Abravanel Conducts Music by Randall Thompson

A year ago I transferred Howard Hanson's classic recording of Randall Thompson's The Testament of Freedom. Today we have a fine stereo recording of that 1943 work, coupled with the composer's Symphony No. 1 (1930).

These come to us from Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony in a 1978 recording. It was among the last that the conductor would make before his retirement the following year.

Maurice Abravanel

Like the other late Utah-Abravanel discs that have been presented here, this is a fine achievement, well recorded and rewarding to hear.

As I wrote a year ago, The Testament of Freedom was not without its detractors among critics. But David Hall of Stereo Review was a proponent, even if he had his doubts about the Utah performance: "The deeply moving texts for men's chorus from the writings of Thomas Jefferson can stir American souls in much the same way that the patriotic texts for Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky can affect a contemporary Russian. Regrettably, however, Maurice Abravanel simply fails to give the music the rhythmic vitality it needs."

My own view is different: I found the Hanson to be overdone, and the Abravanel to be more effective because it is less bombastic. A year ago I quoted a review from The New Records that summarizes my feeling about the piece: "Mr. Thompson's work manages to be impressive without being melodramatically sensational and, from a technical standpoint, is quite well-wrought."

Randall Thompson

Hall of Stereo Review explains the genesis of the other work on the Angel LP: "Thompson's First Symphony seems an odd piece on first hearing because it is 'unsymphonic' - for instance, it makes no use of sonata form. The jacket notes fail to explain the reasons for this, but in his article 'The Music of Randall Thompson' (Musical Quarterly, January 1949), Elliott Forbes tells us that this symphony was an outgrowth of the composer's setting of two odes of Horace for soloist, chorus, and orchestra (they were planned as a sequel to his Five Odes of Horace completed in 1924). Thompson evidently despaired of the new odes ever coming to performance and therefore in 1929 rescored them for orchestra alone as the First Symphony."

Hall finds the first symphony to be inferior to Thompson's second (which has appeared on this blog in a reading led by Dean Dixon). To me, comparisons like this are curiously pointless. The first symphony, here in what appears to be its first recording, is a fine, ingratiating work in its own right, although much different from the second.

The composer's own view of the work, as conveyed in the liner notes to the Angel recording: "My First Symphony was written during the years 1925-29. This was an age of exuberance and high spirits between the two World Wars. This period represents an emergence of a feeling that American music must sound American. The Symphony is sometimes reflective and sometimes tinged with sentiment and tenderness, but it is not problematic and is not a contest between comedy and tragedy. It is what is known as 'pure' music, having no story to tell, only a series of musical sections, displaying reflection, serenity, vitality and intensity."

Born in 1899, Thompson would live for another six years following this recording. He is most associated with Harvard, although he also taught at Wellesley, Virginia, and the Curtis Institute, where he was president for a term.

LINK

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

Randall Thompson's Second Symphony

Looking at the cover, you might expect this record to dance band music that would make you want to get up and do the Lindy hop.

Well, not exactly. Randall Thompson's 1931 Symphony No. 2 is not something that you would find in the Paul Whiteman book. It is a relatively conventional symphony, although it makes use of simple materials - even simplistic, in the case of the first movement. Thompson, one of the leading American composers for many years, is today much better known for his choral works than his symphonic efforts.

Randall Thompson

The performance is a good one, led by the American conductor Dean Dixon with what is probably a Viennese orchestra. This was among the first issues by the American Recording Society, a non-profit organization that was set up in 1951 by the Alice Ditson Fund to promote American music. This recording is now rebalanced and enhanced with ambient stereo to counteract the bony acoustic.

Dean Dixon