Roger Sessions: Divertimento for Orchestra (1959), Idyll of Theocritus for Soprano and Orchestra (1954). Audrey Nossaman (soprano), The Louisville Orchestra, Peter Leonard (Divertimento), Robert Whitney. First Edition Music FECD-0012 (2003) barcode 809157000129
Idyll recorded 12.II.56, Columbia Auditorium, Louisville
Divertimento recorded 2.V.81, Robert Whitney Hall, Louisville
Diminishing returns
Originally posted on Amazon.com, 10 January 2008
I’ve listened to and reviewed a lot of orchestral music of Roger Sessions lately, almost all his symphonic output in fact, and have enjoyed it, not so much “in spite of” but rather because of its Schoenberg similitudes: as I wrote in my reviews of his various symphonies, starting with the 3rd from 1957, Sessions, to my layman’s ears (although an informed layman), wrote on and on again the Symphonies Schoenberg never composed – and the comment can be extended to compositions such as the 1981 Concerto for Orchestra and the Piano Concerto from 1955-6 (but Schoenberg did write one of those): many hallmarks of the Viennese composer’s style are present in Sessions’ orchestral works, the busy orchestral activity and ear-catching orchestral events, the active counterpoint, the rhythmic vigor almost to the point of squareness, the stern but intense atonal lyricism (see my reviews of CRI CD 573 with Symphonies Nos. 1, 2 and 3, New World Records NW 345-2 Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 and Rhapsody for Orchestra, Argo 445 519 2 Symphonies Nos. 6, 7, 9, Hyperion CDA66050 with Concerto for Orchestra, New World Records 80443-2 and Oehms OC 502 with the Piano Concerto, Links will open new tabs).
But, hearing this disc pairing two Louisville recordings, I must say that one of the problems with that “mature” Sessions (a maturity that lasted 25 years, from his third Symphony to the end of his compositional life) is that I find it difficult to distinguish between each work. Without the minute attention allowed by following the score and/or the musicologist’s ability to subject the compositions to in-depth analyses (for which I do not feel apologetic at all: unlike Babbitt, I don’t believe Sessions intended his works only for the musicologists), these orchestral works all sound much the same to me, like one gigantic continuous work and with hardly any perceptible stylistic evolution. Melody (the memorable “tune” Schoenberg claimed he strove to compose like anybody else) was never what Sessions’ music was about, and I don’t get the impression that one can clearly and evidently distinguish between his orchestral works as, say, between Beethoven’s or Brahms’ symphonies. Even Schoenberg, within each of his compositional periods and styles – late Romanticism, free atonalism, serialism – took care to create diversity by moving from one genre to the other, hardly ever coming back to a given genre or combination of instruments he had illustrated (and allow me to skip demonstration, as Schoenberg isn’t the subject here).
The 1959 Divertimento for Orchestra is a case in point. I’d probably enjoy it more had I not previously heard Sessions’ Symphonies 3 to 9 and Concerto for Orchestra. Here, the feeling is, “Sessions as usual”. What makes it a “Divertimento” rather than a Symphony proper, I don’t know, other than its five instead of four movements – but at least since Mahler this is no more a disqualifying consideration. Don’t get me wrong: it bears all the hallmarks of Sessions’ mature style, with even a certain sense of humor in the Toccata and Perpetuum mobile (at least as much humor as Sessions – or Schoenberg – would have been capable of), it is as good as any of the above-mentioned works, and it also comes in good 1981 sound. But simply it is not particularly distinctive among his symphonic works. I must have hit the law of diminishing returns with Sessions – and for the reasons stated above, it seems to come faster with this composer than with others.
“Idyll of Theocritus” for Soprano and Orchestra, completed in 1954 (as is made clear by Sessions’ presentation text given in the liner notes, and not 1956 as the disc’s back cover has it, which is the year of its Premiere performance, on January 14) is something else: a long (almost 38 minutes) lyric scene after a love poem written by the Greek poet Theocritus, in the English translation of Robert C. Trevelyan, which had obsessed Sessions for many years. It depicts the throes of a woman forsaken by her lover, and Sessions’ setting is very reminiscent of Schoenberg’s style in Erwartung (a similar subject as well), very lyrical in a freely atonal way, with the orchestra supporting the soprano rather than assuming, as in later Sessions fashion, a role of its own. Soprano Audrey Nossaman is impressive, but what hampers enjoyment, however, other than the relatively dry and austere nature of Sessions lyricism, are the aged sonics (this was a Louisville commission and the recording was made in 1956), with the orchestra sounding too recessed, not affording much opportunity to enjoy what might be offered there and leaving too much of an impression of a bare, free-standing, atonally lyrical vocal line without much underpinning. Also regretable is the absence of the text. The notes do invite to download the text “free of charge” from First Edition Music’s website, but that has alas, as of today, become inaccessible, which makes me surmise that the company has folded. But the very Trevelyan translation used by Sessions can be found online, for instance on the Internet Archive.
As is usually the case with these First Edition Music reissues but even more so here, the liner notes are remarkable, with a general introduction by Barry Salwen, Director of the Roger Sessions Society (and a remarkable pianist himself, the first artist to record Sessions’ complete piano output, in 1992, on Koch International Classics 3-7106-2 H1 barcode 099923710622, reissued in 2005 on Albany TROY802 barcode 034061080220), and a long presentation by Sessions himself of how he came to compose Ydill of Theocritus. TT is 61 minutes. The 7th Symphony was also recorded by the Louisville Orchestra and published on the same Louisville First Edition Records LP as the Divertimento (LS 776) and it would have been nice to have it back on CD, but it would not have fitted. It hasn’t been reissued to CD but can be found as download or streaming. For everything on the CD reissues of the famed Louisville recordings, see my Louisville CD-discography.
This may not be then the disc to recommend to someone setting out to discover the music of Sessions (any of the three discs with his symphonies would better serve this purpose), but despite my reservations this is, needless to say, an indispensable acquisition for the Sessions admirer – and there is no more than a hanful of CDs devoted to Sessions anyway. Both these recordings were recording premieres, and there has been no other of the respective compositions since. The positive side is that building a complete Sessions collection isn’t very difficult.