Customer Reviews

Symphonies of Roger Sessions

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Good to see that Phoenix picked up this long-gone Argo CD, with Symphonies 6, 7 & 9. See my review of the original issue, Roger Sessions: Symphonies 6, 7 & 9. That said, as I write the Argo disc can be found for just a few cents more than the reissue.

I titled my original review "more Schoenberg symphonies by Roger Sessions". Since Sessions embraced Schoenberg's serialism with his Third Symphony, this is to me the most striking and abiding characteristic of his Symphonic music: work after work it sounds like the Symphonies Schoenberg did not write. There is the rythmic squareness, the melodic austerity, the intricacy of counterpoint, the wealth of orchestral events, and the drama. Not immediately pleasurable, not easy listening, but highly rewarding - that is, if you like Schoenberg's Variations opus 31. It you hate them, steer clear of Sessions.

The complete symphonies of Sessions are available on CD:

- Roger Sessions: Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 3
- Sessions: Symphony No. 4; Symphony No. 5; Rhapsody
- Works by Copland, Sessions, Perle, Rands
- and an alternative version and modern recording of Symphony # 2: Harbison: Oboe Concerto, Symphony No. 2; Sessions: Symphony No. 2
- and the Concerto for orchestra may be added: Symphony 8 / Concerto for Orchestra or Andrzej Panufnik: Sinfonia Votiva (Symphony No. 8) / Roger Sessions: Concerto for Orchestra

This one is as good an introduction to the symphonic music of Roger Sessions as you will find.