JAMES COHN (b.1928): Symphonies No. 3 in G Minor, No. 4 in A and No. 8 in C, Miniatures for Orchestra.
Catalogue Number: 10O001
Label: MSR Classics
Reference: MS 1435
Format: CD
Price: $12.98
Description: Cohn's Second and Seventh symphonies, recorded by these forces, appeared on Naxos back in June 2008 (06J084). As we said then, "A student of Roy Harris, Cohn is a natural symphonist with a bold sense of orchestral color and texture. Both these symphonies are structured more or less in conventional form; even when the composer makes use of a tone row as a theme the music remains resolutely tonal, harmonically and emotionally expressive." That goes also for the Third (1945), very Harris-Copland in its open-hearted mid-century American Romanticism, the Fourth (1956), which opens with a nod to Mahler and later incorporates the inevitable influence for 20th century Western composers of that period - Shostakovich - into Cohn's dialect. The Miniatures are nine piano pieces from 1954 (Sunrise, Boogie, Freilach, Drag, Legend, Lullaby, Parade, Mazurka and Sunset) which the composer colorfully orchestrated in 1975 while the Eighth Symphony (1978) is more insistently rhythmic throughout and with a prominent part for solo saxophone.