Deryk Barker <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>Richard Pennycuick ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
>
>>More to the point, last time I looked, one A Hovhaness was bearing down
>>on Haydn with his usual fecundity into at least the late 50s of his
>>symphonies.  Does anyone have some more up-to-date knowledge?
>
>He has an awfully long way to go. They need to be *good* to qualify.

I never heard a bad one yet.  Which Hovhaness symphony does Mr Barker wish
to castigate, and why?

Hovhaness' "Saint Vartan Symphony" is clearly one if the most original and
powerful symphonic works of the post-war period - provided of course points
are not being awarded strictly on Sonata Form principles.

Of couse, it is a beautiful piece of musical mosaic, lovely and rewarding
to contemplate - surely much more so than those laboured cliches of
introspective musical angst perpetrated by Gustav Mahler after the 6th
Symphony.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"