Hanson Conducts Piston, Riegger, Hovhaness and Cowell

Howard Hanson

Composer-conductor Howard Hanson was legendary for his devotion to American music, as exemplified in the "American Music Festival Series" of LPs he conducted for Mercury in the mid-1950s.

We've been slowly making our way through the series. Today we have two albums - one devoted to Walter Piston's Symphony No. 3, the other to works by Wallingford Riegger, Alan Hovhaness and Henry Cowell.

Piston - Symphony No. 3

The third symphony of Walter Piston (1894-1976) is a distinguished work that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1948.

The critic Alfred Frankenstein has described it as follows: "[T]his is a very profound symphony, one of the most important of modern times ... The sonorities of the slow movements are very large and resonant, with strong emphasis on the darker colors; to this is contrasted a singularly vital, brilliant scherzo, and a broad, fine, march-like finale. The whole thing is mature, ripe, reasoned, and elemental in feeling; it is a symphony in the grand style and the great tradition. Hanson plays it with full, keen appreciation of its stature, and Mercury's engineers have given the music their best."

Walter Piston in 1948

The recording comes from 1954, and was made - like most if not all Hanson's recordings - with the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra in the Eastman Theater. The sound is very similar to the other recordings in the series - clear and just a bit astringent.

Piston's best known work is the ballet suite The Incredible Flutist, which has appeared here in two different recordings by the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler - from 1939 and from 1953.

LINK to Piston Symphony No. 3

Music by Riegger, Hovhaness and Henry Cowell

Hanson tended to be conservative musically, and even when he programmed such figures as Wallingford Riegger and Henry Cowell, he was apt to choose their less radical works.

Which is not to say these compositions were without merit. The longest item on this record is the Symphony No. 4 by Cowell (1897-1965). This work is in his later style, markedly less violent and experimental than works using such devices as the tone clusters that made him famous (or notorious).

Henry Cowell

Cowell's colleague Virgil Thomson wrote: "No other composer of our time has produced a body of works so radical and so normal, so penetrating and so comprehensive. Add to this massive production his long and influential career as a pedagogue, and Henry Cowell's achievement becomes impressive indeed. There is no other quite like it."

Another fellow composer, Arthur Berger, said the Cowell symphony "is one of his most successful and congenial achievements. It contains the evocations of early American music that have become a recognizable trademark of Cowell’s style, but never, to my knowledge, has he handled them with more polish. The work is one of the finest examples of the genre that, for want of a better name, we may call 'American neo-Gothic.'"

Wallingford Riegger

The New Dance by Wallingford Riegger (1885-1961) is, again, a conventional work. In its initial form it was part of a longer piece for piano four-hands and percussion written for the Humphrey-Weidman dance group. The composer later orchestrated the final section, which is what Hanson recorded.

Critical opinions were mixed, with Berger calling it slick and Peter Hugh Reed, conversely, writing: "This perorative fragment, based throughout on à single rhythmic patter which juxtaposes the rhumba and conga beats is a stunning tour de force that needs no reference to its primary context for maximal effect."

Alan Hovhaness

Critics tended to be dismissive of Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000), often accusing him of producing meandering, innocuous music. Reed was more positive than most: "The Hovhaness effort, subtitled Arevakal after the Armenian word for the Lenten season, is à recent (1951) opus of a kind with every other composition for which this singular figure is known to concert audiences. That is to say, briefly, that it mingles the modes and melodies of the composer’s homeland with a kind of post-Scriabin theosophy." Audiences did and do find Hovhaness' works attractive, and they are pleasant to hear.

This second LP dates from 1953, and displays sound very similar to the Piston symphony.

Hovhaness's St. Vartan Symphony and The Flowering Peach are available on the blog, both newly remastered. Also on the blog is a suite called Images in Flight, with both Cowell and Hovhaness (and Paul Creston) making use of the Eastern Airlines theme in a promotional effort shepherded by Andre Kostelanetz. The resulting LP ican be found here, along with an unrelated PanAm promotional record.

