Customer Reviews

Still: Symphony No. 1; Ellington: Suite from "The River"

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
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Still worked with W.C. Handy ("the father of the blues") and played the oboe in the original run of Shuffle Along; he also studied with George Whitefield Chadwick and Edgar Varese (!). So when he sat down to write a symphony, it's not surprising that the result brings together vernacular African-American idioms with a sophisticated handling of large-scale European forms.

The verve and winning appeal of his Afro-American Symphony will inevitably remind one of Gershwin's slightly earlier triumphs--but Still's voice is very much his own. Throughout the symphony, the music soars and swings; the whole work is full of vitality and warmth. It has been a great pleasure to get to know this music better.

Still may be regarded as "the dean of African-American composers", but his work is badly in need of being championed. Kudos, then, to Neeme Jarvi for making such a spectacular recording of a work that almost certainly belongs in the permanent canon of great American music.

The choice of coupling the symphony with Ellington's The River is interesting but in some ways not fully satisfying. Don't get me wrong: Ellington's music is great in it own right, but an orchestral transcription like this one (rather than a jazz band performance) inevitably ends up seeming like something of a curiosity. Personally, I'd prefer to have gotten another work by Still.

Jarvi *has* gone on to record Still's Second. Wouldn't it be outstanding if he completed the whole cycle? (but the order is a bit challenging, since Still withdrew two symphonies and wrote a "replacement" Third after he had finished his Fourth . . . )

Bottom line: good stuff and an important service to American music.

Two great African-American composers of the 20th century--William Grant Still (1895-1978) and the legendary "Sir" Duke Ellington (1899-1974)--have one work each spotlighted on this fine Chandos recording.

Still's "Afro-American" symphony--the Symphony No. 1--has the distinction of being perhaps the first symphony by an African-American ever to be performed by a major symphony orchestra (composer and conductor Howard Hanson led the work's world premiere in 1931 with the Rochester Philharmonic). It is a work that is very much a part of the composer's background, with its roots in jazz and the blues, and is every bit as American as the great works of Copland and Gershwin, though its symphonic structure is also very much along the lines of Brahms and Beethoven.

Duke Ellington, meanwhile, gets onto this recording via his 1970 ballet music for "The River", which was commissioned by Alvin Ailey's dance company. Though known as one of the premiere American jazz geniuses of all times, Ellington could also compose for symphonic orchestra (his total number of works is at least 2,000); and this work, which depicts the natural course of a river, is a wonderful and energetic piece.

Both Still's and Ellington's works are not all that well known, but are given first rate performances by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Neeme Jarvi. As they had done with the music of French composers under Paul Paray in the 1950s/early 1960s, and with 20th century music from composers like Copland and Richard Strauss under Antal Dorati in the late 70s/early 80s, the orchestra during Jarvi's tenure has been a strong advocate of African-American composers and their works, and this is a prime example of that. Well worth looking for and listening to.

When I bought this CD, it was for The River, an excellent minor classical piece by Duke Ellington. Once I heard the Grant Still symphony, I was hooked. This is great music, in the Gershwin style, but written contemporaneously. The recording is superb, Neemi Jarvi is excellent (as always), and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, often underrated, is in top form.

Thoroughly enjoyed my first introduction to William Grant Still's music. But the main reason I purchased this CD was for Ellington's Suite, "The River" -- and I was disappointed. While what is here is wonderful (and hardly ever recorded) - the liner notes say that there are several more parts of the suite which were not included.

The first couple of times I heard "The River" it was being played live on PBS. I fell in love with it instantly, hearing not only Ellington's signatures but those of Gershwin, whom I adore.

If someone can point me to a complete recording of "The River" I would be eternally grateful!!

American music mixed with classical european music does usually match pretty well, and the result is a relaxed, brilliant orchestra. You find it in Gershwin works; if you like it, you'll probably like Grant Still's.

