Meredith Willson Symphonies 1 & 2

[Alan Howe]

Fancy two unpretentious, late-romantic symphonies with more than hint of film music to them? Well, you could no better than the two symphonies written in the late 1930s by Meredith Willson (1902-84, composer of the popular march 76 Trombones - from his score to The Music Man). There's a rather good Naxos CD featuring the Moscow Symphony Orchestra under that well-known conductor of film music, William T. Stromberg. Highly recommended!

[JimL]

Um, he also composed the rest of The Music Man.  Including 'Til There was You, which has been covered by The Beatles, amongst many others.

[Alan Howe]

Yes, I know, Jim. My apologies for the poor wording (now improved): it's the march that I know from his score. I grew up with it on children's radio programmes.

Symphony No.2 has some gloriously Respighian moments, by the way.

[TerraEpon]

I bought this probably 10-12 years ago on his name alone. It's indeed a couple of very fine works, pleasant and lush. I know of no other classical works by him that have been recorded, though (Wikipedia lists a few others).

FWIW, Willson was in the Sousa band for some years, and I often wonder if he wrote any concert marches or whatever.

[mbhaub]

I'm from a town quite close to where Willson was born, Mason City, Iowa. Nice little mid-western town. Thoughtful memorial of Willson in the town square. He and Karl King are Iowa's musical heroes, although younger people have no idea who either of them were. Sad. Anyway, I'm always interested in anything written by either and picked up those two symphonies when the cd came out. Anyone looking for a joyous experience like the score for The Music Man will likely be disappointed. They're not boring, just not memorable to me. The worst thing about them are the saxophones! Willson was no Vaughan Williams.

[Alan Howe]

Funny - I loved the saxophones.

[semloh]

Sorry to be dim, but which saxophones, where exactly? 

[eschiss1]

And why Vaughan Williams- hardly the first or the last composer to use the saxophone in the symphony orchestra, nor the best at it?

[Alan Howe]

No idea. But they feature in No.1

[chill319]

This thread inspired another listen to these works, and evidently the enthusiasm here has rubbed off, for they sound more substantial than I remembered. The first is nothing if not ambitious. The fifteen-minute first movement unfolds a complex argument with few signs of padding -- no mean achievement. That said, the tunes in the second symphony are more striking; for this reason I hear it as the more cogent of the two works.

I always admired the way Willson took the marching tune of "76 Trombones" and transformed it into the waltz-ballad "Goodnight, My Someone." That same talent is put to good use on the bigger canvases of these symphonies.