Harris: The Great American Ninth
Alan Feinberg, Albany Symphony Orchestra & David Alan Miller
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| Total: 11 Songs |
Customer Reviews
Beautiful music
One thing that's always struck me about Roy Harris's music is that it all sounds the same. Sure, Copland always sounds like Copland, too, and Barber always sounds like Barber. But that's because those two American masters had distinctive styles, musical personalities so to speak, that branded everything they did. Roy Harris was more like William Schuman: he just kept doing the same thing over and over again. A movement from this symphony could be transplanted to that symphony and if you weren't familiar with the pieces you'd never notice the difference. (Which is a lucky thing, because the iFolk apparently scrambled the tracks on this one.) That said, I give this album 5 stars anyway. I have no real complaint that Harris's music all sounds the same, because it also all sounds just absolutely beautiful, from the first note to the last. I realize I'm saying as much about my own tastes as I am about Harris's music. You might disagree. But if you do like the samples here on iTunes, please don't hesitate to buy this album. You'll love it, I promise. I also suspect that if you like the sound of this music you're probably an American. Harris doesn't export well, although I'd be happy to learn I'm wrong about that.
Greart CD, But Tracks Need to be Relabeled
The CD provides access to two lovely Harris works not previously available (including a major symphony -- the 8th) and a lyrical alternative to Kuchar's muscular interpretation of the 9th. However, the tracks need to be relabeled, as follows: Tracks 1-3 should be Memories of a Child's Sunday, Tracks 4-6 should be Symphony No. 9. The 8th Symphony (a one-movement piece in three parts) can be found on Tracks 7-11. The order of all the movements is correct within each piece. Dan Stehman's "Roy Harris: A Bio-bibliography" was helpful in making the corrections. Enjoy.
Something's amiss here
Listen to the start of "Symphony No. 9th: I" - doesn't it sound like it begins in the middle of a crescendo? In fact, the end of "Memories of a Child's Sunday: Imagining: Play" blends right into it. Somethings gone wrong with the track numbers. Would it be possible to correct this? P.S. It's a wonderful album aside from that.
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