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American Symphonies

Composer Stephen Albert
Samuel Jones
Walter Piston
Performer London Symphony Orchestra
Lance Friedel, conductor
Period Contemporary
Catalogue Number BIS-2118 SACD
EAN 7318599921181
Format SACD Hybrid

This hybrid disc plays on both CD and SACD players
SACD Surround - SACD Stereo - CD Stereo

Release date Jun 2018
Total time 78'08

Symphonies by Piston, Jones and Albert

When American composers began writing symphonies around the mid-1800s, their works were very much in the European tradition. During the first half of the 20th century, the great innovator Charles Ives injected a recognizably American sound into the genre, however, and since then&&& the American symphonic legacy has been both wide and varied. With the present disc, conductor Lance Friedel strikes a blow for three fellow American composers, with the help of the eminent London Symphony Orchestra.

The disc opens with Walter Piston’s Symphony No. 6. It was completed in 1955, by which time many regarded Piston (1894–1976) as clinging to tradition in the face of modernism. When Samuel Jones (b. 1935) presented his Third Symphony ‘Palo Duro Canyon’ in 1992, the pendulum was swinging back, however, and traditional music built of melody, harmony and rhythm was no longer considered hopelessly outdated. The work nevertheless begins in a rather non-traditional fashion with the recorded sound of the wind of the Texas plains, where the Palo Duro Canyon is situated. Jones’s slightly younger colleague Stephen Albert (1941–92) was just completing his Second Symphony when he was killed in a car accident. The work had been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, and the orchestration of it was completed by Albert’s colleague and friend Sebastian Currier.
 
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  Walter Piston
  Symphony No. 6 (1955) 23'15
01 I. Fluendo espressivo 6'42
02 II. Leggerissimo vivace 3'23
03 III. Adagio sereno 9'11
04 IV. Allegro energico 3'59
 
 
  Samuel Jones
  Symphony No. 3 ‘Palo Duro Canyon’ (1992) 23'30
05 Allegro inquieto 9'04
06 Adagio cantabile 2'56
07 Andante 1'35
08 Bar 289 (Allegro vivo) 1'39
09 Andante maestoso 4'07
10 Andante solenne 4'09
 
 
  Stephen Albert
  Symphony No. 2 (1992) 30'02
11 I. 12'45
12 II. 4'33
13 III. 12'44
 
  Album total 78'08
ComposerAlbert, Stephen
Jones, Samuel
Piston, Walter
OrchestraLondon Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
ConductorFriedel, Lance

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