For most of his compositional career Sessions wrote music which was atonal, gritty, expressionist and tough. I must confess to having never comes to terms with most of the music (although I have virtually all of the cd recordings ;D). Sessions was however a composer of considerable importance and total integrity and an influential and highly respected teacher. He was also the cousin of our greatly valued member here- shamokin. I therefore thought it more than appropriate to include his relatively modest output.
(Although Eric Gilder and Mark Morris mention the Scherzino and March of 1938 I have found no other references to the work. "The Five Pieces for Chamber Orchestra" of 1975 listed by Gilder is presumably a confusion with the Five Pieces for piano composed in that year.)
ROGER SESSIONS: A CATALOGUE OF THE ORCHESTRAL AND CHORAL MUSIC
1927: Symphony No.1: 18 minutes + (CRI cd)
1928: Suite "The Black Maskers": 22 minutes + (Mercury and New World cds)
1935: Violin Concerto: 34 minutes + (CRI and Albany cds)
1938: Scherzino and March for orchestra ?
1944-46: Symphony No.2: 26 minutes + (CRI and Decca cds)
1954: "The Idyll of Theocritus" for soprano and orchestra: 37 minutes + (First Edition cd)
1955-56:Piano Concerto: 18 minutes + (New World and Oehms cds)
1957: Symphony No.3: 30 minutes + (CRI cd)
1958: Symphony No.4: 23 minutes + (New World cd)
1960: Divertimento for orchestra: 23 minutes + (First Edition cd)
1963: Psalm 140 for soprano and orchestra: 8 minutes
1964: Symphony No.5: 18 minutes + (New World cd)
1966: Symphony No.6: 20 minutes + (Argo cd)
1967: Symphony No.7: 22 minutes + (Argo cd)
1968: Symphony No.8: 14 minutes + (Argo cd)
1970: Rhapsody for orchestra: 11 minutes + (Argo and New World cds)
1971: Cantata "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" for soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra: 42 minutes + (New World cd)
Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra: 20 minutes
1972: Concertino for chamber orchestra: 16 minutes + (Phoenix cd)
Three Choruses on Biblical Texts for chorus and orchestra: 15 minutes
1978: Symphony No.9: 28 minutes + (Argo cd)
1981: Concerto for Orchestra: 16 minutes + (Hyperion cd)
The Suite "The Black Maskers" exist also on Mercury Cd (Howard Hansono conducting)
Thank you as always, Alberto :)
Sessions's output is relatively small, perhaps his other compositions could be added to make a complete catalogue, many of them are available on CD so overall Sessions hasn't been too badly served on CD.
Of the works not available on CD, I have the Double Concerto (Violin & Cello) and the Three Choruses on Biblical Texts.
I thought the scherzino was for piano solo, and if I recall likewise the march. Hrm. Interesting. (Yes, I know Barry David Salwen doesn't include them in his "complete" traversal of Sessions' piano music, but I am aware of recordings of them, memory serves, though I haven't heard them.) (Ah. Arzruni's 2002 recording "Childhood memories: music for younger pianists" has Little piece (:21) ; Waltz for Brenda (1:17) ; Scherzino (:27) ; March (1:10). 27 seconds of a "Scherzino" for piano. Perhaps it wasn't that much work to orchestrate for him or someone... but still...)