Town & Country

MWIII March 12 & 13, 2026
Town and Country
By David Amado

This program explores the human longing for stillness, simplicity, and meaning. From open landscapes to inner searching, each work invites us to listen for beauty in unexpected places.

We begin with Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, a ballet that has come to define a kind of American sound. Commissioned in 1944 by choreographer Martha Graham, the piece tells the story of a young frontier couple beginning their life together. The music is full of open harmonies, gentle optimism, and bursts of joyful energy—qualities that have come to feel quintessentially American. Near the end, Copland weaves in the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts,” transforming it into a glowing statement of hope and renewal. Though rooted in a specific time and place, the music’s emotional resonance is timeless.

Next comes Finding Religion, a double concerto for violin and cello by Paul Frucht, written in 2018 and revised in 2022. The piece is inspired by a Charles Ives song of the same name—a brief, cryptic meditation on belief. Frucht expands that fragment into a deeply felt reflection on faith, identity, and the struggle to reconcile the two. Featuring concertmaster Leonid Sigal and cellist Julian Schwarz, the work moves from introspective lyricism to dramatic urgency, giving voice to questions that are both personal and universal.

After intermission, we hear Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the Pastorale. Written in 1808, the symphony unfolds in five movements, tracing a narrative arc from joyful arrival in the countryside to a thunderstorm and, finally, a hymn of gratitude. Beethoven described it not as a literal depiction of nature, but as an expression of feeling—an emotional response to the landscape. It remains one of his most luminous and accessible works: warm, sincere, and filled with wonder.

Together, these pieces remind us that peace is something we carry within us.