Hanson's Fifth

Synopsis

In a creative life that spanned over 60 years, the American composer Howard Hanson never wavered in his belief that music should be tonal in nature and fundamentally Romantic in style, with strong and clear melodic lines.

By the mid-1950s, many other European and American composers were espousing a far different approach to music, favoring an abstract and often densely complex style, more in harmony with the non-representational canvases of the painter Jackson Pollack than the meticulous realism of, say, Norman Rockwell.

On today’s date in 1955, this music, Hanson’s Symphony No. 5, had its premiere performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. It’s the most compact of Hanson’s seven symphonies, a single-movement work in three sections lasting just 15 minutes. Hanson titled the work “Sinfonia Sacra” or “A Sacred Symphony,” and suggested it was inspired by the account of Christ’s resurrection in the Gospel of St. John.

“The Sinfonia Sacra does not attempt programmatically to tell the story of the first Easter,” wrote Hanson, “but does attempt to invoke some of the atmosphere of tragedy and triumph, mysticism and affirmation of this story, which is the essential symbol of the Christian faith.”

For many decades Hanson, along with other “unfashionably traditional” symphonists like Walter Piston and David Diamond, were neglected by most American orchestras, but more recently are making something of a comeback in concert halls and on compact discs.

Music Played in Today's Program

Howard Hanson (1896 — 1981) Symphony No. 5 (Sinfonia Sacra) Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, cond. Delos 3130

On This Day

Births

• 1632 - Italian composer Giovanni Battista Vitali, in Bologna;

• 1864 - American music publisher Gustave Schirmer, Jr., in New York City, son of the German-born music publisher Gustave Schirmer, Sr.

• 1915 - French composer Marcel Landowski in Prêt L'Abbé (Finistère);

• 1939 - Brazilian composer, conductor and pianist Marlos Nobre, in Recife;

Deaths

• 1956 - French composer French composer Gustave Charpentier, age 95, in Paris;

Premieres

• 1743 - Handel: oratorio “Samson,” at Covent Garden Theatre in London, and possibly the premiere of Handel’s recently-completed Organ Concerto Op. 7, no. 2 at the same concert (Gregorian date: Mar. 1);

• 1874 - Rimsky-Korsakov: Symphony No. 3, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Mar. 2);

• 1893 - Berlioz: "La Damnation de Faust" (as a staged opera), in Monte Carlo with a cast headed by tenor Jean de Reske; Berlioz conducted the first concert performance of this work (as an oratorio) at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on Dec. 6, 1946;

• 1893 - Brahms: Intermezzo No. 1, for piano, from Op. 117, in Vienna;

• 1895 - Loeffler: Quintet for three violins, viola and cello, at Boston's Union Hall by the Kneisel Quartet joined by violinist William Kraft;

• 1916 - Daniel Mason: First Symphony (first version), by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 1919 - Deems Taylor: chamber suite "Through The Looking Glass," by the New York Chamber Music Society;

• 1947 - Menotti: one-act opera "The Telephone," in New York City at the Heckscher Theater;

• 1952 - Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante, Op. 125 (as "Cello Concerto" No. 2), in Moscow, with Sviatoslav Richter conducting and Mstislav Rostropovich the soloist;

• 1955 - Hanson: Symphony No. 5 ("Sinfonia Sacra"), the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting;

• 1965 - Ginastera: Harp Concerto, by harpist Nicanor Zabaleta , with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting;

• 1998 - Thea Musgrave: "Phoenix Rising," at the Royal Festival Hall in London, by the BBC Symphony, Andrew Davis conducting.