LINK to the Hanson recording of Riegger, Hovhaness and Cowell

Previous Installments in the American Music Festival Series

• Morton Gould's Latin American Symphonette; Samuel Barber's School for Scandal Overture, Adagio for Strings, Essay for Orchestra No. 1

• Barber's Symphony No. 1; Hanson's Sinfonia Sacra and Cherubic Hymn

• Music for Democracy: Randall Thompson's The Testament of Freedom and Hanson's Songs from Drum Taps.

• Edward MacDowell's Second Indian Suite

• Americana for Solo Winds and String Orchestra, including Hanson's Serenade for Flute, Strings and Harp

• Hanson's Symphony No. 4, along with an alternative recording led by Dean Dixon

• American Music for String Orchestra with works by Mennini, Foote and Canning

• Music of Charles Tomlinson Griffes and Charles Martin Loeffler

Griffes and Loeffler from Eastman

For a while now, this blog has been taking a leisurely tour through the "American Music Festival Series," which Howard Hanson and his Eastman-Rochester forces recorded for Mercury in the 1950s.

The object is to transfer all the 15 or so entries in the series. There are links to the previous installments at the end of the post. Today's contribution includes a disc devoted to Griffes and Loeffler, along with later recordings of those composers, also from Eastman and the Mercury label.

American Music Festival Series Vol. 13 - Griffes and Loeffler

The music of Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920) and Charles Martin Loeffler (1861-1935) is often described as "American Impressionism," although that label is perhaps more appropriately applied to Griffes.

Charles Tomlinson Griffes

This Hanson disk, recorded in 1954, presents some of Griffes' best-known works.

Here's Alfred Frankenstein's description from High Fidelity: "The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan is Charles Tomlinson Griffes’ major orchestral work. Like the three short, orchestrated piano pieces with which it is associated on this record, it is a sumptuous, luxurious, impressionistic piece, strongly beholden to Debussy, but with sufficient originality of profile to justify its being kept alive."

That appears to Kubla Khan on the cover, cavorting with what appear to be two paper dragons, which might be the artist's conception of living in a stately pleasure-dome.

Griffes, born in the US, died young in the 1918 flu epidemic.

Charles Martin Loeffler

Charles Martin Loeffler was was born in Germany, although his family moved to several places on the continent, including near Kiev, which experience later inspired the composer's Memories of My Childhood. It is one of the two Loeffler works on this disk, both composed after he emigated to the US when he was 20. The other is his Poem for Orchestra, La Bonne Chanson.

Ad in High Fidelity

Loeffler was perhaps as much influenced by earlier French composers and the Russians as the Impressionists themselves. Alfred Frankenstein's view: "The two compositions by Charles Martin Loeffler ... are the products of one who was a far finer craftsman [i.e., than Griffes] but had much less to say. The early Poem for Orchestra, subtitled La Bonne Chanson, is a full throated, somewhat Straussian affair, magnificent in texture, subtle in form, but not quite first-class in its essential substance ... Memories of My Childhood recalls a sojourn in the Ukraine and is a kind of academic, professional Petrouchka."

There is much more about this colorful, impressive music in the detailed cover notes. This LP has been mastered in ambient stereo. The sound is typical of Mercury at the time - vivid and detailed, but with little bloom in the upper strings due to the proximity of the single microphone pickup.

More Griffes and Loeffler from Eastman

Following the 1954 disc above, Hanson and Mercury were to record the music of Griffes and Loeffler on at least two other discs. I've included these performances in the download along with the LP discussed above.

First we have one side of a 1958 stereo disc, which presents Loeffler's Deux Rapsodies (L'Etang and La Cornemuse), as performed by Eastman School faculty members Armand Basile, piano, Robert Sprenkle, oboe, and Francis Tursi, viola. Exceptional performances in truthful sound.

Francis Tursi and Robert Sprenkle portraits at Eastman

Finally, we have one of Griffes's best and best-known works, the Poem for Flute and Orchestra, as presented by longtime Eastman faculty member Joseph Mariano, in a 1963 stereo recording with the Eastman Rochester Orchestra and Hanson. They had recorded the same work some 20 years earlier for Victor.

