Howard HANSON (1896-1981)
Symphony No. 4 Requiem, Op. 34 (1943) [25:45]
Symphony No. 5 Sinfonia Sacra, Op. 45 (1954) [15:10]
Elegy in Memory of Serge Koussevitzky (1956) [12:43]
Dies Natalis (1967) [16:07]
Seattle Symphony/Gerard Schwarz
rec. 16, 18 February 1990 (No. 4), 18-19 May 1992 (No. 5), 5 January 1988
(Elegy), 6-7 June 1994 (Dies Natalis), Seattle Opera House,
Seattle, USA. DDD
NAXOS 8.559703 [69:44]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony
recorded (for Delos) the first traversal of the orchestral works of Howard
Hanson since the composer’s own renditions almost forty years before. Hanson’s
recordings were masterpieces of the recording techniques of their time and
naturally carried the authority both of composer and conductor (see
review). Schwarz’s performances benefit from improvements in recording
technology and from a more meditative approach than that of the composer.
In its release of the five Delos discs, Naxos has re-ordered the individual
works so as to present the symphonies in chronological sequence. This disc
demonstrates how both Gregorian chant and the Lutheran chorale undergird the
structure of many of Hanson’s works, although only in Dies Natalis
is there an actual quotation, in this case of a well-known chorale associated
with Christmas. Hanson’s variations on this theme are all ominous or agitated.
This is more Christmas as it might have been experienced on the Great Plains
by Hanson’s pioneering ancestors than that of Dickens or Currier and Ives.
The Sinfonia Sacra deals with Easter, being an evocation of the moods
of despair and eventual triumph associated with the three days from the Passion
to the Resurrection. I have always found this to be the least convincing of
Hanson’s seven symphonies. It contains some wonderful music but lacks the
dramatic and structural integration found in the Third and Fourth Symphonies.
Schwarz does his best to put the piece over, and it is excellently recorded,
but he can make no better case for it than the composer did in his own recording.
Serge Koussevitzky had been one of Hanson’s earliest advocates, conducting
the premieres of several of Hanson’s most important works. Hanson’s elegy
for his friend is based on a four-note motif that is developed with consummate
skill so as to progress through a wide range of emotions before ending with
a touching valediction. Along with Mosaics this work stands out as
the best of the composer’s shorter works and Schwarz’s performance is as persuasive
and genuine as that of the composer.
The Fourth Symphony, dedicated to the memory of the composer’s father, received
the first Pulitzer Prize in music in 1944. Each of the four movements bears
the title of a section of the requiem mass. Hanson’ development of the Kyrie
first movement’s octave horn-leap and the succeeding theme for the cello make
this one of his most convincing statements. The slow movement (Requiescat)
that follows is based on the two themes of the first movement, but proceeding
through organic growth rather than regular development and is as impressive
as its predecessor. The Dies Irae movement combines the structural
forms of the two preceding movements in a persuasive evocation of the cruelty
of death and the last movement (Lux aeterna) achieves a sense of
consolation through a perfect synthesis of the preceding material. Schwarz’s
version possesses less energy than that of the composer, but carries almost
equal conviction.
The works on this disc each derive from a different Delos disc and the recording
quality varies accordingly. The sound quality of Dies Natalis and
the Sinfonia Sacra is much richer and balanced than that of the other
two works. Given the iconic nature of Hanson’s own recordings, Schwarz might
have hesitated to record his own set of these works, but he has his own approach
as well as a complete commitment to the Hanson ethos, even if he does not
have the same control of his orchestra (see
review). Still, Schwarz’s discs deserve a place next to Hanson’s own in
any record library.
William Kreindler
Another Naxos re-release of Gerard Schwarz’s persuasive Hanson series.
see also review by Dan Morgan (May 2012 Recording of the Month)