Day 248
Hanson: Symphony no 7 The Sea
Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Gerard Schwarz
I had come across Hanson as a composer some years ago when I took part in a performance of his second symphony - the Romantic - but I haven’t heard anything else by him.
I didn’t have a score of this piece so I was rather surprised to hear a choir enter after the introduction. It turns out that this is a choral symphony using texts by Walt Whitman. Of course that immediately brings a comparison with Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony. I played that a few years ago and have to say that after the arresting opening I found it rather hard going. So given that Hanson’s music is hewn from the same cloth as Vaughn Williams I did wonder why we needed a second choral sea symphony. Hanson explained that he had been haunted by the idea of the sea all his life and wanted to bring his symphony career to end with a sea-based piece. He was over 80 when he completed the work.
There were some exciting moments in the score and a majestic finish but this was not a work to my taste . I’m not a great Vaughan Williams fan and second-hand Vaughan Williams - which is what a lot of this piece sounds like - has ever less attraction for me. So I will let this one pass by.
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