03 June 2008

Barber Conducts His Second Symphony


While there is nothing identifiably "American" sounding about Samuel Barber's music, this work at least had a patriotic basis.

The composition originally had the title, Symphony Dedicated to the Air Forces. Barber was a World War II flyer when he wrote it.

Samuel Barber with the score of his Second Symphony
This recording is unusual on a couple of counts. It is conducted by the composer, who made only a few other recordings as a conductor, including the Medea ballet and Cello Concerto, both at this same time as this recording. (He also recorded some of his songs.) Also, it is of a composition that Barber later suppressed and actually destroyed. Hard to understand why—it is a beautiful and evocative score.

There are a few modern recordings of the piece now, but this was the sole version for about 40 years. It was unavailable for most of that time, although it was reissued for a time on Everest records. This is a fine performance and good recording. [Note (September 2023): this has now been remastered in ambient stereo.]
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5 comments:

  1. Scoredaddy03 June, 2008 13:03

    Nice! Thanks for this...anxious to give it a listen/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve Waldee15 July, 2018 19:05

    Buster, I appreciate this very much, as it is a good complement to the world premiere performance from 1944, link to follow. In 1947 Barber's revision removed the special electronic tone generator used to simulate radio direction-finding sounds; but this was used in the March 9, '44 premiere by Koussevitzky, broadcast from Boston by the NBC Radio Network; I've transferred that from the nasty-sounding AS-Disk Italian CD issue, which had to be withdrawn from distribution in the US due to complaints from the orchestra. Perhaps now it's much water over the dam; at any rate I've tried to make the AS-Disk sound a bit less harsh and tinny.

    I am not entirely certain, but isn't this the ONLY extant recorded performance with that electronic tone addition (heard at several spots in the second movement?)

    https://www80.zippyshare.com/v/RSrPIGCk/file.html

    (25 MB zipped mp3 with embedded SK pic)

    Upload availability limited by Zippy to only 30 days.

    8H Haggis

    ReplyDelete
  3. Buster15 July, 2018 19:10

    I'm not sure about the Barber symphony; I've never encountered a performance with the radio signals.

    FYI - I've just published a compilation of your uploads with links to the original posts. (This one excluded.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. luckymike03 April, 2020 22:08

    Thank you so much for these, and for soldiering on, doing your thing and bringing cheer, rare music and dreams of Spring at a moment when we can use it the most!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Buster07 September, 2023 17:55

    Remastered version (ambient stereo, Apple lossless format):

    https://mega.nz/file/vRsnhRxI#DOPds-SfOLqsTDPSlEuJGy-ItAaUsBW6tox3lwHd9oI

    ReplyDelete

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