Joseph Mariano

Also on this blog, the Poem can be heard by Maurice Sharp and the Cleveland Sinfonietta here and by Julius Baker and a chamber orchestra here.

The download includes an article on Hanson, Eastman and American music from a 1958 edition of High Fidelity, along with scans of all three LPs, etc.

LINK to music of Griffes and Loeffler from Eastman

Previous Installments in the American Music Festival Series

• Morton Gould's Latin American Symphonette; Samuel Barber's School for Scandal Overture, Adagio for Strings, Essay for Orchestra No. 1

• Barber's Symphony No. 1; Hanson's Sinfonia Sacra and Cherubic Hymn. LINK

• Music for Democracy: Randall Thompson's The Testament of Freedom and Hanson's Songs from Drum Taps.

• Edward MacDowell's Second Indian Suite

• Americana for Solo Winds and String Orchestra, including Hanson's Serenade for Flute, Strings and Harp

• Hanson's Symphony No. 4, along with an alternative recording led by Dean Dixon

• American Music for String Orchestra with works by Mennini, Foote and Canning

Hanson Conducts Gould, Barber and Hanson

Howard Hanson

The composer and Eastman School of Music head Howard Hanson (1896-1981) conducted a large number of American music recordings for the Mercury label in the 1950s and 60s.

Recently I posted the first in their "American Music Festival Series," a disc of choral music by Hanson and Randall Thompson. That post also has a link to other entries in the series previously offered here.

Today we have two related entries in the series: Vol. 3, with music by Morton Gould (1913-96) and Samuel Barber (1910-81); and Vol. 15, music by Barber and Hanson.

Hanson was a proponent and exponent of conservative, tonal music These two LPs are good examples of the genre.

Music by Gould and Barber

Vol. 3 of the American Music Festival Series, recorded in 1952, is one of the best entries in the collection. It starts with Morton Gould's wildly colorful Latin-American Symphonette (1940), followed by three popular Samuel Barber compositions, all in Hanson's typically taut readings with the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra.

Morton Gould

Not all the critics were pleased, of course. The American Record Guide sniffed at the Gould, calling it a "slickly stylized travelogue." Others were more sympathetic. The Gramophone: "A four-movement Sinfonietta is no novelty, but one based on four Latin-American dances is; orchestral arrangements of a rumba, tango, guaracha, and conga by good musicians are no novelty, but ones done with musical rather than commercial ends in view seem, unfortunately, to be so."

Writing in High Fidelity, Alfred Frankenstein complimented Barber's early works, the Overture to The School for Scandal (1931), Adagio for Strings (1936) and Essay No. 1 (1938), as "small-scaled, fine-grained, highly lyrical pieces." He also enjoyed Hanson's conducting. "All these works have been recorded before, but never with such conviction, understanding and deftness," he wrote.

Some writers commented that the sound lacked warmth, a result of Mercury's typical recording style: "There is stridency in his strings but this is a blessing in disguise because it puts a bite in Barber instead of lending the usual lachrymose character to his mighty miniatures," was the American Record Guide's verdict.

Music by Hanson and Barber

For Vol. 15, recorded in 1955, Hanson combined his new Sinfonia Sacra (Symphony No. 5), and his choral work The Cherubic Hymn (1949) with Barber's Symphony No. 1 (1936).

Alfred Frankenstein was taken with the performances: "Whatever reservations one may have about Howard Hanson as a composer, one must go all out in admiration of his conductorial gifts. His performance of the Barber symphony forces a complete revision of one’s attitude toward that far from obscure work. Previous recordings and performances have made it seem pale and well-mannered and guaranteed to do nothing much to anybody; Hanson, however, makes it sing, gives it body and strength and a genuinely impressive symphonic thrust."

Samuel Barber

Meanwhile, the critic did like at least one of Hanson's two compositions: "Hanson’s own Fifth Symphony, subtitled Sinfonia Sacra. is all right, but the Cherubic Hymn is a major achievement. It is a tribute to the spirit and color of the Eastern Orthodox liturgy, and a very good one."

