dreams prevail. Much anticipation surrounds the guest performance by mezzo‑soprano and Grammy winner Julia Bullock. The engaged star vocalist is exceptionally at home in the American repertoire.

As the crowning finale of the summer, Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements is heard. A dazzling showpiece with which the famous Russian made his debut in his new homeland, the USA. Stravinsky perfected his sparkling vision of the great classical tradition with a symphony that bursts with pure solar energy.

• conductor Duncan Ward mezzo‑soprano Julia Bullock
• programme Barber – Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, Op. 23a | Stravinsky – Symphony in Three Movements | Barber – Knoxville: Summer of 1915 | Copland – Appalachian Spring Suite