A Panorama of American Orchestral Music was a series, and an interesting one. With impressive fidelity, even (for Allegro Elite, especially). Too bad Ferde Grofe is represented by the Huckleberry Finn movement from his Mississippi Suite. Not because I dislike the movement (in fact, I love the suite to death), but on its lonesome, it sounds like background for a Tom and Jerry cartoon. George Gershwin, meanwhile, is represented by an orchestration (by Gregory Stone) of his Prelude No. 2 for Piano, a dirge-like number in 12-bar blues form. It's addictive.
And the Overture to "As You Like It" is my introduction to John Knowles Paine (1839-1906), senior member of the Boston Six (along with Edward MacDowell and George Chadwick), and I couldn't be more impressed--it's gorgeous. One listen tells us that Paine was a major name in American music. Paine's piece is followed by Edward MacDowell's ingenious Lamia, based on a poem by John Keats, its subject being a serpent transformed into a gorgeous vamp, only to have her true nature/form exposed (no, seriously). Lamia exists in any number of folk variants. In Greek mythology, she was a beast who dined on children (isn't that charming?). Anyway, MacDowell's piece is masterfully written, like everything else he ever composed, and I've always thought of Edward as Debussy minus the modernity. He's what Claude would have sounded like had Claude taken a conventional path. Same level of genius, but minus a forward-looking quality. So, MacDowell was a genius who didn't transcend his time. So what? A master composer is a master composer (is a master composer). And you can quote me.
So, as we speak, my four favorite American composers are Grofe, Gershwin, MacDowell, and now John Knowles Paine. Oh, and the self-taught, mocked-for-decades-until-critics-wised-up 18th-century genius, William Billings. A not-favorite American composer is Aaron Copland, whose work, as a general rule, I can take or leave. But... I'm rather fond of Quiet City, the final track in this program. And I have to wonder if it inspired Leonard Bernstein's On the Waterfront (1954) score (which pales next to this fine composition). Any number of measures could be transplanted from Quiet City into that soundtrack, and with no one the wiser. I'm glad to encounter a Copland work that I actually like.
By the way, the musicians under Richard Korn's baton are terrific. And "The Philharmonia Orchestra" is a pseudonym, apparently. But for whom?
As for Roy Harris' First Interlude From "Folk-Song Symphony," I can't describe how little it does for me. Off-the-scale (no pun intended) modality and a certain degree of polytonality (I think--not sure), all I can say is that this sort of folk tune setting was accomplished with infinitely more skill and taste by Bela Bartok. I have no problem with harmonies that clash, except (I guess) in this case.
Thanks to the cover design, Grofe appears to be wearing the world's worst toupee. Or posing after a safety-scissors haircut. This is the result of a clash between Ferde's profile and the white U.S. map silhouette. A careless cover design from the Record Corp. of America, of all outfits? Shocking.
Enjoy!
DOWNLOAD: Panorama of American Orch. Music.zip
Lee
