Premiere
Knoxville: Summer of 1915 premiered on April 9, 1948, conducted by Serge Koussevitzky at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The performance was met with mixed reviews (Heyman). While Steber's performance was warmly received, Agee's text was seen as unnatural to set to music, and some opinions of Barber's music deemed it faithful to the text, but somehow "lacking character."
Barber was not present at the premiere (he was committed to work at the American Academy in Rome at the time, and the performance could not be rescheduled). Koussevitzy wired to him noting that the performance was "an outstanding success and made a deep impression on all." (Heyman) While Koussevitzky never performed the work again, it has remained popular over the years. Knoxville is considered to be Barber's most "American" work, looking both at the supporting text as well as the imagery created by the music.
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