Gramophone – September 2019

140 GRAMOPHONE SEPTEMBER 2019 gramophone.co.uk

Icouldn’tagreemorewithJuly’s

EditorialComment(promptedby

GerardSchwarz’sarticleonneglected

Americansymphonies).Martin

Cullingfordmentionsthecomposers

HowardHanson,PaulCrestonand

AlanHovhaness,andIwouldliketo

addthoseofRoyHarrisandWilliam

Schumantonametwo,allshamefully

missingfromourconcerthalls.

Inparticular,Ihavebeen

campaigningforAlanHovhaness

(1911-2000)whohaswrittenmore

numberedsymphoniesthannearlyany

othercomposer– 67 noless.Ihave

some 25 ormoreinmycollection.

OverthelastfewyearsIhavetriedto

flagupthelackofBritishandAmerican

symphoniesattheBBCPromsatthe

end-of-seasonpre-Promtalk,butit

seemstofallondeafears.

Perhapstherecordings(forthcoming

andalreadyavailable)byGerard

Schwarzwillhelptoredressthebalance

oftheserarelyheardyetunquestionably

greatworks.

MikeMorfey

LondonSW16

AlanHovhaness,a proliiccomposerwith 67 symphoniestohisname– whyaren'tmoreofthemheard?

prestoclassical.co.ukis a websitethatspeaksyourlanguage,‘underpinnedbyanevidentloveofmusicandtheworld

ofrecordings’(Gramophone). NoothersitesellingclassicalCDsandDVDsis arrangedinsucha logicalandaccessible

format,whereyoucaneasilyindlistsofcomposers’works,comparedierentoptions,viewrecommendationsand

readreviews.Webelieveyouwillindit oneofthemostuser-friendlyclassicalmusicsitesontheinternet.TheLetterof

theMonthreceives£50ofPrestoClassicalgiftvouchers.Gramophonereservestherighttoeditlettersforpublication

Letter of theonth

Alan Hovhaness’s neglected symphonies

Missed Maazel ...

I have been reading Gramophone for

more than 60 years and always fi nd a

lot to interest me or even to argue with.

Clearly we can’t all have the same views

but I was amazed to read an article about

the Cleveland Orchestra (June, page

14) which contained no reference to

Lorin Maazel who was Music Director

for 10 years from 1972.

I realise that, with many reviewers,

Maazel has become a controversial fi gure

but he is by any standards one of the

foremost conductors of the 20th century

and, in my view, vastly more important

than Dohnányi or Welser-Möst.

Daniel Chapchal

Fetcham, Surrey

... not once but twice!

Much of the article on the Cleveland

Orchestra was devoted to George Szell’s

quarter century as Music Director

and also to the two years immediately

following him when Boulez took over.

There then followed two sizeable

paragraphs covering the Dohnányi period

(18 years) and the ongoing Welser-Möst

period (17 years and counting, with at

least three more years to come).

In my music room, I have a framed

picture of the missing conductor who

fi lled the gap between Boulez and

Dohnányi. It bears the words: ‘The

Maazel Years: A Decade of Excellence’.

And yet there is no reference to him.

I recognise that not everyone shares my

view that Lorin Maazel was one of the

supreme conductors of the second half of

the 20th century but, fi ve years after his

death, surely he can’t have been white-

washed from history already?

Charles Mozley, by email

Andrew Mellor writes: These ‘Orchestral

Insights’ are not intended to be fully

comprehensive historical timelines and there

are always more music directors than we have

space for. On this occasion, I opted for those

whose tenures lasted for more than a decade

and thus who made a discernible difference to

repertoire and/or sound culture.

Don’t forget Samuel Jones ...

In Gerard Schwarz’s ‘The hidden giants

of American music’ (July, page 18), I was

a little disappointed not to see anything

Lorin Maazel in Cleveland • Neglected American symphonists • Alan Hovhaness

NOTES & LETTERS

Write to us at Gramophone, Mark Allen Group, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB or [email protected]

about Samuel Jones or Stephen Albert.

I have an excellent recording of Jones’s

Symphony No 3 and Albert’s Symphony

No 2 coupled with my favourite recording

of Walter Piston’s Sixth all on BIS, with

Lance Friedel conducting the LSO.

Robert M Stumpf II

Ocala, FL, USA

... but at least Hanson is there!

I would certainly endorse Mr Schwarz’s

plea for more performances of many of

the great American symphonies of the

mid-20th century. I have loved the Third

Symphony by Howard Hanson since

I purchased the Mercury LP back in the

1960s with the composer conducting

the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra.

Last month I spent some weeks driving

through some of the most beautiful

countryside in the States. The wonderful

andante tranquillo second movement

was constantly buzzing round my head.

Why is this music never heard at the

BBC Proms? Part of the composer’s

Symphony No 2, Romantic, is actually

used towards the close of the classic

fi lm Alien. Hanson was undoubtedly

infl uenced by the great example of

Sibelius and his time must surely come.

Peter Frankland

Bury, Greater Manchester