Criminally Neglected American Music
by Sedgwick Clark
Steve Smith made a pointed accusation in his New York Times review (4/3/10) of last Thursday’s all-William Schuman concert (see my blog, 3/24/10) by the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin. After marveling at the Third Symphony, he wrote: “That American orchestras can neglect so vital a creation in favor of any number of second-shelf European works seems criminal.”
Amen.
In over 40 years of New York concertgoing, I’ve heard the piece only four times: by the New York Philharmonic under Bernstein twice, most recently in 1985; by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Carlo Maria Giulini in the early 1980s; by the New Yorkers under André Previn in April 1997. That the symphony had not been performed in New York for 13 years according to Schuman’s publisher, G. Schirmer, is indeed criminal.
There is considerable American music for orchestra that I’m sure would appall Steve by its absence. How many works by those 20th-century American greats Copland, Ives, Barber, or Bernstein turn up these days on ordinary concerts simply because the music is good—as opposed to being on all-American music concerts? The Harris Third, Hanson Second, Creston Second, Schuller’s Seven Studies on Themes by Paul Klee, Ruggles’s Sun-treader? And this is only the beginning.
William Schuman composed seven other symphonies he allowed to be performed. How long before we hear one of those again in a New York concert hall?
Addendum. Those who love American music should know about a ten-disc CD set of New York Philharmonic broadcast performances called “An American Celebration” (NYP 9904), released directly by the orchestra. It contains 13 hours of music by 38 American composers—a total of 49 live performances, from 1936-1999, under 21 conductors. I hesitate to mention this because I was involved with its production, along with Barbara Haws, the orchestra’s archivist/historian. But it’s really too good to go unmentioned out of false modesty.
Elijah‘s Language
In his review this morning of the Boston Symphony performance of Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah at Carnegie Hall on Monday (4/5/10), Jim Oestreich questions the use of “the original German [text] despite the availability of a lovely English translation made for its premiere—in Birmingham, England, in 1846—and since used widely by Mr. Frühbeck and others. At a time when we hear no end of talk about demystifying classical music and broadening its audience, wouldn’t the use of English in a case like this be a sensible place to start?”
Point well taken. But it wasn’t Frühbeck’s decision. A friend in the Tanglewood Festival Chorus informed me that the chorus had performed it in English in the past and that it was James Levine’s decision to sing it in German. As is widely known by now, Levine had to cancel due to continuing back problems, and Frühbeck was fortunately available to lead an excellent performance.
Looking forward
My week’s scheduled concerts:
4/8 Avery Fisher Hall. New York Philharmonic/Antonio Pappano; Joshua Bell, violin. Mozart: Symphony No. 31; Bruch: Scottish Fantasy; Brahms: Symphony No. 4.
4/12 Leonard Nimoy Thalia. Cutting Edge Concerts/Victoria Bond. Works by Kristin Kuster, Laurie San Martin, Anna Weesner, Sean Shepherd, Jeremy Thurlow, Sebastian Currier, and Harold Meltzer.
4/13 Carnegie Hall. Philadelphia Orchestra/Charles Dutoit; Piotr Anderszewski, piano. Szymanowski: Symphonie concertante; Debussy: La Mer; Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps.