Customer Reviews

Hovhaness: Chamber Symphony 'Mountains and Rivers Without End'; Prayer of St. Gregory for trumpet and string orchestra; Symphony No. 6 'Celestial Gate'; Concerto for Trumpet and Wind Symphony 'Return and Rebuild the Desolate Places'

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What a great showcase for the amazing sound of Chris Gekker and his trumpet. His playing is nothing short of breathtaking. My only wish is that he was the trumpet soloist on "Mountains And Rivers Without End" too. At any rate, this disc has great recordings of an extraordinary musician. Hovhaness's music is as magical and mystical as ever.

First of all, Alan Hovhaness was not Armenian-American.

Hovhaness was an American composer of Armenian

ancestry born in Somerville,Massachusetts to Armenian

and Scottish immigrants. Hovhaness is my most

favorite of all American composers. In this

recording we listen to some of his most and

less recorded works. From the "Prayer of St. Gregory"

to a less known Trumpet Concerto(Return and Rebuild

the Desolate Places). "Mountains and Rivers Without End"

is in one movement, and what the composer calls a chamber

symphony and is score for flute, oboe, trumpet, trombone

clarinet, timpani, harp and percussion. On this chamber

symphony the trombone opens the work with a melody

that repeats all over the work. The Trumpet Concerto

"Return and Rebuild the Desolate Places" was written

in two movements for trumpet and band(there are several

pieces by Hovhaness for a solo instrument and band, a

usual practice of this composer)composed originally

in 1944 and later arranged in 1965. The opening movement

the trumpet plays, against tone clusters; the second was

influenced by an Armenian painting. Hovhaness is a composer

whose music one has to listen to, to realize that

one has found music by a genius in an age of

"musical opportunists" and false atonal music.

I would highly recommend this CD to any music lover