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Roy Harris is one of
the finest of American composers. His
writing is gritty, heroic, pastoral
and at times concerned with the great
life issues. His thirteen symphonies
stand at the apex of his creative output.
The Third is the most famous - a single
movement structure with striding energy;
a pioneering and bravely singing spirit.
He has a piercing sense of the epic
and a luminous hand in his writing for
orchestra. Kentucky Spring was
written for Louisville as a commission.
It is less of an epic statement; more
of a portrayal of the essential poetic
vigour of nature - self-renewing. It
does not have the storming power of
Bridge’s Enter Spring. It is
more in the nature of John Foulds’ April-England
- an eclogue but one that is vital
with the shoots of spring.
The Violin Concerto
is in five parts the first of which
sings most eloquently and in pastoral
measures. It is his only violin concerto
although circa 1937/38 Harris completed
one for Heifetz but then agreed with
the performer that it was not really
a suitable virtuoso vehicle. The material
was subsumed into what became the Third
Symphony. Country fiddle music puts
in an appearance in Part II which might
loosely be compared with the hurly-burly
of the middle movement of the Moeran
violin concerto. The concerto sports
some flamboyant quasi-Paganinian pizzicato.
Dashing whispered writing for orchestra
provides a backdrop for the soloist’s
sport. The remainder of the symphony
has the soloist in almost continuously
intense play, poignant and forceful.
The Fifth Symphony
was written in 1943 and then revised
two years later. There is no mistaking
this as anything other than a war symphony.
Harris dedicated the Symphony to the
heroic and freedom-loving people of
our great ally, the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics. This was during
that brief window in time when the UK,
USA and USSR shared a common goal. With
the war won and other pressures surfacing
this chapter closed and turned to suspicion
and worse. Perhaps the dedication hampered
the progress of the symphony. Rather
like Vaughan Williams, there were often
shocking gear changes from one symphony
to another. The Fourth Symphony by Harris
was a long Folksong Symphony with full
chorus and not shrinking from the use
of cowboy songs (hear it with Stokowski
on Vanguard or on a long-deleted EMI
LP conducted by Abravanel - can anyone
provide the writer with a CDR of the
Abravanel, I wonder?). The Fifth returned
to the epic themes of the Symphony
1933 and the Third. The Sixth and
Seventh Symphonies also made the pilgrimage
to the Holy Grail of major statements
about the great issues of mankind. They
reach a grand peak in the Seventh (hear
it conducted by Ormandy on Albany or,
just as good, on Naxos
by Kuchar ).
In any event the Fifth
was premiered by the Boston Orchestra
conducted by Koussevitsky in 1943 and
broadcast on short-wave to the USSR.
In 1958 Harris travelled to the USSR
to conduct the Symphony. During the
war it was broadcast to the troops on
eleven occasions. One can easily imagine
the inspirational effect of the rhythmically
punchy almost ruthless horn-lofted fanfare
that opens the work. The turbulent first
movement mixes suspenseful music with
the flavour of mid-Western songs and
dances. The second movement with its
cortege-like funereal tread seems to
speak of the gravest issues, of despair
and of victory at the expense of pain
and death. The finale is alive with
unruly energy, which the Louisville
players sometimes struggle with, but
the essence is put across with fidelity.
A vibraphone rings out in the centre
of this movement, a glowing affirmative
benediction as powerful as the similar
strokes in the Third and Seventh symphonies.
It ends in an upwardly surging breaker
of golden brass sound rather like the
horn-buoyant waves that round out the
first movement of Bruckner’s Fourth.
I have a complaint
in the case of this disc. I am surprised
that two short and significant Harris
works set down in Kentucky were not
added. It was issued on LP on LS666
Epilogue - Profiles in Courage: JFK
was recorded in Louisville on 11
May 1966. I am sure there is a good
reason why it is not here but its absence
is still acutely disappointing. All
the more so when it is amongst that
small clutch of Louisville tapes that
were reissued by Albany on TROY027-2
alongside another Louisville Harris
absentee - the overture When Johnny
Comes Marching Home.
Technically speaking
the best recording is the most recent
- that of the Violin Concerto. Gregory
Fulkerson’s violin is captured with
real immediacy. This Kentucky Spring
is in mono and while still enjoyable
the sound takes on a suggestion of hardness.
Harris’s greatness
and visionary zeal are reflected here
providing the only recordings of these
three fine works. Outstanding.
Rob Barnett
Gregory Fulkerson, violin 
