Description
World premiere recordings of three orchestral works by American composer John Stewart McLennan, performed by the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Hannover, conducted by Gunther Schuller.
McLennan was a student at the Peabody Conservatory and studied piano with Aurelio Giorni and Alexander Siloti and composition with Karol Rathaus and Erich Itor Kahn. An American Academy of Arts and Letters music award winner, McLennan’s work includes chamber and orchestral music, pieces for piano and organ, songs, and choral works.
Mr McLennan designed and maintained the beautiful gardens depicted on the CD cover at his family home in western Massachusetts. His talent for elegant form and proportion in music was also expressed through his landscaping — blending a sloping hillside, a wooded dale, a rushing stream, a majestically rising fountain, and all manner of manicured flora in an Arcadian symphony.
(Also on GM Recordings by John Stewart McLennan: Vocal and Organ Works GM 2003.)
”“McLennan is one of those composers whose innate modesty prevented him from blowing his own horn. But I think his music, though considered conservative in some circles, is very strong and emotionally persuasive.”
—Gunther Schuller
PERFORMERS
Radio Philharmonic of Hannover; Gunther Schuller, conductor
PROGRAM
1. John Stewart McLennan: Celebration (1964) 13:50
John Stewart McLennan: Triptych (1974) 12:26
2. I. Andante 5:02
3. II. Lento 3:21
4. III. Moderato 4:03
5. John Stewart McLennan: Threnody (1994) 18:14
Total time: 44:50
Recorded on 7-9 December 1996 in the studio of the NDR in Hannover, Germany.
Producer: Gunther Schuller
ALSO AVAILABLE
Also available for downloads on Amazon as well as other digital sites.
