Just when you think you're about to be profoundly moved, Howard Hanson will resolve to some all-too-expected tonic and sing some all-too-swelling melody set to some all-too-heart-rending harmonies cloaked in some all-too-voluptuous orchestration. And then what happens? You feel cheap and cheated, as if, once again, you've been had by Hanson's all-too-facile Romanticism. Although Hanson isn't at his worst -- some would say his most characteristic -- in his Symphony No. 3 -- after all, there is his Symphony No. 2 -- he's ...
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Just when you think you're about to be profoundly moved, Howard Hanson will resolve to some all-too-expected tonic and sing some all-too-swelling melody set to some all-too-heart-rending harmonies cloaked in some all-too-voluptuous orchestration. And then what happens? You feel cheap and cheated, as if, once again, you've been had by Hanson's all-too-facile Romanticism. Although Hanson isn't at his worst -- some would say his most characteristic -- in his Symphony No. 3 -- after all, there is his Symphony No. 2 -- he's still pretty bad. The clichéd gestures, the banal melodies, the gaudy orchestration, the gimmicky structures: they're all there and if the result is like a lesser -- a much, much lesser -- Sibelius at his most bathetic and pathetic, well, this is Hanson. At least in this 1990 recording by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony, Hanson's Third is played with as much conviction and compassion as it is possible to imagine. As much as one could be convinced by the work's pompous...
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![Howard Hanson: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 6; Fantasy Variations on a Theme of Youth - Carol Rosenberger (piano); Michael Crusoe (tympani [timpani]); Randolph Baunton (drums); Ronald Johnson (drums);...](https://www2.alibris-static.com/howard-hanson-symphonies-nos-3-6-fantasy-variations-on-a-theme-of-youth/cover/l15532hbmxe_l.jpg)
