Search - Vincent Persichetti, Charles Dutoit, Riccardo Muti :: Persichetti: Symphony No. 5; Piano Concerto

Two Masterpieces by one of America's Master Composers

Avrohom Leichtling | Monsey, NY | 03/06/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Vincent Persichetti, who was my friend and teacher, was an extraordinarily gifted composer and one of the great musicians of our times. His wind music is well known, and is at the very foundation of the wind band literature. His catalogue of nearly 170 works covers virtually every aspect of the composer's art. The Fifth Symphony (Symphony for Strings) is one of those intense, dramatic single movement pieces that he used to say represented the "gritty" side of his personality. But make no mistake - there is not a gratuitous effect anywhere. It is solid, virtuoso string writing that grows organically out of the first notes and is, in the final analysis fabulously effective. The Piano Concerto represents a much gentler side of the composer's work. Persichetti, who was an incredible pianist, writes with the sort of facility one expects from a true keyboard composer. But again, it is not empty virtuosity for its own sake. The present work, which rather deceptively follows the more conventional three movement concerto layout, is actually a rather subdued, anti-rhetorical work whose overall atmostphere could be compared to a dark wood on a hot summer day. It is delicious music, and rather well played by the one orchestra that did more to promote his work than any other: The Philadelphia Orchestra. These works are among the best of their kind, and to know them is to be drawn into musical growth and maturity."

Mr. Persichetti would have been proud of these recordings.

Discophage | 05/25/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I must echo Dr. Leichtling's sentiments from the previous review. Vincent Persichetti was one of the most versatile American composers of the 20th century, and this CD is just a sampling of his extreme talents. His "Symphony for Strings" is the greatest American string work of its kind, with the exception of Bill Schuman's of the same name and number. (These two American heavyweights are both closely linked. Check your helpful liner notes.) The Philadelphia Orchestra strings hammer out Persichetti's deliciously atonal harmonies with verve and spark and the more subdued middle section is treated with a sensitive but still tense approach. The Piano Concerto breezes along, as all of Persichetti's arsenal with the keyboard is brilliantly displayed by pianist Taub. The second movement tears your heart and shows it to you, but look out: strap on your seatbelts for a raucous final movement. What makes the disc more special is that the orchestra and the city that knew him best - the Philadelphia Orchestra - performed these works, and they are beyond superb. I don't know what drew me to Vincent Persichetti's music. Perhaps it was from playing his legendary wind music in high school band class. But this is the single most important non-band disc of Persichetti's to purchase. The applause from the live audience at the end of each piece is well-deserved."

Lush Philadelphians, at the expense of the Symphony's searin

Discophage | France | 12/08/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Let me express the dissenting view on this one, by not being as enthusiastic about this disc as the other reviewers. This was an important release back in 1990, pairing two live recordings made by the Philadelphia Orchestra and two significant compositions of Persichetti, the 1953 Symphony for Strings (5th Symphony) and the Piano Concerto from 1962. In these days, as the inside cover indicates, it was "also available on LP". That's how long ago it was.



The Symphony was a Louisville commission and part of the first batch of LPs released under the orchestra's own label, First Edition Recordings, back in 1954. That premiere recording has been reissued on a valuable all-Persichetti CD by First Edition Music (Vincent Persichetti: Serenade No. 5, Op. 43; Symphony for Strings, Op. 61: Symphony No. 8). As good as it is to have a modern recording, hearing the piece by the Louisville Orchestra under Robert Whitney, for all the lack of depth of the 1954 mono recording and orchestra's rougher edges, gives me the impression that the Symphony is a masterpiece of searing intensity, worthy of the greatest 20th century compositions written in the genre, among which Bartok's Divertimento and Music for Strings-Percussion & Celesta, Honegger's 2nd Symphony and Ginastera's Concerto per corde immediately spring to mind. Not so with the lusher and more spacious Philadelphians under Muti, where it sounds juts like a piece for string orchestra, similar to many others. The respective timings tell part of the story: Whitney thakes 4:00 for the introductory Sostenuto and Muti 4:17, the ensuing Allegro is 3:06 against 3:33, the final allegro is 3:41 to 4:16. But it is also a matter of bow pressure. The Philadelphians seem more comfortable, and less involved.



I'm very surprised to read the Piano Concerto described as a gentle, subdued work. It is full of grand, muscular utterances, very typical of the way American Piano Concertos were written since the early 1950s. I've recently heard and reviewed a number of American Piano Concertos from the 1950s to early `70s - Kirchner's (1953 Leon Kirchner Historic Recordings), Sessions' ('56 Sessions: Concerto for piano; Thorne: Concerto for piano No3), Mennin's ('58 Mennin: Symphony No.3/Piano Concerto/Symphony No.7), Rorem's Piano Concerto in 6 movements ('69 Music of Ned Rorem), Mayer's ('71 Masselos plays Mayer and Rudhyar), to which I'll add Thorne's 3rd Piano Concerto from 1989, as it is paired with Sessions' - and Persichetti's doesn't particularly stand out. One of its most remarkable aspects though is its stylistic ambiguity: it constantly veers between the common American strand of muscular and digitally busy modernism typical of these days (with a suitably and expectedly dynamic finale), and grandiose, sweeping Romantic gestures - starting with its opening theme delivered by the horns, sounding like a modernized version of the opening of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto, or the rather cliched plangent oboe over carpet of strings that opens the adagio. I also hear fleeting whiffs of Gershwin at 3:28 in the first movement. Another ultimately enjoyable aspect of this stylistic ambiguity, I find, are the dreamy moments of piano wandering, sounding like late-night bluesy improvisations, such as in the 1st movement cadenza starting at 10:37 or in the second movement.



Again, this is an enjoyable piece but I don't find that it brings anything particularly novel and original to the genre. Still, despite my reservations and a rather ungenerous TT (52:10), a feast of Philadelphia is nothing the admirer of Persichetti can turn his nose up at. But I suggest to complement it with the Louisville disc.



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