Search - John [1] Harbison, Olly Wilson, Seiji Ozawa :: Olly Wilson: Sinfonia: John Harbison: Symphony No. 1

Great symphony from Harbison, but the CD is too short

Krishan | SoCal, USA | 01/08/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"John Harbison's dense, athletic First Symphony is a pretty tight package, clocking in at under 25 minutes. Certainly the composer can't be blamed for saying what he had to say in the most economical fashion; indeed, all of Harbison's music (like that of his teacher Roger Sessions) seems to rely on economy of musical means. This is intricate, exciting music, and additional layers are revealed with each listening. The slow movement, for example, seemed ambiguously lugubrious to me when I first heard it; only upon repeated listening did I recognize its extraordinary beauty. While Sessions was a pretty strict serialist, Harbison is not nearly as severe in his compositional style. I'd recommend this CD to just about anyone who likes late-20th century symphonic music in general, and I would've given this CD 3.5 stars if I'd had the option. My biggest gripe is the length of the disc, especially since I found the Olly Wilson Sinfonia to be pretty impenetrable (a dissapointment, because I've liked other stuff that I've heard by him). However, the Harbison alone is worth the price, and the performance by the BSO under Seiji Ozawa is characteristically flawless."