Cities are the main setting for our life experiences. Thus it was for Charles Ives (1874-1954) and Aaron Copland (1900-1990) and thus it is for José García Román (1945). But these are different cities, different periods and different visions. Ives and Copland are both from the US, and, though from different generations, they are both considered as essential milestones in the formation of an American musical language. Ives’ Symphony no. 2 was finished in 1902, though it was revised shortly afterwards. Leonard Bernstein, another essential name in the world of American music, directed the New York Philharmonic in the triumphal première … in 1951. There is no reference to any city in the title but, in an attempt to explain its success, the charismatic director referred to the freshness of the sound images that he brought from a world which, though disappearing, still formed part of the American ideal: hymns, folk songs, patriotic songs and marches, student songs. Copland’s night-time Quiet City is from a different decade –the late thirties– and belongs to a different reality. A more introspective, calm streak runs through this magnificent piece. The Malaga Philharmonic is performing them both for the first time.