Search - Gabriel Ian Gould, Morton Gould, John Harbison :: Morton Gould: Symphony No. 2 [Hybrid SACD]

A Gould Symphony and Three Other Composers' Works

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 05/30/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The draw here, I suppose, is the Second Symphony of Morton Gould (1913-1996) and it is part of a series of his works being recorded by the wonderful Albany Symphony under David Allan Miller. They've already given us an account of his more serious Third Symphony. The Second, subtitled 'On Marching Tunes,' was a war-time symphony commissioned by the YMCA (!) and premièred by Vladimir Golschmann and the New York Philharmonic in June 1944. Those of you familiar with Gould's 'American Salute' ( based on 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again') will feel right at home here. The four movements are 'Variations,' 'Bivouac,' 'Quickstep,' and 'Memorial.' In the latter, rather than taking a optimistically jingoistic approach to this symphony that was undoubtedly written at least partly out of patriotic impulses, Gould has the symphony end quietly and thoughtfully. The whole thing is given a wonderful workout by Miller and his Albany Symphony who, it must be said, have been doing a fantastic service by recording so much music, in fine performances and wonderful sound [the ambience of their Troy Savings Bank auditorium helps a lot with that], of American composers. In this respect, Albany Records should be celebrated from coast to coast for their efforts in this direction. They may have gotten on the map, so to speak, with their large series of recordings of British composer, George Lloyd, but they've more than eclipsed that now with all these American works. Three generations of American composers are represented on this disc. And indeed, played straight through, this CD makes for a wonderful 77-minute concert. It opens with 'Son et lumière' by Stephen Stucky (b. 1949, and, I'm proud to say, a fellow Kansan long a composition professor at Cornell), a 10-minute 'impressionistic portrait of light in sound.' I can do no better than to quote the uncredited booklet writer who says, 'the piece is given over to flashes, flickerings and explosions of radiance.' Brilliantly orchestrated and superbly played here, it makes an effective curtain opener. The baby of this group of composers is Gabriel Ian Gould (b. 1974 and, as far as I can determine, no relation to Morton Gould) whose 'Watercolors' is also impressionistic, but more in an updated Debussyan sense. It is in essence a four-movement English horn concerto played without pause and lasting 12 minutes. The movements are connected by English horn cadenzas that give the soloist, Albany Symphony principal Robert Sheena, a chance to display his virtuosity. David Finckel is a cellist I have long known and admired; he is the cellist in the Emerson Quartet and has also made a number of solo discs, including a very fine traversal of the Beethoven cello sonatas with his wife, the sensitive pianist Wu Han. On this CD he plays the Cello Concerto (1993) by one of our finest composers, John Harbison (b. 1938). It was written for and premièred by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, and as far as I know this is its first recording. There are a number of effects derived from Asian music (a tribute to Ma and Ozawa?) that include Asian percussion effects, gamelan-like sounds, pentatonic melodies. The cello soloist is given ample opportunity to display his virtuosity through a number of cadenzas as well as in lyrical moments and high-energy tutti passages. This 24-minute work describes an arc that, in Harbison's own words, 'rises from the East, eventually to descend, refracted, in the West.' The final movement bursts on the scene with a quintessentially American-sounding energy but manages to combine some of the earlier Asian sounds with brass-and-percussion rhythmic brashness. Recommended.Scott Morrison"