Various Composers - Howard Hanson conducts American Masterworks

Information

CD1:

• (01) Samuel Barber - Capricorn Concerto, Op. 21
• (04) Walter Piston - The Incredible Flutist (Ballet Suite)
• (16) Charles Tomlinson Griffes - Poem for Flute and Orchestra
• (17) Kent Kennan - 3 Pieces for Orchestra
• (20) William Alexander McCauley - 5 Miniatures for Flute and Strings
• (25) William Bergsma - Gold and the Señor Commandante (Ballet Suite)

CD2:

• (01) Charles Ives - 3 Places in New England
• (04) Charles Ives - Symphony No. 3 "The Camp Meeting"
• (07) William Schuman - New England Triptych
• (10) Peter Mennin - Symphony No. 5

CD3:

• (01) Morton Gould - Spirituals
• (06) Morton Gould - Fall River Legend (Ballet Suite)
• (12) Samuel Barber - Medea (Ballet Suite)

CD4:

• (01) George Chadwick - Symphonic Sketches
• (05) Edward MacDowell - Suite for Large Orchestra, Op. 42
• (10) Johann Friedrich Peter - Sinfonia in G

CD5:

• (01) Douglas Moore - Pageant of P.T. Barnum
• (06) John Alden Carpenter - Adventures in a Perambulator
• (12) Bernard Rogers - Once Upon A Time (Suite of 5 Fairy Tales)
• (17) Burrill Phillips - Selections from McGuffey's Reader

Eastman-Rochester Orchestra
Howard Hanson, conductor

Recorded: 1956-1963
Compilation: 2004
Label: Mercury (Decca)
https://www.deccaclassics.com/us/cat/4756274

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Review

All of the material on the five-CD Mercury set, Howard Hanson Conducts American Masterworks, has been previously released as single discs in exactly the same configuration. Most of the older issues, however, are out of print and are unlikely to return, given the availability of this box set. This is no reason to mourn, for this set is retailing at a bargain basement price, working out to roughly a "five for the price of four" ratio. Some collectors may welcome the added shelf space.

As to the performances themselves, they are all outstanding, with several performances being definitive, such as the Ives Three Places in New England, Barber's Capricorn Concerto, Douglas Moore's Pageant of P.T. Barnum, and many others heard here. Howard Hanson with the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra was just simply a hard act to follow. Hanson's performances have hardly dated at all sonically, thanks to Mercury Living Presence's pioneering attitude toward sound quality and the careful maintenance accorded the master tapes of these early stereo recordings, which date from 1957 to 1966.

Not all of the pieces heard here are "masterworks" -- one would be hard pressed to apply such an adjective to such pieces as William McCauley's Five Miniatures for Flute and Strings or the greatly enlarged orchestral arrangement of one of Moravian composer Johann Friedrich Peter's six chamber sonatas as a "Sinfonia in G." There are still some excellent Hanson recordings for Mercury Living Presence that have never appeared on CD, presumably because they were made in mono; this would include his superb renderings of Griffes' The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan and Sessions' Suite from The Black Maskers. It is unfair, nevertheless, to complain about that which is not present; besides, the new disc does include greatly improved notes, detailing recording dates and locations, microphone setups and includes a well-written, conversational liner by Bill Newman, a producer and engineer who worked on a lot of these sessions. Unless one has already acquired all five of these single discs, the American concert music fancier can hardly afford to pass up Howard Hanson Conducts American Masterworks.

-- Uncle Dave Lewis, AllMusic

More reviews:
http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/m/mrc75627a.php
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Nov04/Hanson_conducts.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Feb06/Hanson_conducts_475627-4.htm
https://www.amazon.com/Hanson-Conducts-American-Masterworks-Howard/dp/B00035VV82

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Howard Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981) was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American classical music. As director for 40 years of the Eastman School of Music, he built a high-quality school and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American music. For 30 years from 1939 to 1969 Hanson made over 100 recordings for RCA Victor, Mercury Records and Columbia Records as conductor of the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra. As a composer, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4 (1944), and received numerous other awards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hanson

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