Harbison - Symphony no.4; works by Carl Ruggles and Steven S...

David Alan Miller, National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic

The Naxos label's American Classics series is the source of a huge range of music, from established masterpieces via neglected gems to recent works from American contemporary composers. Their latest release – part of an ongoing collaboration between Naxos and the National Orchestral Institute – is an excellent addition to this absorbing series. It couples Carl Ruggles’ classic Sun-Treader (1926-1931) with two large-scale multi-movement orchestral pieces, both dating from 2004, by Steven Stucky and John Harbison. And it makes for a compelling 65 minutes of listening.

The disc kicks off with a brilliantly assured, sonically impressive and expressively intense account of Sun-Treader. This is a work that packs a powerful punch, taking its inspiration from a phrase in Robert Browning’s 1832 poem Pauline, and the young players of the National Orchestral Institute – which meets every June to shape the professional orchestral musicians of the future – clearly relish its challenges. Ruggles took 5 years to write this 15-minute work, composed in his own particular brand of quasi-serial atonality. There have been several fine recordings of Sun-Treader over the years, but this one, recorded in the warmly sympathetic acoustic of the Dekelboum Concert Hall at the University of Maryland, emphasises the piece’s Berg-like lyricism, without sacrificing the music’s over-arching power.

With Stucky’s Second Concerto for Orchestra, written for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, we enter a different world. Cast in three movements – ‘Overture (with friends)’, a long central ‘Variations’ movement and a Finale ‒ it is replete with deftly integrated quotations from and nods towards Stucky’s musical reference points: Ravel, Stravinsky, Debussy and Brahms are all seamlessly woven in, providing reference points for the listener in turn. Stucky was a master orchestrator in his own right, and though the timings suggest a lop-sided work, the overall shape feels perfectly judged. And it makes an ideal piece for the NIOP’s youthful musicians, with every section excelling in what is in effect a ‘celebration’ of the symphony orchestra as a medium.

Finally comes John Harbison’s five-movement Symphony no.4, composed ‘inside-out’, as it were, with the fourth movement ‘Threnody’ written first, inspired by the near loss of a loved one. It provides the emotional core of the work, which has the jazzy overtones that are so distinctly American. The opening ‘Fanfare’ movement is particularly enjoyable, mixing bombast with lightly-scored dance-like passages. The following Intermezzo provides a stark contrast, including magical gamelan-style passages for tuned percussion, while the Scherzo provides evidence of a keen wit, mischievous rather than overtly humorous. The Finale has about it a formal feel inspired by an Emily Dickinson poem (another root in the American cultural soil). Taken as a whole, this Symphony (originally composed for the Seattle Symphony) is in some ways more akin to a work like Janáček’s Sinfonietta, though the soundworld is completely different. But it’s a fine showpiece in its own right, and once again the NIO Philharmonic, under the expert direction of David Alan Miller, give it their all.

If you’ve not yet dipped into the American Classics series, this is an ideal starting point, combining the best of the past with two exceptional recent works. It certainly makes for a refreshing and instructive change from the ubiquitous Copland, Barber, Bernstein and Glass, and those who know this series already will readily snap it up. Highly recommended!