Great Music, Great Document
George Grella | Brooklyn | 03/25/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is the final CD in the Naxos series dedicated to the symphonic music of William Schuman, and is a fitting wrap-up. This is a major body of work from a major American composer as well as a rewarding look into history. Schuman's style expresses a uniquely American quality from a specific time in the cultural history of this country; it's an expansive sound, tonal but not simplistic, and full of determination, confidence and strength. There's a mix of toughness and tenderness that is invigorating and appealing.
The 8th is one of his most powerful works, dark-hued and intense. Leonard Bernstein gave the premiere in 1962 as part of the inauguration of Lincoln Center, and until now the brilliant Bernstein recording was the only one available. That is a great recording, forceful and brilliantly played, and this new one from Schwartz and the Seattle Symphony is its equal. These musicians have specialized in American music in their previous recordings for Delos and now Naxos, but that doesn't begin to described how accomplished they are and how good they sound in all repertoire. They play Schuman with a great balance of refinement and strength.
On a purely superficial, sonic level, this recording seems subdued at first, but that's misleading. From the uncanny opening chord, Schwartz balances orchestral colors to an exceptional degree, his Schuman doesn't sound much like Bernstein's Schuman, but it does sound ideal. He also takes a subtle and effective approach to conveying the intensity of the work; the common approach is to articulate notes and phrases with a rather aggressive opening attack, but Schwartz and the orchestra hold back the force a bit and instead carry a great deal of expressive focus and emotional weight in their sound. You can feel the sensation of intense ideas building up in every chord and phrase. This slight understatement on the surface coupled with intensity underneath is a very American sound.
Everything is here; lyricism, energy, clear-eyed determination. The additional Night Journey is an ideal companion. It's a dramatic tone-poem from 1947, and has some of the same expressive qualities although less of the intellectual rigor of the Symphony. Schuman's popular arrangement of Charles Ives' Variations on 'America,' re-issued from one of the previous Delos recordings, closes out the disc. The sound is full and gorgeous, typical of recordings made in Benoya Hall. This is an excellent recording of excellent music, a vital contribution to the legacy of a great American composer and to Naxos' American Classics series."
Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Music Review, March 2010
Grego at Gapplegate Music | New York Metro Area | 03/23/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"William Schuman was one of those larger-than-life persons when I was first embarking on a musical career. As president of Julliard, then Lincoln Center, he had a public presence rare for a composer of modern music in the 20th Century. One just knew about him if one was in and around New York at the time, and so one naturally found oneself wanting to hear his music.
Schuman is a composer for whom a gestation period is necessary, I believe. This is perhaps especially true for his Eighth Symphony, first performed in 1962 by Leonard Bernstein for the opening days of Lincoln Center. The music is dense, somber, intensely brooding, rather complex, and (like many of Harris's works), constructed on the principal of an unending melodic sprawl, made intriguing in the way the orchestration colors the phrasing with interesting aural combinations. It is a remarkable work, a work of pure invention, and perhaps its complexity has made rough going for the average audience.
Schuman's Eighth is not a work to be absorbed fully in one sitting. The positive side of that factor is that increased exposure to the work leads to almost infinite pleasures. The more one listens, the more Schuman's musical world reveals itself to the ears and the musical mind's eye.
There have been a number of recordings of the work. Bernstein's NY Philharmonic version more or less set the standard. However, the new recording by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony (Naxos) certainly comes close to rivaling that original reading. Schwarz's interpretation is a little more linear; he connects the musical-phrase-dots in a way that brings out the musical logic of the piece. The sonorous qualities of the large orchestra needed to properly perform this work is captured in a full sound stage and the balanced seems quite right. Schwarz's reading is expressive; it heightens the seriously somber quality of the work. In short, it is a lovely reading.
As a bonus, the disk includes the 1947 ballet "Night Journey" in its 1981 revision; and the marvelous Schuman orchestration of Charles Ives's delightful "Variations On 'America.'"
This is an indispensable installment of Naxos's complete Schuman symphony cycle. It is great listening!
See original blog post at [...]."
William Schuman's Eighth Symphony on Naxos
Robin Friedman | Washington, D.C. United States | 04/28/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The year 2010 marks the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the American composer William Schuman (1910 - 1992). Although not as famous as his near namesake, Robert Schumann, who celebrates his 200th anniversary this year (1810- 1856), William Schuman too made a lasting contribution to music and deserves to be remembered. In addition to his work as a composer, Schuman lived a busy life. He served as the president of the Juilliard School of Music and of the Lincoln Center.
In order to keep Schuman's music accessible, Gerard Schwartz and the Seattle Symphony have recorded Schuman's eight published symphonies (Schuman withdrew his first two efforts in the form, which are thus not included in the cycle.) together with other orchestral music on the budget-priced Naxos label. The National Endowment for the Arts also deserves a great deal of credit for helping to fund the project. This CD is the final installment of the set, and it includes Schuman's Symphony No. 8 together with two shorter works, "Night Journey: Choreographic Poem for Fifteen Instruments" and "Variations on `America'". The orchestral playing is clear and convincing, even though Schuman composes for a large ensemble with a dense texture, and all the voices come through admirably in the recording. Joseph Polisi, the current president of Juilliard and the author of a biography of Schuman, wrote the lucidly descriptive liner notes. Two of my fellow Amazon reviewers have written excellent reviews of this recording and of earlier CDs of Schuman's eighth. This reading of the eighth was recorded in 2008. The recording of "Night Journey" dates from 2007 and the "America" variations" recording was done in 1991, all in Seattle.
Schuman wrote the eighth symphony for the inaugural concert of the Lincoln Center in 1962. Schuman was the first president of Lincoln Center. Leonard Bernstein conducted the premier and also made a celebrated recording of the work. The symphony is a three-movement work for large orchestra that takes about 32 minutes to perform. It is dense, richly orchestrated, and heavily contrapuntal throughout. It also makes a great use of dissonance, but Schuman did not write atonal music. Each of the three movements makes use of shifting tempos and rhythms. As characteristic of Schuman, there is a great deal of emphasis on percussion, tympani, snare drums, glockenspiels, and more, and on loud brass chorales. The first two movements of the work are serious and tragic. Both these movements move from slow opening sections to a faster middle section and return to a slow conclusion. Both movements include long solo passages for horn, oboe, and strings followed by lengthy intricate passages of counterpoint back and forth between winds and strings. Both movements come to a percussive triple-forte ending. The opening movement begins with a long series of eerie chords before giving way to the main theme of the movement that begins with a horn solo. The finale of the eight symphony is also taut but more upbeat in mood than the two prior movements. Again, Schuman makes great use of long, widely-spaced melodies, interplay between winds and strings, and percussion. This movement is for the most part fast in tempo in contrast to the slow character of much of the prior movements. The symphony ends quietly. The eighth is a tough-minded imposing work that will bear frequent hearings.
Schuman originally composed "Night Journey" in 1947 as a ballet for Martha Graham. The ballet set the "Oedipus" story focusing on the tragedy of Jocasta. In 1981, Schuman revised his score by setting it for 15 instruments and cutting it somewhat. The 1981 version is performed on this CD. This is a deeply emotional, troubling score, as befitting its subject matter. It begins with jagged, discordant chords in the strings which form the basis for much of the 25-minute piece. The string and wind writing is frequently interrupted by a series of harsh chords on the piano. The music shifts in tempo from a slow opening to a furiously intense and quick middle section and back to a slow conclusion. "Night Journeys" is music of introspection and of the thoughts that come to trouble a person when alone.
Schuman's Variations on America, composed in 1964, remains one of his most accessible and popular works. Schuman orchestrated variations that a young Charles Ives composed for organ in 1891. As befitting Ives, Schuman's setting is rambunctious and rowdy, as "America" is set to flamboyant variations, including one with castanets and tambourines. But the point of the fun is to express a sense of patriotism in the familiar "America" theme.
I have enjoyed getting to know Schuman's symphonies in this series by Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony. I hope that their efforts will encourage other listeners to hear Schuman and other American composers of art music.
Robin Friedman"
Track Listings (5) - Disc #1