Janos Gereben asks:

>Question: What is the Fantasy's performance history, recordings,
>current circulation?

Here's the NY Times review of its premiere, performed by William Masselos,
who was mentioned by Professor Chasan in his previous note in this thread:

   Copland Fantasy for Piano Heard

   By HOWARD TAUBMAN
   October 26, 1957

   Aaron Copland was treated last night like a gray eminence of American
   music. His new Piano Fantasy was presented in its premiere in a
   framework worth of a prophet in his own land. It was the only piece
   on the program; it was played twice.

   The Juilliard School, which commissioned the work for its fiftieth
   anniversary celebration last year, planned the occasion and served
   as the host. The pianist was William Masselos, who played the Fantasy
   with the resourcefulness of a virtuoso and the perception of a
   thoughtful and progressive musician.

   The Fantasy, which is dedicated to the memory of the uncommonly gifted
   American pianist, William Kapell, is one of Mr. Copland's most
   significant compositions. It deserved the respectful introduction it
   received.

   Mr. Copland has been at pains to explain that the Fantasy was designed
   as absolute music. No suggestion of his folk or popular style was
   allowed to intrude. It is as if the composer turned his back on an
   easy triumph. His aim was to let his fancy roam in the rarest regions,
   concerned only with bringing back the choicest and deepest musical
   thoughts.

   This is an intensely serious work, but it is not forbidding. Mr.
   Copland uses twelve-tone devices, but he does not follow them slavishly.
   Often the piece has a tonal feeling.

   The writing is often spare and economical; at other times it flares
   up into virtuosity. But everything about the layout and shape of the
   work is pianistic. It is true that Mr. Copland indulges in wide skips,
   that he contrasts extreme highs and lows, that he asks near the end
   for an effect described as "no tone." But none of these things is
   capricious in impact, for everything fits into the large design.

   There is no doubt about the skill and tightness with which this music
   is organized. Though Mr. Copland has said that he sought "a spontaneous
   and unpremeditated sequence of 'events' that would carry the listener
   (if possible) from the first note to the last," he has not meandered.
   He has given his imagination wide range, but a cultivated mind and
   ear have been in control of the selection and development of material.

   The listener who has any experience with the contemporary world of
   music and who gives his attention to Mr. Copland is carried along.
   This Fantasy has a largeness of scope that reminds one of the Fantasies
   of Mozart and Schubert, thought its idiom is a far cry from theirs.

   There is nothing obvious, and it has little chance of becoming a big,
   popular success. But it will reward investigation. It has size and
   a sort of rigorous grandeur, and from time to time there appear
   passages of shy and grave lyricism.

   Mr. Masselos, one of the best of our young pianists, played the
   Fantasy with unremitting concentration. The second performance was
   as full-blooded and commanding as the first. He made clear the logic
   of Mr. Copland's thought.

   The printed score looks formidable in its difficulties. On one page,
   for example, there are almost twenty changes of rhythm. But what
   seemed thorny on the printed page became clear and exciting under
   Mr. Masselos' hands.

   The audience was one of the most knowledgeable that could be assembled
   in New York. At the end of each performance it hailed composer and
   performer.

Scott Morrison