Rorem: Three Symphonies

Rorem: Three Symphonies

Rorem: Three Symphonies
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CD Details

Composer: Ned Rorem
Conductor: José Serebrier
Orchestra: Bournemouth Sinfonietta
Orchestra: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2003-08-19
Music Label: Naxos American
Soundtracks:
  1. Passacaglia
  2. Allegro Molto Vivace
  3. Largo
  4. Andante
  5. Allegro Molto
  6. Maestoso
  7. Andantino
  8. Largo
  9. Allegro
  10. Broad, Moderate
  11. Tranquillo
  12. Allegro

Music reviews of Rorem: Three Symphonies

Music Review: The essences of Rorems music blossoming before our eyes.
Rating: 5 Stars

The music of Ned Rorem, other than his songs, has not fared well in the catalogue (and in the concert halls for that matter). Despite the advocacy of Bernstein, Serebrier, Schwarz, Zinman, Slatkin, Tilson-Thomas, Alsop, Kuchar, and even Whitney & Mester especially in the music of Walter Piston, American classical music is still under-performed in concert halls and in the theatres (Hanson's "Merry Mount" have yet to be performed and recorded in our digital age). Even radio stations are for the most part could have done more on their parts in that regard. But the tides are turning in its favor, thanks to recording labels such as Naxos, Chandos, First Edition Music, and Sony Classical in giving us the exposure truly deserving to the immense talents these American composers possess and their pioneers who recorgnize them. Though recordings do not necessarily mean the music's entry into public performances, such an enterprising venture of these artists and recording companies is a good enough start.

Ned Rorem, far more of a prolific composer than the recordings would suggest, is more recognized as a great composer of songs. But his symphonies are impressive in their own right, not just in terms of the orchestration, which is as vivid as, say, Benjamin Frankel's, but his ideas and manipulation of them shows him as a composer of ingenuity. I really like the Passacaglia opening movement of the Third Symphony (1958). The gesture is bold and majestic, pretty much in the neighborhood of Copland and for a moment Leonard Bernstein's film music for "On the Waterfront" (especially for the final scene where after Terry Malloy conquered corruption, he enters triumphally into the loading docks followed by his fellow workers). But listen to the Allegro molto vivace movement and you're witness something of pure enjoyment. It's almost like riding cheerfully throughout the countryside and nothing but American pride deep in one's subconsciousness. The Largo movement is too short for my taste, but it has introspection along with dignity and that sense of determination. But the mood seems a bit more uplifting in the Andante; not melancholic per se, but reflective of things of inner beauty and tranquillity. It is a beautiful, graceful movement, sort of pastoral in veins similar to Vaughan-Williams and, again, Copland. The finale is as spirited as second movement, with the orchestration compellingly virtuosic and vivid. But at 3:23, the writing becomes majestic & a bit inward looking, at least for a brief moment, until the playfulness returns.

Rorem's First Symphony (1950) begins with a fanfare of the brass then woodwinds. The Maestoso movement is wonderfully dignified, but with an added gracefulness and nobility announced especially by the harp. But the middle slow movements (Andantino and Largo) are praiseworthy here. They're poised and pensive, cool in its temperaments, but neither troubled or shallow for that matter. The mood is not absent-minded, but forward looking. The finale is quite forward looking also, captivatingly so, with its rhythmic bite reminding me of Paul Creston (whose symphonies are equally enjoyable). The complex first movement of the Second Symphony (1956) is particularly striking. The mood is more inward-looking than it is an extroversion, even in faster, more vivid passages. Hanson comes to mind at various points in the long lyrical yet lovely lines. The gracefulness of the second movement is inescapable, with the writing more simpler and straightforward. The finale is a bit disappointing though, for Rorem could've develop those vivacious ideas even more. But, overall, this symphony, as with two others, deserves a more wider recognition.

And Jose Serebrier remains sort of this landmark type conductor who brings underrated music into a more wider recognition. As with his greatly acclaimed performance of Charles Ives Fourth Symphony (now under the RCA/BMG label) and more recently Janacek's orchestral works (Reference Recordings label), Serebrier has this penchant of details and colorful shapings. There's nothing at all bland in his treatment of the Third Symphony's Passacaglia movement. It's is wonderfully shaped and majestic, very much of how Bernstein would have approach the score. Even Serebrier's ways with the faster movements shows real imagination and verve, and like Schwarz, shows the underlying warmth and the gay-like innocence within. But, for me, Serebrier's treatment of the slow movements is the more special. In the middle movements of the First, the projection of that inner beauty and pensiveness becomes breathtaking and arresting. And I admire how he brings out the "longingness" of the complex first movement of the Second and then comes back and brings out the picturesque outward looking yet dreamy qualities of the next movement. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra comes up huge as well, with its percussion section especially superb & compelling (and adds greater point to the overall articulation). The strings are illuminating and of real bloom while the winds are well blended. It is a towering achievement of all involved & hope for Serebrier to turn to Rorem's other orchestral works like his Double Concerto for Violin and Cello. Serebrier's program note is admirable and a testament of a true advocate while recording quality is splendid.

Recognition of Rorem's music is coming into a more fuller bloom.......finally.

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Description of Rorem: Three Symphonies

Universally recognized as a great master of modern song-writing, Rorem has always continued composing orchestral music but has received few performances, writing, as he has, in a tonal idiom alien to the atonal and experimental practices of the day. When Leonard Bernstein gave the first performance of Rorem?s Third Symphony with the New York Philharmonic in 1959, it signaled a significant triumph for his orchestral music, but the path ahead would remain thorny. When the now famous diaries were published, it brought Rorem a great deal of notoriety and controversy, but it did not translate into performances of his orchestral music. Respected and admired by colleagues, Rorem has continued writing the kind of music that he believes in, and over the past decade, with the universal change in composing styles, performances of his music have mounted constantly. ? José Serebrier

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