Emil de Cou Cou has recorded extensively including world premiere recordings of Claude Debussy's original version of Printemps Suite Symphonique, the orchestral version of Suite Bergamasque, Charles Griffes's The Kairn of Koridwen, and Elliot Goldenthal's Othello (ballet). For his ongoing work with NASA de Cou was awarded the agency's Exceptional Public Achievement Medal by Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr. at the NSO @ Wolf Trap performance of The Planets in July 2012, the first musician to receive that honor. Emil de Cou Emil de Cou is an American conductor who became associate conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra (John F. Kennedy Center for
Orchestral Suite No. 3 (Tchaikovsky) the two he had previously written. The problem lay with the opening movement. Titled "Contrastes", it was to be a fantasia of contrasting musical sounds and patterns, not unlike the "Jeu de sons" movement that opened the Second Orchestral Suite. The more he worked with the music, the more recalcitrant the music became and the more he hated it. "Contrastes" finally found its way into the Concert Fantasia. Tchaikovsky's original layout for the Third Suite was similar to that of his Second—a fairly large opening movement as in his first two orchestral suites, then three smaller ones and a theme–and–variations