Naxos and the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic have joined together in a project to record a series of representative American works, each volume being issued on an annual basis. This 2018 album is third in the series, and its program touches on characteristics associated with modern American music. Carl Ruggles' Sun-Treader, composed between 1926 and 1931, is a classic example of American individualism, and this bracing tone poem suggests the resilience often identified with New England composers. Steven Stucky's ...
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Naxos and the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic have joined together in a project to record a series of representative American works, each volume being issued on an annual basis. This 2018 album is third in the series, and its program touches on characteristics associated with modern American music. Carl Ruggles' Sun-Treader, composed between 1926 and 1931, is a classic example of American individualism, and this bracing tone poem suggests the resilience often identified with New England composers. Steven Stucky's Second Concerto for Orchestra from 2004 is a tour de force of dazzling sonorities and virtuoso passages for both soloists and sections, and the brilliance of the score shows the contemporary American fascination with using the orchestra to its fullest potential. Composed the same year as the concerto, John Harbison's Symphony No. 4 shows the influence of jazz on American classical music, and its propulsive rhythms and energetic patterns also reveal undercurrents of...
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