The reviewer of the American Record Guide was more measured: "Hanson is a skilled craftsman, a very skilled craftsman, whose expressive message always has eluded these ears. But composers should compose and they should be heard, and the steady stream of Hansoniana on LP has been a small enough price to pay for his unrelenting dedication to the cause of others."

Howard Hanson

Mercury later combined the Barber recordings on one LP. Cover scans for that album can be found in the Vol. 2 download. Complete scans of the other LPs are included as always, along with reviews and a few ads.

LINK to Vol. 3 - Gould and Barber

LINK to Vol. 15 - Hanson and Barber

For more by these composers, follow the links below this post. Also, vintage recordings of the School for Scandal Overture and Adagio (by Ormandy and Toscanini) can be found on my other blog.

Finally, four of Hanson's earliest recordings, dating from 1939, can be found in a new post on my singles blog, with music by Charles Tomlinson Griffes, William Grant Still, Charles Vardell and Kent Kennan.

Music for Democracy from Eastman

For the first entry in its "American Music Festival Series," the Mercury label turned to patriotic works by two of the leading composers of the time - Howard Hanson (1896-1981) and Randall Thompson (1899-1984), calling the 1952 LP Music for Democracy.

Both works were choral settings - Thompson adapted texts by Thomas Jefferson for his Testament of Freedom; Hanson drew upon Walt Whitman for Songs from "Drum Taps."

As always in this series, the orchestra was the Eastman-Rochester Symphony, led by Hanson, the director of the Eastman School of Music. The voices were from the Eastman School Chorus.

The background for this patriotic fervor was World War II, which had concluded just seven years before. But in the arts, "Americana" was not new, nor was it necessarily tied to the war. Realism of both the urban and rural varieties was a strong theme in the visual arts between the two world wars. And composers in the US (and elsewhere) assimilated elements of vernacular music into their works, seeking to bridge their world with that of the common folks.

In the realm of patriotic music, Abraham Lincoln was the key figure. Perhaps the best known work of this type is Copland's A Lincoln Portrait, but there also had been Roy Harris' setting of Vachel Lindsay, Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight. and Harl MacDonald's Builders of America, which depicted both Lincoln and George Washington.

These works are uneven. The text that MacDonald set is ludicrous, Lindsay's poem is contrived, and Copland's text has been widely derided (although I do like it). In all cases - particularly A Lincoln Portrait - the music is worthwhile, however.

Randall Thompson

The works by Hanson and Thompson are stirring and valuable in their own ways. But both attracted unusually harsh criticism along with some praise. The latter's Testament of Freedom dates from 1943, the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birth. In High Fidelity, Alfred Frankenstein commented, "Thompson’s work is noble and strong in its orchestral fabric, but its vocal fabric suffers from the fact that Jefferson’s copper-plate prose does not lend itself well to musical setting, and Thompson has not managed to animate it with any real musical urgency."

The New York Times piled on: "Opening with a fanfare and simulating the sounds of warfare in the third selection, The Testament pulls out al the stops. It is vigorous and, in its way, effective, but its way suggests a collaboration between the Department of the Army and Hollywood."

A dissenting view from The New Records, with which I happen to concur: "Mr. Thompson's work manages to be impressive without being melodramatically sensational and, from a technical standpoint, is quite well-wrought."

Thompson was a professor of music at Harvard. You'll find his enjoyable Symphony No. 2 here, in a performance led by Dean Dixon.

Howard Hanson

Hanson's work was met with even more obloquy, but again it had its admirers. The New Records almost literally snorted about it: "Howard Hanson's Songs from 'Drum Taps' almost defies musicological description. How would one, for example, describe the aesthetic appeal of a Concerto for Pneumatic Drill and Football Band? Though without the subtlety of the aforementioned hypothetical work, one must not deny it the attribute of being, of its type, quite pure."

High Fidelity was more measured: "Whitman's free verse is so musical in itself that musicians approach it at their peril. Nevertheless its very musicality constantly tempts composers, only one of whom - Frederick Delius in Sea Drift - has managed to do anything important with it. Hanson's drum taps behind Drum Taps are pretty obvious."

