John Knowles Paine: 2 CDs from Naxos

[sdtom]

The first American symphony to sound like Brahms?

Actually, I don't much like Brahms's first three but I do like Paine's 1st. I never bought the 2nd because I didn't like that one much, apparently.

Much more like Beethoven
Tom

[sdtom]

'Tis a sad commentary on the state of all things orchestral in the US that Falletta is using the Ulster Orchestra to record this.

Perhaps there is an agreement in her contract?
Tom

[Alan Howe]

Hi Tom,
It just doesn't make sense for there to be two threads.
BTW I'm sure you are right: Paine's model in his 1st Symphony is definitely Beethoven.

[eschiss1]

Tom: look at the link at the top in the thread (news article. A second CD is already announced. Quizzical quiddity solved, I should think.

[sdtom]

Hi Tom,
It just doesn't make sense for there to be two threads.
BTW I'm sure you are right: Paine's model in his 1st Symphony is definitely Beethoven.

I agree that there shouldn't be two threads and as I think about it we're pretty savvy about these things. My thought process was that as an administrator you could change the subject title.
Tom

[Alan Howe]

I'm sorry, but this is a pretty mediocre issue. The music is so obviously warmed-over Beethoven - and I don't much care for the underpowered string-playing of the Ulster Orchestra either. Miss Falletta should have used her Buffalo Orchestra, I feel. An opportunity missed.

[sdtom]

It doesn't make sense from the standpoint that this was released under the umbrella of the American Classics series. I just feel that there is something that we don't know.
Tom

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Maybe Alan is broadly right - though I'd be a little more genteel than that "pretty mediocre". On a quick hearing, the two Shakespeare pieces are better. But given Naxos prices I don't regret buying it (though I suspect it will gather dust).

I wouldn't be too hard on the Ulster Orchestra - after all, they've done some very fine things. I suspect (and it is only a guess) that the problem here is both very limited rehearsal time and the orchestra's unfamiliarity with Paine. Maybe the Buffalo Orchestra would have offered a more compelling account. Yep, Naxos prices are gloriously affordable - but there's no point at all in serving up a recording unless you get it right. (That's why Hyperion, for example, never give us a dud).

[Alan Howe]

Nevertheless, it's an opportunity missed. After all, Mehta had the NYPO...

[jerfilm]

Well, nobody that's anybody here wants to do American Composers.   How sad.....

J

[eschiss1]

FWIW I for one haven't heard the new CDs.
(Didn't we have something by Paine in the uploads ("downloads"?) section at one point, a choral work? Will have to check... ah. "The Tempest" symphonic-poem, and "The Nativity". I think I only downloaded the latter; will have to see if the former is still there.) He also wrote a few chamber works that have been recently published I think, a violin sonata and a piano trio, unless I am thinking of someone else... and New World released a disc of some piano works and another with his Mass? Anyhow, more to the assessment of his muse than comparisons of recordings of just the 2 symphonies and a couple of other orchestral works (though a person might end up with a positive or a negative opinion all the same of course.)

[sdtom]

I think that the Buffalo plate is full right now as they released a Gershwin, Ellington, and Tyberg this year already. I've hear that there will be another Tyberg too.
Tom

[minacciosa]

I played on a recording of Paine's oratorio St. Peter. While I'm glad to have composers like him receive some attention and an occasional recordings, I can't say I'm very enthusiastic about his music.

[semloh]

Hmmm - I'd like to hear that, because so far I've never heard anything by Paine that I didn't like.

[minacciosa]

Look here for the recording.
http://www.gmrecordings.com/gm2027.htm
There is a score available at IMSLP.