Achim Breiling asked:

>I could get the set of all the symphonies by Howard Hanson (on Delos) for
>less than half price.  Convince me to do so!  Are these worth a try?

Back in the 60s, I acquired a number of Mercury LPs conducted by Howard
Hanson and the Eastman-Rochester Symphony playing music by a wide variety
of American composers, but had to wait several years before I heard any of
his own music, a number of LPs of which were listed in a Schwann catalogue
I'd acquired - but they never seemed to be available.  I finally ordered
the 2nd and 3rd symphonies and after a wait of months, they arrived.
I was an instant fan.  The Big Tune in the 2nd, and the more vigorous
3rd were much to my taste.  Hanson's music was unfashionably tuneful,
heart-on-the-sleeve stuff, and I loved it, well, most of it.  It has much
of the feel of the symphonies of eg Barber and Randall Thompson, with just
a touch of Sibelius here and there.  After the relative expansiveness of
the first three symphonies, the fourth and fifth are more compact and
have gradually become my favourites.  I quite like the 6th, but am less
well-disposed towards the choral 7th.  So in general, it's good music that
deserves to be heard, and perhaps I'm unusually generous towards it because
probably more than anyone else, I'm grateful to Hanson for the amount of
American music he thought was important enough to record.  So yes, Achim,
they are certainly worth a try if what I've tried to describe is the sort
of music that appeals.

Apart from the Delos cycle, recordings of the Hanson symphonies are pretty
thin on the ground.  There are several versions of the 2nd, and Hanson's
own Mercury versions of the first three have been re-released; his 4th and
5th were, IIRC, only in mono, and apart from old ERA LPs, have not seen the
light of day since.  There are things about Hanson's own versions that I
like, but the Delos ones have the advantage of better recording and, in at
least the case of the 3rd IMHO, a more incisive performance.  It's not all
that likely that Naxos will record them anew in their American Music Series
and not, I think, at all likely that anyone else will, so that's another
good reason for buying the set:  you may never have another chance.

Richard Pennycuick
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