Customer Reviews

Virgil Thomson: Symphony No 1-3

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Most often, the only CD's of Virgil Thomson's music you can buy are of his film music, all excellent compositions, but it is nice to have some recordings of his concert music, presented here thanks to Naxos' American Composers series.

Symphony on a Hymn Tune is just that, "variations" on the tunes How Firm a Foundation and Yes, Jesus Loves Me, and some other pentatonic themes he creates to tie the piece together. There are a few Ivesian sounds portrayed, as well as some jazzy syncopations; a great American masterpiece.

Symphony 2 is very diatonic; from the opening trumpet melody (evocative of Lt. Kije), to the lyrical andante, to the restrained, yet grand finale; it is charming from start to finish. In contrast, Symphony 3 seems to be unified through dance. Rhythm and perpetual motion seem to guide the music along. Perhaps a bit more on the serious side to begin with, the 3rd Symphony also revels in melodiousness and optimism, something shared in all of these works.

Pilgrims and Pioneers is a concert version of music written for a short film at the 1964 Worlds Fair. Again using a wide variety of hymn and folk tunes, this time it is used in a much more pondering and dissonant manner, again, almost in the manner of Ives. It is a kind of mish-mash of ideas, perfect for visualizing the American immigrant.

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra plays this music with great fervor. The hall is reverberant, although, not overly so. Since most of this music is not easy to find on one CD, this disk is an easy recommendation.

"We all loved his music and rarely performed it." Thus Leonard Bernstein in 1989 after the death of Virgil Thomson. I have read many critics who claim his methods of composition were "forced down the throats" of students in America; others who praise him highly. I feel someplace in the middle, but the new addition to Naxos' American Classics series has nudged me a tad toward the second group.

Since many CDs no longer have any definite titles, I will give what the cover states: <Virgil Thomson: Symphony on a Hymn Tune, Symphony No. 2 in C major, Symphony No. 3, Pilgrims and Pioneers> (8.559022). These four works are played by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under James Sedares. Since the liner notes give the composer's own descriptions of much of what you will hear, I wish only to say here that (a) the "Hymn Tune" piece will be more pleasing to most listeners simply because it is the most melodic, (b) the symphonies are honest attempts to bring an American sound to the symphonic format [and you may decide how well he succeeded], and (c) they all influenced other American composers, some in a negative and some in a positive way, dpending on which critic you read. But it is all very listenable and the Naxos bargain price not to be ignored.

I must confess that my opinion of Virgil Thomson has been colored by his somewhat sharp tongued music criticism so I have not been much interested in his music. This was until I heard his Symphony on a Hymn Tune over the radio. The charm of the music and its wealth of melody changed my mind and led me to buying this disc of Virgil Thomson's music.

The music on this CD represents his entire career with the earliest music from 1926 and the latest from 1972. The Symphony on a Hymn Tune is from 1926 (revised in 1945) during the composer's years in Paris and is cast in four movements. The tune in question is a Scottish melody "How Firm a Foundation." It is as the composer described it simple and folkloric is style, evoking the America of Currier and Ives.

The Symphony No. 2 is a short work in three movements composed in 1930 and re-orchestrated in 1941. The key of C major dominated the first and third movements and the music begins with a melody upon which the symphony is based building on that theme. The Third Symphony dates back to 1932 but was expanded and re-orchestrated in 1972. The symphony is in four short movements with its inspiration coming from the quartets of Mendelssohn and Schubert - a classically inspired work utilizing the sonata form. A waltz movement is substituted for a scherzo which gives the symphony a lightness of tone. The Adagio is calm and reflective while the Finale is a charming rondo.

Pilgrims and Pioneers began as film music for a Journey to America, written for the New York World's Fair of 1964. The film, and music, tell the story of immigration to the United States using hymn tunes and evokes the folklore of the people. Thomson created an overture from the music that was first played in 1971. The music recorded here is instantly appealing. When I first played the disc, I had to start it over again; I liked Virgil Thomson's colorful use of the orchestra and enjoy the way he weaves his melodies with such lightness and color. I think this is among the best discs in Naxos' series on American composers and I can now say I have a different appreciation of Virgil Thomson.

Thanks Naxos for bringing the music of Virgil Thomson to us and even at a great price. I have been wanting to experiment in listening to more music by American composers...with this release I am happy I did. It is amazing that foreign orchestra like the very good New Zealand Symphony are playing Thomson and our orchestra seem to ignore him. Try like I did and explore more of our composers. Recommended

These compositions all have a very light feel with an emphasis on clarity. And all these works clearly exude from the American experience. Virgil Thomson, perhaps even more than Aaron Copland, seems to have had the lock on that caveat.

Symphony No. 2 (1931-41, in three movements) is a bridge between an imaginary flight over the Midwestern States and a march. It's somewhat reminiscent of Copland's "Appalachian Spring" but a little more consistent in its rendering.

Symphony No. 3 (1972, in four movements) is notably more mature than its precedent. Still, it's a floating, bouncy fully orchestral composition which, in places, reminded me just a bit of the later works of Dmitri Shostakovich... nationalistic in its flavour. You'll also hear the flow of Tchaikovsky and the scales of Satie.

"Pilgrims and Pioneers" (1964) launches in a darker realm but quickly eases into a Monteverdi approach to something less melodic than one normally hears from this composer. It's a mature and impressive tone poem.

"Symphony on a Hymn Tune" (1928, in 4 movements) manifests a modernistic gospel ambiance but is pretty straightforward stuff. Some abrubt and notable meter changes keep the work interesting and the differences in the flow of the movements separate this composition from more traditional symphony formats. Good background orchestestration contributes significantly to this work.

For the lover of American classical music, this CD would have to be a top-ten pick. James Sedares, conducting The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, provides us with a brillant and meticulous interpretation of Thomson's works. And hats off to Naxos for capturing it so wonderfully -- great sound!

Considering that James Sedares and the New Zealand Symphony usually record for full price labels, having them on Naxos is a tremendous bargain. The playing is up to their high standards, and the sound engineering is beautiful--capturing the important brass parts particularly well. Here is Thomson at his earthiest. The Symphony No. 2 and Symphony on a Hymn Tune both are populist scores, aimed at creating an essentially American sounding music. As Leonard Bernstein pointed out, the influence of this aspect of Thomson's music on Aaron Copland was enormous. Nevertheless, these pieces are highly compelling in their own right. As for Pilgrims and Pioneers and the Symphony No. 3, these are later works with darker overtones, although the aesthetic is still recognizably the same as in the earlier pieces. Anyone who has been enchanted by Thomson's better known film scores should find this a worthwhile disc.

Virgil Thomson is unquestionably an important figure in American music. Whether history remembers him as a composer or as a critic primarily remains to be seen, but there is no denying his talent for making the nonsensical prose of Gertrude Stein sing like nobody else could. He was often a very insightful, though extremely opinionated, critic. He was probably one of the fiercest critics who ever lived and he skewered the works of more than one American composer. Vladimir Horowitz and Arturo Toscanini were recipients of more than one nasty review from Thomson. He seemed to have no great love for some of the works of Roy Harris or Walter Piston, either.

He is remembered mostly for his opera Four Saints in Three Acts (with libretto by Gertrude Stein) and his magnificent film scores. The main reason I bought this disk was for his Symphony on a Hymn Tune, an important American symphony that really should be played more often. The other two symphonies on the disk are worth hearing, though the jury is still out on how successful a symphonist Virgil Thomson was. The Symphony on a Hymn Tune is wonderful piece of music and well worth getting familiar with. There is nothing to fault the playing of the orchestra or the conducting of James Sedares.

Naxos is doing us all a world of service by introducing us to American music we might never have heard before. At Naxos' price, how can one fail to be introduced to the works of one of the greatest figures in American music?

For those who wish to expand their 20th century orchestral horizons, I recommend this excellent cd, with James Sedares leading the first rate New Zealand Symphony. All the music is listenable, often folksy, sometimes spare, but always refreshing. Some elements of the second symphony remind one of everyone from Ravel to Shostakovich, linked to a core Americana feel. Thomson was not a composer on the level of, say, a Prokofiev, but his work has been wrongfully neglected, and this would be as good an introduction to it as any.

The morning after my daughter was diagnosed with cancer for the second time, my alarm clock went off about 5:50 am with NPR radio. It was a Sunday morning. The music playing included strains of "Jesus Loves Me" and the old hymn of the church, "How Firm a Foundation, Ye Saints of the Lord". On NPR???? Even Sunday morning???? I listened intently as the symphony played for well over 5 minutes, then a break, and it continued. This CD ministered to my heartbroken heart. I scrambled around in the dark for a pencil to write down something that would help me locate the CD. Google helped and I found this version, though the original was by the Rochester Symphony.

This CD is always in my car. I play tracks 9-12 Symphony on a Hymn Tune over and over (and the rest of it some days). I always remember the peace it brought to my soul early that Sunday morning.

I am not qualitifed to critique the music but I know good music when I hear it. All of the pieces are melodic and calming. Some are old American tunes. This is the kind of music you want to hear when you just want peace and harmony to prevail. I have purchased three of them.

I heard this Symphony on a Hymn Tune on one of our

PBS Radio stations and I liked what I heard. I was glad

to find it on line at Amazon. It is good quality and I will

probably look for more. The price and shipping were fair, too.