Howard Hanson: Bold Island Suite; Symphony No. 2 "Romantic"; Suite from Merry Mount
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CD Details
Composer: Howard HansonConductor: Erich Kunzel
Orchestra: Cincinnati Pops Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-09-27
Music Label: Telarc
Soundtracks:
- Overture
- Children's Dance
- Love Duet
- Prelude to Act II and Maypole Dances
- Birds of the Sea
- Summer Seascape
- God in Nature
- Adagio - Allegro moderato
- Andante con tenerezza
- Allegro con brio
Music reviews of Howard Hanson: Bold Island Suite; Symphony No. 2 "Romantic"; Suite from Merry Mount
Music Review: Perfection A to Z
Rating: 5 Stars
This amazing CD is one of those rare occasions where everything falls into place perfectly. Firstly, the program is very well chosen, spanning just over 3 decades of Hanson's creative career. The opening track, the Fanfare, is not only a terrific way to start, but it finally let's us hear for ourselves one of those "other" fanfares commissioned by Eugene Goosens and the Cincinnati Symphony during World War 2, from which we got Copland's "Fanfare For The Common Man" and the remaining 17 seemed to have gotton lost. Many thanks to Kunzel and Telarc for letting us hear it again at long last.
The other gem here is the "Bold Island Suite," a beautiful musical portrait of a Maine Island, and the feelings one gets from nature, here recorded for the first time, and long overdue. This is a mature Hanson, in total command not only of form, but orchestration as well.
The remaining two works, The "Merry Mount Suite" and "Symphony #2" have been available on LP or CD since Hanson recorded these 2 works himself for Mercury Living Presence, with other offerings from Gerard Schwartz, Leonard Slatkin, and Keith Lockhart, fine recordings and performances all.
But there is something extra about this disc: Erich Kunzel, The Cincinnati Pops, and Telarc's recording team, in an effort that just gels perfectly. Hanson is "America" - pure, simple, straightforward, honest, able to get misty-eyed, or just stand up and cheer. His second Symphony, and "Merry Mount" were already establishing 'the American sound" we've come to associate with Copland 5 years before Copland himself abandonned his early "modern" sound for the "popular" style we known him best for. Kunzel is totally at home with this music, and it is evident right from the start. His sense of form and motion is unmatched here, letting Hanson be Hanson without any added fussing or imposed "interpretations." So the music sings, broods, explodes, muzes, or soars just as Hanson intended. Cincinatti is a virtuoso orchestra, and they toss off Hanson's trickiest passages with ease, while reveling in the sound and emotion.
More than ever before, Telarc has captured an extremely smooth sound while retaining precise image and spacial definition. This is one of the most natural sounding CDs I have ever heard! Buy this album... you won't be disappointed. If you have friends who don't really care for "classical" music, get this for them and I'm sure they'll still enjoy it. Maestro Kunzel has been the head of the Cincinnati Pops for 40 years now... a tenure equal to that of Ormandy with Philadelphia, and the results show it: Orchstra and conductor playing like a chamber ensemble, all of one mind and intent, and Telarc has captured the moment for posterity. Yes, audiophiles and music lovers, the good old days of Mercury Living Presence and RCA Living Stereo are back in the digital age. We long for the team of Mohr-Layton-Reiner-Chicago and Cozart-Fine-Dorati-Minneapolis. Well, here they are: Woods-Bishop-Kunzel-Cincinnati!
I hope Maestro Kunzel isn't even thinking of retiring any time soon!
General CDs
- Styles > Classical
- Chamber Music > General
- Featured Composers, A-Z > ( H ) > Hanson, Howard
- Historical Periods > Modern, 20th, & 21st Century > Forms & Genres > Symphonies
- Instruments > Brass
- Symphonies > Modern & 20th Century
- General
- Opera & Vocal > General
- Historical Periods > Modern & 20th Century
- Languages > English
- Hanson, Howard - Works by Hanson
Music Genres
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