Copland

TL;DR: Copland's Clarinet Concerto was commissioned by Benny Goodman and completed in 1950.

Abstract: Abstract ‘Drawing on material he had sketched fairly fully between December 1945 and February 1946, Copland began his Clarinet Concerto, commissioned by Benny Goodman, while on a lecture tour of Latin America in the fall of 1947. He interrupted work on it because a request from Republic Pictures for a score for Lewis Milestone’s The Red Pony was “too good to turn down,” and then wrote Four Piano Blues, finally coming back to the Concerto in August 1948 after his summer teaching stint at Tanglewood. The first performance, on 6 November 1950, was a broadcast by Benny Goodman with Fritz Reiner and the NBC Symphony; the first public concert performance was given on 28 November 1950 by Ralph Mclane, with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. The score is dedicated to Goodman.