Roy Harris: Symphony 1933 (Symphony No. 1) (Jorge Mester), Symphony No. 5 (Robert Whitney), Violin Concerto (Gregory Fulkerson violin, Lawrence Leighton Smith). The Louisville Orchestra. Albany First Edition Series AR012 (1988) 034061001225
Symphony No. 5 and Violin Concerto reissued on First Edition Music FECD-0005 (2002) 809157000051:
Symphony No. 5 recorded 1.V.65, Macauley Theatre, Louisville
Symphony 1933 recorded 30.XI.78, Memorial Auditorium, Louisville
Violin Concerto recorded 11.IV.1985, Whitney Hall, Kentucky Center for the Arts, Louisville
Highly enjoyable Harris
Originally posted on Amazon.com, 11 December 2007
I am not as familiar with the Symphonies of Roy Harris as I am with those of these other recognized masters of the 20th-Century American Symphony, William Schuman, Peter Mennin, Roger Sessions and even Walter Piston (see my various reviews). Previous encounters with the music of Harris had left me with the impression of hearing too much of the American prairie-style (pastoral flute/oboe over carpet of strings) and epic bombast one associates with American symphonic writing of the late 1930s to early 1950s (and particularly with composers such as Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson and Howard Hanson – but even Mennin and Schuman have resorted to that kind of writing in their early symphonies), the ultimate effect (on me) being that of triteness. But it fact, I enjoyed this disc of Louisville reissues, with symphonies 1 & 5 (two Koussevitsky/Boston premieres, from 1933 and 1943) and the (2nd) Violin Concerto from 1949 (the first one was meant for Heifetz but left uncompleted in 1938).
The 1st symphony from 1933 is exuberant, busy and dramatic, epic withouth being bombastic. Other than that, the first movement has fleeting reminiscences of Stravinsky (in the ostinatos that bridge the dramatic opening and the lyrical section, starting at 2:30), and a final recapitulation which obsessively repeats on timpanis the opening “fate” motive of Beethoven’s 5th. The 2nd movement starts with the plangent oboe alright, but I don’t find it excessively lachrymose. It develops as a long-lined lament (the film music of Honegger came to mind) and despite its occasional flights into the sentimental it is sufficiently varied and full of unexpected events as to keep one’s attention. Likewise the finale returns to the triumphant mood of the beginning and again is full of ear-catching musical events.
Harris must have had an infatuation with Beethoven, as the 1st movement of his 5th Symphony is built on a cantering rhythmic cell which is the same as the first movement of Beethoven’s 7th, lending it great rhythmic vitality. In the context of Harris, it is difficult not to think of a horse-riding cowboy. The music is lively, affirmative, triumphant, and also short enough (4:38) and sufficiently full of musical events as to offset any sense of bombast. The second movement is an impressive kind of meditative funeral march, starting with a dialogue between intensely lyrical strings and plaintive woodwinds over a chordal ostinato, rising (and accelerating) to a climax of epic grandeur pitting the strings against an agitated trumpet. The finale has rhythmic snap, busy orchestral activity often again woodwinds or brass pitted against the strings, giving it a sense of heroism and self-affirmation. After three minutes the music eases down to a moment of great beauty, with antiphonal strings, almost choral-like, and whiffs of solo trumpet and horns regularly emerging from and disappearing back into the texture, all rising to a triumphant conclusion.
The Violin Concerto of 1949 had a chequered history, as its premiere, planned to happen in Cleveland with Joseph Gingold under George Szell, was postponed as the rehearsals had already begun, due to discrepancies between the conductor’s score and the orchestral parts. How frustrating that must have been, both for the composer and the soloist! I suppose the liner notes do not tell the complete story, and I find it surprising that Szell shouldn’t have re-scheduled the Concerto. Anyway, it lay dormant until 1984, when Gregory Fulkerson (the soloist of this recording) and Gerhardt Zimmermann gave its belated premiere with the North Carolina SO, about a year before this Louisville recording, made in 1985. Other than a wonderfully exubertant but short-lived orchestral opening, the mood is mostly lyrical and restrained, reminiscent of Violin Concertos I’ve recently heard and reviewed by Milhaud, Casella, Malipiero (see on Amazon.com my review of André Gertler’s recording of the two latter on Supraphon) or Rodrigo, while its grandiose and heart-lifting finale is faintly evocative of Britten. It breaks no grounds but is a fine piece in its genre, imaginative and deeply-felt, and it is incomprehensible that it should not enjoy the same popularity as, say, Barber’s.
This Albany disc was one of the first in a short-lived collaboration between the label and the Louisville Orchestra, which yielded no more than ten releases in the late 1980s. It collates the most substantial compositions of Harris recorded by the orchestra and first released on its own LP label, the famous Louisville First Edition Records. The 5th Symphony came on LOU 655 with Creston’s “Corinthians: XIII” (reissued on Albany First Edition Encores TROY021-2 – link will open new tab to my review) in 1965. The 1st Symphony (recorded in 1978) and the Concerto were paired together on LS 786. Part of that material has been reissued in 2002 on First Edition Music FECD-0005 barcode 809157000051, shorn of the 1st Symphony and augmented of “Kentucky Spring”, a 1960 recording by Robert Whitney that had originally come out on Lou 602 with Klaus Egge’s 3rd Symphony (unreissued) – but given the value of the 1st Symphony I can’t imagine that the exchange is a favorable one. The remainder of Harris/Louisville recordings consists of “Epilogue to Profiles in Courage: JFK” and “When Johnny Comes Marching Home – An American Overture”, both reissued on Albany First Edition Encores TROY027-2 with works of Schuman and the remarkable Third Symphony of John Becker. For everything you ever wanted to know about the CD reissues of the Louisville recordings, see my Louisville CD-discography.
This is then a fine introduction to the music of Harris and an indispensable acquisition for any one interested in that composer, and/or in 20th Century American symphonic writing.