And the New York Times liked the work, contrasting it with Thompson's Jefferson settings: "Here, though, the music is less directly inspirational. Instead, it works to release the dramatic quality inherent in the poems. 'Beat! Beat! Drums!' is especially successful." I would add that "By the bivouac's fitful flame" is effective and beautifully done here by the chorus and baritone David Meyers.

Songs from "Drum Taps" dates from the mid-1930s.

Howard Hanson has appeared here many times as composer and conductor. In the American Music Festival Series we have him conducting the following:

• Edward MacDowell's Second Indian Suite
• Americana for Solo Winds and String Orchestra, including Hanson's Serenade for Flute, Strings and Harp
• His Symphony No. 4, along with an alternative recording led by Dean Dixon
• American Music for String Orchestra with works by Mennini, Foote and Canning

Also these discs:

• Hanson's Piano Concerto, with soloist Rudolf Firkušný
• Another version of his Serenade, from the Cleveland Sinfonietta and Louis Lane

The transfer of Music for Democracy was the result of a request. The sound is typical for Mercury classical recordings of the time, which many people love but I find it can be harsh and boomy. It is certainly vivid, which suits the music. The download includes reviews and scans of both the original issue and the so-called "Olympian" series reissue, which had the alternative cover below.

LINK

Hanson Conducts MacDowell

This post is in response to a note from our benefactor 8H Haggis, who has left so many splendid records for us to enjoy. (See posts below, but please be aware that these items will only be available for a matter of days now.)

Our friend was looking for a transfer of Edward MacDowell's Second Suite, in the performance by Howard Hanson and the Eastman-Rochester Symphony. I've transferred my copy for him, but now that I have looked into the matter, I am not sure this is the record (or pressing) he is seeking! It seems that Hanson took a whack at this music three different times, per Michael Gray's Classical Discography. He recorded the Dirge in 1939, the full suite in 1953 (represented by the LP at hand), and supposedly the complete suite again in 1961 (which actually may be a reissue of the 1953 effort). Perhaps 8H wanted the later version or pressing?

MacDowell portrait by Chase Emerson

In any case, this is a fine performance of music that is not often heard these days. MacDowell was a contemporary of his fellow American composers Arthur Foote and Charles T. Griffes, whose music has appeared before on this blog. Today, if MacDowell is performed at all, it is usually his Piano Concerto No. 2. This was not always the case: Hanson's is the third recording of the suite in full. The first was from the Columbia Symphony and Howard Barlow in 1939, available via my friend Bryan's excellent Shellackophile blog. Then in 1951, the American Recording Society published a version directed by Dean Dixon.

According to the cover notes, the themes in this composition are derived from Theodor Baker's Music of the North American Wilderness; thus the subtitle "Indian." But there is little that is stereotypically "Indian" about the work, which dates from 1892. (Speaking of stereotypical, check out the cover. It is by George Maas, who provided the art for many Mercury LPs.) The cover notes liken MacDowell's music to that of Grieg, albeit "less lyrically intense as well as more broadly noble in its lyrical expression and more rugged in its dramatic moments."

Hanson's recording was made for Mercury, which was then achieving fame for its "Living Presence" sound. This particular LP sounds a bit harsh and dry, however. I've adjusted the frequency response to address the harshness. And I've added a small amount of convolution reverberation to the mix, and am offering that as an alternative to the "dry" transfer. Links to both can be found in the comments.

Flutist Maurice Sharp with the Clevelanders and Louis Lane, Plus a Julius Baker Reup

This is another in a series of recordings by spin-offs of the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by longtime assistant/associate/resident conductor Louis Lane. Today the spotlight is on the orchestra's principal flute, Maurice Sharp, who performs with a chamber ensemble of principals and others from the band, here called the Cleveland Sinfonietta.

The repertoire encompasses four 20th century works, three by Americans (Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Arthur Foote and Howard Hanson) and one by the French/Swiss composer Arthur Honegger.

Harvey McGuire joins Sharp for Honegger's Concerto da Camera for Flute, English Horn and Strings. Alice Chalifoux is the harpist in Hanson's Serenade.

