William Schuman: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 10 (2005)

William Schuman's Symphonies 7 And 10

William Schuman (1910 --1992) once met an admirer from Macon, Georgia who told him how much she enjoyed his music "even though it was atonal". Schuman politely responded that he did not write atonal music --his works always had a key center. But his admirer had the last word. She said, "Mr Schuman, in Macon your music is atonal".

Schuman's interlocutor had a point. The two symphonies on this CD, nos. 7 and 10 are full of dissonant passages that could easily be mistaken for atonality. With their energy, verve, and emotion, these works will please listeners who would otherwise back away from "difficult" scores. Schuman is part of a line of American composers which includes his contemporary, George Rochberg, and Charles Ives who have fused modernistic techniques with tonal originality to create distinctive musical voices.

This CD is the second in a projected cycle of the symphonies of William Schuman in Naxos' budget-priced and invaluable "American Classics" series. Gerard Schwartz, a champion of contemporary American music, conducts the Seattle Symphony Orchestra in crisp, incandescent performances. Steven Lowe has written unusually thorough liner notes which help guide the listener through the music.

Schuman was inspirationally American in that he combined his artistic achievements with high accomplishment in the everyday world of business. (Charles Ives also did so in music. Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams did so in poetry.) Schuman served with distinction as the director of publications for Schirmer music publishers, the president of the Juilliard School of Music, and the president of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He was a prolific composer whose output includes ten symphonies.

Schuman composed his symphony no. 7 in 1960 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The work is in four distinct movements, but they are to be played as a unit without breaks. The opening movement is a lengthy and serious largo, which is tense, foreboding and serious. It opens with large chords in the strings, and these chords sometimes serve as the theme and sometimes as accompaniment in the course of the movement. The movement builds to a climax with an impassioned passage for strings, winds, and a trumpet-call. The much-shorter second movement, marked "vigoroso" continues the solemn theme with an opening brass fanfare which soon leads to a vigorous climax. The slow "cantabile" movement begins lyrically, reflectively and softly. It is song-like and builds slowly to a loud and intense moment, and then gradually returns back to the original quiet opening. The finale is quick, full of energy, snappy and seems to pose an answer to the somber character of the opening movement consisting of a welter of activity. But the character of the movement changes towards the end, as the work comes to a triumphant close in a brassy blare.

Schuman's final symphony, no. 10 "American Muse" was written in 1976 to celebrate the Bicentenial and was first performed by the National Symphony Orchestra under Antal Dorati. This three-movement symphony captures a great deal of the brashness and promise of America and may well become a lasting achievement of our nation's 200th birthday. The opening movement, con fuco, is about half the length of each of the remaining two movements. It opens with boldness and the spirit of adventure in large, energetic brass, with gritty propulsive rhythms from the tympani, xylophone, and other percussion near the end. The second movement, larghissimo, resembles the slow movement of the seventh symphony in its hushed opening, slow climax, and return to a quiet close. But the thematic material here is more varied, I think, and there are more interludes in the essentially simple frame. These include a lovely duet for the flute and the trumpet, and a secondary flowing theme for the strings surrounded by piping winds. The finale is an ambitious movement consisting of no less than five integrated sections marked by tempo changes. It opens with a quick passage for plucked strings followed by a moderately paced section with a lyrical theme for bowed strings together with winds. The middle section of the movement features, chimes, glockenspiel and bells followed by a big brass section in slow chords. The final section (comprising about one-half of the movement) opens with whirling strings, works up to a frenzied passage for drums, brass, and bells, and comes to an energetic, percussive close. This is music of optimism, audacity and newness and of America's promise reminiscent of the greatest of our Nation's composers, Charles Ives.

Schuman is one of our country's leading composers, and this CD offers the chance to get to know his work, well-performed, at a budget price. Those interested in American music will love this CD.

The story at the beginning of this review about Schuman and his admirer is drawn from Michael Steinberg's discussion of Schuman in his guidebook, "The Symphony", p.495.

Robin Friedman