Inspired by the spacious landscape of the American prairie, Copland’s ballets are amongst the most vibrant and tuneful in the repertoire. Rodeo, the second of his cowboy ballets, is about the desperate attempts of a cowgirl to become a ranch cowhand, and quotes a variety of American folk-tunes, including the irrepressible ‘Hoe Down’. The orchestral suite of Billy the Kid evokes prairie and frontier town in scenes of suspense, violence and fleeting romance, orchestrated with vivid immediacy. The 1926 Piano Concerto caused uproar at its première. In two movements, it is saturated in jazz and blues effects, rhythmically unorthodox and highly sophisticated—a blistering assertion of New York swagger.