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You searched for Piston, Walter - Third movement from Symphony No. 4 - Naxos 8.559162 from the The Romantic Hours Playlist. If you'd like to buy the title below, simply click on the "Add to Cart" button and we'll take you through our easy checkout process!

 American Classics - Piston: Symphony No 4, Etc / Schwarz
Release Date: 05/20/2003 
Label:  Naxos   Catalog #: 8559162   Spars Code: DDD 
Composer:  Walter Piston
Performer:  Therese Elder Wunrow
Conductor:  Gerard Schwarz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Seattle Symphony Orchestra

Number of Discs: 1 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 0 Hours 52 Mins. 

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Notes & Reviews   Works on This Recording   Sound Samples   
 Notes & Reviews Back to Top 
Walter Piston's lovely Fourth Symphony certainly deserves greater exposure than it gets, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be popular. It begins with a lovely, pastoral opening that leads to a rambunctious scherzo with some elegant waltz music interludes. The slow movement is one of the composer's finest: it builds to a superb climax of Brucknerian intensity, while the amiable finale closes the work in high spirits. Really, what's not to like? This is the work's only stereo recording (Ormandy's is screechy mono, but wonderful all the same), and it's a very fine one. Schwarz keeps rhythms crisp in the fast movements, and phrases the "Comtemplativo" very broadly and affectingly, with some excellent solo work from the winds of the Seattle Symphony.

The couplings are also very well done, the Capriccio's naturally dry string textures and bracing harmonic idiom providing an excellent stylistic foil to the solo harp. Three New England Sketches, one of Piston's very few "titled" works, also has impressive atmosphere, though Slatkin's out of print version on RCA was better still. No matter: these are fine performances very well recorded, and deserve your attention. Thanks to Naxos for keeping them in the catalog (and to the Seattle Symphony, which understood the necessity of not leaving the master tapes to molder in some closet or basement storage room once Delos deleted the original issues).

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
 Works on This Recording Back to Top 
1.  Symphony no 4 by Walter Piston
Conductor:  Gerard Schwarz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1950; USA 
2.  Capriccio for Harp and Strings by Walter Piston
Performer:  Therese Elder Wunrow (Harp)
Conductor:  Gerard Schwarz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1963; USA 
3.  Three New England Sketches by Walter Piston
Conductor:  Gerard Schwarz
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1959; USA 
 Sound Samples Back to Top 
Symphony No. 4
Piacevole
Symphony No. 4
Ballando
Symphony No. 4
Contemplativo
Symphony No. 4
Energico
Capriccio for Harp and String Orchestra
3 New England Sketches
Seaside (Adagio)
3 New England Sketches
Summer Evening (Delicato)
3 New England Sketches
Mountains (Maestoso; Risoluto)
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