Sharp joined the orchestra right out of the Curtis Institute, where he studied with William Kincaid, and remained principal flute for 50 years. He joined the ensemble when founding music director Nikolai Sokoloff was still in charge, with his tenure lasting to the brink of the Christoph von Dohnányi era.

Julius Baker (left) and Maurice Sharp, circa 1975

It is instructive to contrast Sharp's approach to another Kincaid pupil who became a famed orchestra principal - Julius Baker, who was solo flute both in Chicago and then for many years in New York (and who earlier spent several years in the Cleveland flute section). A while back I posted a Decca release in which Baker assays two of the works on this Cleveland issue - Griffes's Poem and Foote's A Night Piece. (Baker presents the Foote with string quartet accompaniment; Sharp uses the score for a larger ensemble.)

To my ears, Baker is the warmer of the two, although both are immaculate in their presentation. Sharp's cooler approach is in keeping with the proclivities of the Cleveland forces in the records they made with Lane - and with Szell, for that matter.

I've refurbished the sound of Baker's recording and added a link to it in the comments, along with the link to the Cleveland Sinfonietta LP. The sound on both is very good - Baker in mono, Sharp in stereo. Michael Gray's discography tells us that the Cleveland recordings were taped in Severance Hall in July 1960. The Baker sessions date from June 1952.

Hanson Conducts Grieg and Hanson, with Firkušný

I recently posted this transfer on another site in response to a request, and thought I'd offer it here as well. The request was for a recording of Grieg's Holberg Suite, and my version is by the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra conducted by Howard Hanson. The Grieg is coupled with the first recording of Hanson's own Piano Concerto. The soloist is the estimable Rudolf Firkušný, who introduced the work in Boston in 1948.

Howard Hanson

Hanson is known these days for his Mercury recordings from the 1950s and 60s. Earlier, however, he conducted his Eastman-Rochester forces for both Victor and Columbia.

I believe these are his earliest Columbia efforts, made in that label's 30th Street Studio in December 1950. Later Columbia had him tape a coupling of his second symphony and MacDowell's second piano concerto (with Jesús María Sanromá), and also Wallingford Riegger's third symphony. I believe I have the former but not the latter disc.

Rudolf Firkušný

The concerto allies Hanson's spacious, romantic manner (here almost quoting Rachmaninoff in the opening theme) with the percussive, motoric approach to the piano that was then in vogue. Firkušný's performance is all you could hope for. The pianist had made records as early as 1937, for HMV, and had become a Columbia artist in 1949.

The performance of the Grieg is spirited, although the string sound of the Rochester band lacks glamour.

I actually transferred this for the blog a few years ago but never posted it because there is a bit of surface noise in the first minute or so of the concerto. It does not now strike me as all that distracting, and the balance of the recorded sound is very good.

Americana for Solo Winds and Strings

This Mercury LP celebrates the conservative but highly attractive music of the composers associated with Howard Hanson at the Eastman School - with the notable addition of Aaron Copland, in what may be the only recording of Copland's music led by Hanson.

The delightful and striking cover seems to pay homage to Copland's "Quiet City," and perhaps Kent Kennan's "Night Soliloquy." An alternative cover used for an EP issue (at the end of the post) switches to a rural motif more in keeping with the conductor's "Pastorale."

Howard Hanson

A few words about the lesser known composers:

Kent Kennan and Homer Keller

Kent Kennan, an Eastman School graduate, spent most of his life teaching, but he was an active composer earlier in his career and near the end of his life. He wrote a few widely used instructional books.

Homer Keller was another product of the Eastman School. He wrote three symphonies and spent much time teaching.

Bernard Rogers and Wayne Barlow

Bernard Rogers was head of Eastman's composition department for several decades.

Wayne Barlow earned undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees from Eastman, then taught there for many years. "The Winter's Past" is also known as "The Winter's Passed" - either makes sense, as would "The Winters Past," for that matter.

The recordings were made in October 1952 and May 1953. The sound has been remastered in ambient stereo and is very good. The download includes several reviews.

