Search - Stephen J. [Composer] Albert, Mstislav Rostropovich, CHRISTOPHER KENDALL :: Albert: Symphony RiverRun/To Wake the Dead

Which album do you choose?

William J. Coburn | Basking Ridge, NJ USA | 07/03/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Stephen Albert was an American composer who was killed in 1992 in a three car accident on Cape Cod. He left behind two outstanding works, his first symphony "RiverRun" which won the Pulitzer Prize and a cello concerto which Yo Yo Ma has recorded. There are to date only two recordings of RiverRun, one on Delos and another on Naxos. The Delos recording is pared with an earlier song cycle on poems of James Joyce; the Naxos CD instead includes Albert's Second Symphony which someone else orchestrated after Albert's demise.

The Joyce song cycle on Delos is one of several Albert made out of the poetry of Joyce. It is very good, but the music is less tonal than the second symphony which is nowhere as good as the first, RiverRun.

Which do you choose? I would go with the Delos. It has the better recording of RiverRun. The song cycle also better complements RiverRun. The name of this first symphony comes from Joyce's last book, "Finnegan's Wake," and along the same line the text for the song cycle on the Delos album also come from that great Irish poet."