Everitt Clark wrote:

>While we're on the subject of great 20th century choral works, I have
>recently become very enamored of Hindemith's Requiem (based on the text of
>Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed").  It's rare that I
>hear anyone else mention this piece outside of a music appreciation book;
>it was merely by chance that I discovered it myself.  Is there anyone else
>out there who shares my high opinion of this work, or perhaps would care to
>dissent? We could start a new thread if enough people have an opinion one
>way or the other.

Sidestepping Everitt's suggestion a bit, I heard a different setting to
Whitman's poem last fall.  It was by Roger Sessions.

On another list I had occasion to explain my reaction to Sessions' music,
which I had said I liked.  I also said I found it highly cerebral and
appreciated it more on an intellectual than on an emotional level.  When
somebody questioned my perception of Sessions' music, I tried as best
I could to respond, citing several examples of works by Sessions that I
had heard, and said the following about his "When Lilacs Last in Doryard
Bloomed":

   "Reading the text while hearing the music gave me an appreciation
   for the text that I never had before....But the level on which I
   appreciated the music was much more on the intellectual, and minimally
   on the emotional, level, as compared w/ my appreciation of Britten's
   War Requiem, where the intellectual might almost be outweighed by
   the emotional."

Incidentally, I didn't intend any of the foregoing to constitute the faint
praise that frequently damns.  I highly recommend this work.  It's on New
World Records NW-296-2 and features Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony w/
Esther Hinds, soprano; Florence Quivar, mezzo; Dominic Cossa, baritone and
the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, conducted by John Oliver.

Walter Meyer