Day 119
Rorem Symphony no 2
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
José Serebrier
I know Ned Rorem only though his songs, particularly a lovely recital disc by Susan Graham. I don’t think that that I have heard anything else he wrote. This second symphony dates from 1956 and after a few performances was more or less forgotten until it was revived for this recording.
Like yesterday’s symphony by Barber I found this unmemorable - indeed I would describe it is almost inconsequential - there seems to be an awful lot of what seemed little more than tinkering about. The structure is curious. A longish slow first movement with a scherzando middle section, then a very short slow movement which hardly seemed to get going and a rhythmical quite interesting finale which however seems quite quickly to turn to mere note spinning. The language can best be described as ‘sub Copland’ and my overall impression is why would you want to listen to this when you can listen to the real thing. So I am sure that I will go back to the Rorem songs, but I have no inclination to try more of his orchestral music.
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