American Music

[Dundonnell]

Now sorted, thanks

The links are correct in the thread and take one to the correct file. It is just that the files themselves are wrongly labelled on Mediafire: "Symphony No.5" is actually Symphony No.2 and vice versa.

[lechner1110]

  Thanks for Giannini's symphonies.
  I listened Symphony no.5.  There is much tension in this symphony. Thanks

[Holger]

I shall second the thanks for the Giannini symphonies. I tracked down them all and just listened to the Fifth, which appeared to be a very intriguing piece. Its constant flow of music, distinguished by a certain dark glow with wistful melodic lines and much nostalgia in a vein that is clearly rooted in romanticism, reminds me of the late Ādolfs Skulte.

[Latvian]

I've fixed the link for my Harl McDonald downloads. For some reason, Mediafire assigned an entirely new link for the folder, probably as part of their website changes this weekend.

[Dundonnell]

Further thanks to shamokin88 for the two earlier Giannini symphonies

From what I have heard so far the Fifth Symphony is a particularly fine work and makes one regret that this modern romantic American composer has not, so far, received more attention. Naxos did release a coupling of Symphony No.4 and the Piano Concerto and the Symphony No.3 is on a Mercury disc coupled with other wind symphonies by Morton Gould and Alan Hovhaness.

I sometimes think that it is a shame that Naxos's American Classics series has included such a lot of music which, frankly, is pretty second-rate and certainly does not merit "classics" status.

[eschiss1]

It's a brand name (the Holy Roman Empire problem again, after a fashion). Real classics are few and far between though (even if I thought meaning resided at the word rather than at the sentence level) the word has (would have) many meanings anycase.  (Strictly speaking vanishingly little music (or composers thereof) is/are first-rate and most music is lucky to qualify to be second-rate, but that's another story.)

[BFerrell]

Naxos has informed me that they have no further plans regarding Roy's symphonies.

[Dundonnell]

Naxos has informed me that they have no further plans regarding Roy's symphonies.

That is a tragedy........no, a disgrace

Naxos had committed itself to a set of the symphonies conducted by Marin Alsop. To renage on that committment is quite shocking

[Latvian]

Naxos had committed itself to a set of the symphonies conducted by Marin Alsop. To renage on that committment is quite shocking

I agree! Unfortunately, a statement of commitment for a complete series of anything from a record company seems to be meaningless now (especially from Naxos, sadly). Look at the other series that have not come to fruition: Janis Ivanovs, Havergal Brian, Paul Creston, and on and on. Once they get a hint that it may not be as profitable as originally hoped, plans are scrapped and it's on to the next "complete series" announcement...

[Dundonnell]

In some cases, of course, the "commitment" was to record these series on the Marco Polo label-which seems now defunct. When Naxos turned to recording solely on their own name label that promise lapsed.

In some cases too the issue was money, ie sponsorship, or lack of it

I had hoped though that a more recent commitment to Roy Harris was actually going to be fulfilled. Sadly this appears not to be the case.

[gasman]

To be fair to Naxos they made considerable inroads into bringing hitherto unrecorded/neglected composers to the masses at a much more reasonable price than the major, full price,  companies - who stuck a multitude of recordings of the same well worn material by premium cost artists.

It is always a shame when a series is promised and goes unfulfilled but it is only possible to get an economic sense of whether it is viable by starting on that journey. And the starting of a series has alerted one of a particular composer or encouraged a punt purchase at a reasonable cost.

I personally have nothing but praise for Naxos and their founder, who - you prob. know the story - only started the process as he was having trouble getting his Violinist wife's recording of a concerto by a major company and decided to fund his own. He ended up outselling the major's who neglected her!

I only offer this comment to bring balance to what has been said about Naxos - I'm not employed by them! 

[Dundonnell]

No, no....that is perfectly fair comment

We do tend to get greedy sometimes(often) and forget the extraordinary amount of great work which companies like Naxos have done, especially nowadays for previously neglected composers. And yes, the economic arguments must, of course, affect decisions made by companies. It is, however, somewhat puzzling that Naxos give up on a composer like Harris who, at one time, next to composers like Copland and Barber had almost achieved the status of "grand old man" of American music when they continue to issue cds of works by composers of whom one has never heard. Do they sell?

[Mark Thomas]

I'm second to none in applauding Klaus Heymann and Naxos for all that he/they have done in the cause of introducing worthwhile but neglected music to the market. I do, however, think that there's a world of difference between explicitly labelling a series "complete" from the issue of the first recording, as in "Complete Symphonies of XX" and recording, say, a couple of CDs to test the market. Inevitably, those couple of CDs will raise the hopes of enthusiasts that a full cycle, or whatever, is planned but there's no promise from the label to carry on. Producing a few volumes as an advertised "complete" series and then abandoning it does seem to be pretty reprehensible. CDs should only be sold as part of a complete series if the label is confident from the start that the market can sustain the project and I'd have thought that the larger labels are market-savvy enough to know whether that's so.

[Dundonnell]

http://www.naxos.com/news/default.asp?op=453&displaymenu=naxos_news&type=2

Note the first sentence from Naxos "..........the latest recordings of the complete symphonies of Roy Harris".

I think we are at least entitled to an explanation

[erato]

I sometimes think that it is a shame that Naxos's American Classics series has included such a lot of music which, frankly, is pretty second-rate and certainly does not merit "classics" status.

While completely avoiding Roger Sessions.....