Symphonies 2 & 4 / Cto for Small Orchestra

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Music reviews of Symphonies 2 & 4 / Cto for Small Orchestra

Music Review: full many a gem
Rating: 5 Stars

Diamond's music blends Romantic and neo-classical elements; it is superbly crafted, distinctively personal, readily accessible, and universal in appeal--a welcome relief from the noisy, chaotic offerings of many of his contemporaries. If you like the music of Walter Piston, Howard Hanson, Roy Harris, Randall Thompson, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and William Schuman, odds are you will also like Diamond, who merits a distinguished position in the pantheon of American orchestral composers. Like Hanson, Thompson, and Barber, the specifically American elements in Diamond's musical language are subtle, and like Piston, Harris, and Schuman, Diamond is first and foremost a symphonist. This disc presents excellent recordings of perhaps his two finest symphonies.

The Second is a grand war-time piece, lasting nearly 43 minutes. It's an epic symphony, in the tradition of Bruckner and Shostakovich (two composers who might come to mind as you listen to this work). Whereas most great American symphonies strike one as being relatively "busy" and compact, Diamond's utterance here unfolds at a leisurely pace, ushering one toward genuinely sublime pinnacles of expression. Its impact is immediate and deep. When the Boston Symphony Orchestra finished rehearsing it for the first time, the players broke into spontaneous applause. I honestly can't think of a more expansive and ambitious symphony by an American composer--perhaps only the "Thirds" of Hanson, Schuman, and Copland approach it in this regard.

The Fourth is a much more compact and perhaps even more assured and personal work. It's a scintillating, gem-like study in contrasting moods with a magical, atmospheric opening. The Concerto for Small Orchestra makes a very fine bonus work, in which lively fanfares alternate with introspective contrapuntal passages.

Unfortunately, Delos has apparently gone out of business. The good news is that Naxos is now reissuing some of their recordings. One hopes that they will pick up where Delos left off on this cycle of Diamond orchestral recordings by the incomparable Schwarz/Seattle.

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