But my main intention is talking about Ellington's "The River". Imagine a genius like him, writing music about... water. It has wonderful moments, specially "Lake". I heard about it in a TV program about Ellington, and I fell in love with those 10 seconds of music. "The River" is the result of Ellington's work with choreographer Alvin Bailey; the ballet must be unbelievable (I haven't seen it), but this CD has enough beauty on it. You can see the water flowing slowly, or jumping throgh the rapids... The jazzist Ellington is well known and well appreciated, but the classical/impressionist Ellington is less known and not to be missed.

Still wrote that he wrote this symphony to demonstrate: "how the blues so often considered a lowly expression, could be elevated to the highest musical level."

This is so aptly demonstrated by the Detroit Symphony on this CD featuring Still's First Symphony and Ellington's Suite from "The River."

Marvelous sounds loaded with wonderful winds, sharp brass, and balanced and sharp, brisk percussion and strings.

Remiscient of much of Copland's compositions.

This is a masterpiece of the black folclor in a wonderfull interpretation. When I heard for first time I felt me inside of the soul of the ancient black people. The composer and the interpretation knew in themselves the happiness and the sadness at same time from them

I put this on just before receiving a request to review!
I love this recording and the musicians involved. There are other
versions available, but I have only heard this one, made a note and
when I went on-line for the first time, a friend sent an Amazon gift
card and I ordered this recording. I hadn't listened to it for a
couple of weeks and the timing was perfect today. I highly recommend
this music for anyone who wants a beautiful piece of Americana and a
sample of the music of a great composer. He has written many other
compositions also available. If you like Gershwin, you will like Stll.
The Duke Ellington River Suite is, as expected,excellent as well.
This was the first of many purchases I have made from Amazon and
I am very happy with the products and service. Too much information?
What can I say, I am a 66 year old man who is home bound for the most
part and enjoys the chance to give his opinion.

This is a good performance of a great work. One writer below describes the symphony as being in "the Gershwin style". Nothing could be further from the truth. A common source informs the work of Still & Gershwin, yet Still's purpose was to present a serious black perspective in a symphonic idiom, whereas Gershwin used the Blues as a technique to color and enliven his essentially American-Eurocentric view of a popular idiom. The genesis of the Scherzo of Still's symphony (which contains what is wrongly thought of as an "I Got Rhythm" quotation) is complex, fascinating, and full of coded messages. If you're truly interested in its meaning, and the difference in Gershwin and Still's treatment of the material, see Catherine Smith's "William Grant Still: A Study in Contradictions".

All that said, Still is an American original, and it is shameful and craven on the part of boards and producers that we have yet to hear more of his many orchestral works, or any of his 8 operas in stagings by major American companies. You can find tapes of rather poor performances of three of his operas, if you look hard. Come on MET, DG, NY Opera, BMG, Seattle Opera, Naxos, Chicago Opera, CPO, Boston Lyric Opera, Chandos, Cleveland Opera! Please spare us another Rigoletto and give us one, just one Still opera! We'll buy it! Till then, I'm very grateful for this.

This CD presents two orchestral works steeped in the jazz & blues idioms of early 20th century America. The Symphony No. 1 of William Grant Still takes a commonly drawn blues riff and expounds on its possibilities within the four-movement framework of European Classical period symphonic form. While the idea itself may strike one as somewhat contrived, the music as performed here does deliver an entertaining, though mostly "one-note" vibe. My reluctance in writing whether its perhaps derivative of Gershwin or vice versa is borne strictly out of ignorance and expediency, but my overall feeling is that while this symphony is fleetingly entertaining, it's not a very elaborate musical expression.

Duke Ellington's Suite from "The River", on the other hand, is a delight from beginning to end! My library copy of the CD is absent the booklet, therefore I'm ignorant of this work's genesis and history, as well as to what extent the credited orchestration of Ron Collier is responsible for the suite's richness of color and musical variety. Absent this knowledge, one can still delight in all the jazzy permutations as we're taken on what's presumably a seven-part musical journey down an imaginary river, culminating in a rapture amongst the Village Virgins!

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra displays its incredible versatility here under its then music director Neeme Järvi; they play as if thoroughly immersed in the idiom and Chandos gives them the most vivid and naturally spacious sound imaginable. A very fine production!