Two Recordings of Hanson's Symphony No. 4

Looking through my collection the other day, I came across a 10-inch LP containing a rendition of Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 4, and thought it might be a good candidate for this blog. So I started transferring it, only to realize that the orchestral playing was appalling - scrappy and scrawny, although conductor Dean Dixon and the anonymous ensemble still produced a punchy and heartfelt traversal of a fine work that was Hanson's memorial for his father.

Howard Hanson

Had Hanson himself recorded it, I wondered? Back to the stacks I went, finally finding his own version by accident - it was filed nearby under the composer of the other work on the disc, Roy Harris. Looking at the cover, I knew immediately that I had already had a go at the record and offered it here, four years ago!

So I've decided to present both versions at this time, and you can choose your favorite. I believe the Dixon edition came first; Hanson may have recorded his later in self-defense. Gramphone reviewed the composer-directed LP in early 1953, suggesting a circa 1952 recording date.

The recording quality of both is reasonably good. The Hanson-Harris album is newly remastered.

Hanson and Harris Symphonies

I promised a return to the America Festival Music Series that came from Rochester on Mercury records during the 1950s, so here we go with a notable pairing of symphonies. Howard Hanson and his Eastern-Rochester group present the work most often nominated as the "great American symphony" - Harris' third - with Hanson's own fourth.

The performance of the Harris is less muscular than you might be used to, if you are used to Leonard Bernstein's way with this music. I'm not complaining, just observing - I do prefer this approach. Hanson's symphony, meanwhile, is enjoyably Sibelian.

One of my favorite aspects of the LP (as often happens) is the American Scene-style cover, so appropriate in style if not in content for the Harris work. The cover artist (named Maas) may have been inspired by one of my favorite paintings in this style, John Rogers Cox's Gray and Gold from 1942.

The download includes the February 1955 review of this recording from The Gramophone, which observes that "one sometimes feels as though a guiding hand is reaching out to lead us into a particular section of the orchestra." If so, the guiding hand is Hanson's - these performances were recorded with a single microphone.

LINK - remastered in ambient stereo March 2025

Hanson's Piano Concerto with Firkušný

Howard Hanson made a long series of recordings of music by himself and other American composers for the Mercury label in the 1950s. The stereo recordings are fairly well known, mostly for their supposed audiophile qualities; the mono recordings less so.

I recently featured one of those early mono Mercurys, and the response was good. So I'll be revisiting some of the other LPs in Mercury's Modern American Music Series soon.

But first, one of the few recordings that Hanson and the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra made for Columbia, this one issued in 1951. The main item of interest is the conductor's piano concerto in its first recording, with soloist Rudolf Firkušný, who introduced the work with Hanson and the Boston Symphony in late 1948.

After an opening reminiscent of Hanson's second symphony, we quickly are off into territory that is more like Prokofiev, and none the worse for that, particularly with Firkušný in excellent form.

Hanson's Mercury recordings were all-American, but here he backs up his own music with that of Grieg -not the most vibrant Holberg Suite in my experience. I suppose the connection is Nordic (as the cover suggests). These recordings have not been reissued, to my knowledge.

NEW LINK

American Music for Strings

This is one of the many LPs of American music produced by Howard Hanson and Mercury when Dr. Hanson was the head of the Eastman School.

This program from circa 1955 presents three exceedingly beautiful pieces for string orchestra. The Thomas Canning work is an attempt to replicate Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis using a hymn tune by the American Justin Morgan. Louis Mennini's Arioso is recommended to anyone who enjoys Barber's Adagio for Strings. And Arthur Foote's Suite is a romantic work reminiscent of Tchaikovsky.

The Canning and Foote works have had more modern recordings, but not the Mennini, to my knowledge. Canning and Mennini were colleagues of Hanson at Eastman. Mennini's brother, Peter Mennin, was also a well-known composer.

I dubbed this record using two different cartridge-stylus combinations. I prefer the string sound on the version here, although it retains more surface noise. I've done my best to lessen the heavy tape hiss that is still somewhat evident.

NEW LINK