Hovhaness: Symphony No. 1 - Exile / Symphony No. 50 - Mount Saint Helens / Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints

Product Description One of the most intriguing and individual of 20th century American composers, Alan Hovhaness rejected the cosmopolitan modernism of other leading composers of the 1930s and '40s. The connection Hovhaness felt with his Armenian heritage is evident in his Exile Symphony, which commemorates the flight forced upon those people by the Ottoman Turks after World War I. Delicacy, charm and vitality in the Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints evoke the composer's love for Japan, and the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens inspired the Symphony No. 50, with it's remarkable evocation of the violent power and hauntingly mystic beauty of nature in "startlingly realistic engineering" (Gramophone). Review Among the glories of the Naxos label has been its preservation of extraordinary projects by other labels in other times. The Seattle Symphony, under Gerard Schwarz, was extraordinarily attentive to 20th century American composers whose stock might have fallen without them. Listen to this revision of his first symphony and his Symphony No. 50 'Mount St. Helens' (Opus 360 no less) and you'll have a sense of what a huge loss that would have been. The Mount St. Helens Symphony comes complete with volcanic eruption for its third movement and would, doubtless, be a hit for any concert hall where it was essayed. The difficulties of Peter Mennin might be thought to be roughly analogous to Hovhaness' but different. His kind of neo-classic vigor, like Schuman's, was easy to lose as music joined the 21st century but the 'Moby Dick' Concertato for Orchestra and Third and Seventh Symphonies are exemplary works from a period when American composers took themelves seriously as both artists and citizens. It's fine work and holds up beautifully. --The Buffalo News, Jeff Simon
ASIN: B0085AXUGS
VSKU: DBV.B0085AXUGS.G
Condition: Good
Author/Artist:Alan Hovhaness|Gerard Schwarz|Seattle Symphony|Ron Johnson
Binding: Audio cd