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| Cover design by Victor Atkins |
William Schuman: Symphony No. 9 ("The Ardeatine Caves")
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded May 27, 1969
Side 1 of RCA Red Seal LSC-3212, one stereo LP record
Link (FLAC file, 137.64 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 37.53 MB)
Persichetti: Symphony No. 9, Op. 113 ("Sinfonia: Janiculum")
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded March 16, 1971
Side 2 of RCA Red Seal LSC-3212, one stereo LP record
Link (FLAC file, 105.7 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 32.12 MB)
Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987) was yet another of the seemingly dozens of composers to write exactly nine symphonies; in America alone Peter Mennin and Roger Sessions joined him in this particular statistic. Schuman did manage to break the "curse" by writing a Tenth ("The American Muse"),
I well remember the circumstances under which I acquired this record. I was a freshman in college, but was transferring to another school, and as a parting gift my roommate offered me any record in his collection, about 50 LPs. I chose this one, because it had the most unusual repertoire, and he was really glad, because he said he'd never liked this record!
I have this record myself, and have always been more impressed by its awful cover than the music inside. You could get rid of the Greeks and substitute the Care Bears and it might work better with the rest of the composition.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, congratulations on your enterprise, and thanks for your efforts on behalf of these composers!
Hee hee hee, too funny, Buster! Cognitive dissonance, indeed - the Care Bears and William Schuman's atonal symphony!
Deletewhat a pleasant pair of the Ninths (my hand was trying to type 'nymphs')!
ReplyDeletebut the most desired Schuman work too much praised to me by both violist of the Lysenko Quartet residing in Kiev (an emigré Kholodov who left the ensemble, and the present day violist Romansky) is his Concerto on Old English Rounds. to my knowledge, it has been played by numerous violists but recorded only by McInnes with Camerata Singers and New York Philharmonic under the baton of Bernstein and released on Columbia LP M 35101.
has anybody heard that record?
I was given that record for Christmas when it was new, when I was about 15, and I don't remember liking it then. In any case, I had traded it in for something else at a used record shop while in college. I'm very sorry now that I did this, because it's turned out to be quite a rare record.
Deletehurrah! Buster has ripped that LP!
Deleteit's the only known rendition of Schuman's Concerto in existence!
The biggest aesthetic mistake of the 20th century was Jar Jar Binks. Atonality was a distant second.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'll defer to your judgement there! I've never seen any of the Star Wars pictures except the very first one, and had no idea who/what Jar Jar Binks was until I googled it.
DeleteTo paraphrase your remark about atonal music:
ReplyDeleteI frankly have never warmed to Quantum Mechanics, primarily because it's probabilistic, and I don't much like probabilistic science, which seems to me to have been the biggest theoretical mistake of the 20th century, scientifically speaking.
:)
Thank you for this rarity! Looking forward to hearing Schuman's 9th (love his late atonal style!) in Ormandy's hands.
Boom, thanks for writing, and I hope you enjoy the Schuman! I just looked at your own blog, from which I learned of Elliot Carter's passing. Can't claim to have understood much of his music but I did respect him tremendously for being true to himself. (Do rather enjoy the Sonata for flute, oboe, cello and harpsichord for the play of sonorities he achieves.)
DeleteThanks a lot Bryan ! It's Christmas before Christmas !
ReplyDeleteAs far as atonality is concerned... well, I'm not sure late Schuman is 100% atonal... If you compare to Stockhausen it is almost pleasant music ! Schuman music is harsh, but always move onwards... Many thanks for the Persichetti too !
Download links seem to go to a blank page.
ReplyDelete