Throughout the course of his compositional career, Aaron Copland was determined to develop a sophisticated musical style that was recognizably American. It was through the works on this recording that Copland’s place as the foremost American composer of his time was firmly established. The Clarinet Concerto, commissioned by Benny Goodman, has proven to be an enduring masterpiece. The difficulty of the solo writing concerned Goodman, and he told Copland he was “only a jazz man” and might not have the technique to handle the work. Despite Goodman’s hesitation, he finally performed the work and later recorded it many times. The brief Three Latin American Sketches are musical postcards of Mexico and Venezuela. Quiet City is also a short work, but of a completely different, abstract character. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Appalachian Spring Suite was composed for Martha Graham’s dance company and is the work that made Copland the first American composer to win global recognition and popularity.