Achim Breiling:

>Maybe some of you can enlighten me stupid German about two CDs I have
>recently seen and wondered if they might be interesting.  Both are on
>Mercury (Living Presence) with recordings from the 5ties and 6ties, both
>with the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra (I never heard of; what is/was that)
>and a conductor called Hanson (I guess its Howard Hanson).

Yep, Howard Hanson.  The ERO (not to be confused with ELO) is the symphony
of the Eastman School of Music and the city of Rochester, NY (where the
Eastman is located).  It consists of students, faculty, and assorted
professionals.

>One is called *Music for quiet listening* and contains works by *Barlow,
>Nelson, Pursell (Purcell?), Scianni, Gauldin, Mailman, Sutcliffe, Earls
>and Stern.

Interestingly enough, this concept began in New Orleans with a businessman
named Edward Benjamin, who commissioned modern composers to compose
"restful" music.  None of the works he commissioned actually satisfied him;
apparently, he disliked *all* climaxes and *any* increase in tension.  It's
all tonal, some of it neo-classical, some post-Romantic.  "Pursell" is
William Pursell, born in 1926.

>The other one has Victor Herberts Celloconcerto Nr.2 and Grofes Grand
>Canyon-Suite.  What kind of music is this? Hanson-like American-romantic?

Herbert's concerto is pure Romanticism, like MacDowell.  I find it fairly
watered-down stuff, myself, but apparently it did inspire Dvorak to write
*his* concerto.  Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite was a Pops staple for many
years.  Grofe began as an arranger for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra (it
was he who orchestrated both the jazz-band and the symphonic version of
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue).  According to me, nothing else he did was so
distinguished.  Grand Canyon Suite is "light" (and lightweight) music, at
one time very popular.

Steve Schwartz