The same applies to the two symphonies. Indisputably personal they are not, but good heavens, how interesting they are purely as music! No. 11 begins with a haunting lullaby and follows the stages of a man's life through seven "rituals", alternating between relatively conventional scoring for strings and winds and some really freaky writing for full orchestra with extensive percussion. It's tuneful, fresh, and not a minute too long. Symphony No. 15 has a similarly fascinating structure: five tiny movements, a "recapitulation" that combines elements from all of them, and a sonata-form finale. As in No. 11, Cowell finds attractive music to color in the work's formal outlines, and at about 20 minutes each there's no reason why these works don't appear regularly on concert programs.

The Louisville Orchestra delivers secure and characterful performances of all four pieces, with very little of the strident trumpet or thin string sound that sometimes mars its efforts in larger, more virtuosic repertoire. Aside from the Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 3, all of these recordings are mono, but the high level transfers offer wide-ranging sonics and very clear, natural balances. The importance of this release to 20th century American music can't be exaggerated, nor can the enjoyment that sympathetic listeners will derive from it.