HARRIS. Symphony No. 3. HANSON. Symphony No. 4. Eastman- Rochester Symphony Orchestra conducted by Howard Hanson.

Mercury MG40004 (12 in., 36s. 51d.).

"If I had pitchers who could pitch as strongly as you do in your Symphony, my worries would be over." So wrote the manager of a baseball team, to Roy Harris, after a performance of the Third Symphony. This remarkable work, still pitching as strongly as ever, dates from 1937, and was first performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Koussevitsky, who thought it the greatest orchestral work written in America. Its strength, like its greatness, derives from its originality, and from its ability to say new things in an intelligible way. Now that Koussevitsky is no longer with us, it could have no better an interpreter than Howard Hanson, who has long been responsible for the encouragement of American composers and the performance of their music.

Harris's Third, Symphony, although perhaps not as monumental a work as his Fifth, has been an orchestral classic both within and outside America for seventeen years. It now appears for the first time in LP form, and is well served by the Mercury "Living Presence" recording technique, which is a new and eminently valid claim as far as the present reviewer is concerned. The acoustic is very satisfactory, having ample glow when it is needed (the brass sonorities in the fugal section) yet never giving the listener the impression of unreality or trick balance. True, one sometimes feels that a guiding hand is reaching out to lead us into a particular section of the orchestra ; but the hand does guide rather than shove, and that is a distinct advantage. The essence of all good sound control is to avoid the obvious and eschew the artificial —ars est celare artem. Mercury have achieved this, with radiant success.

Hanson, the distinguished interpreter of Harris's work, is heard on the other side of the disc as conductor of his own Fourth Symphony, composed in 1943, and awarded the Pulitzer Prize on May 1st of the following year. Its four movements have headings taken from the Requiem Mass : Kyrie eleison ; Requiescat ; Dies Irae ; Lux aeterna. The title of the last movement was used by Hanson twenty years before this Symphony was written, for a symphonic poem with viola obbligato. In broad outlines, the Symphony follows the normal plan of tempo-relationships, the first movement beginning with a slow introduction and moving on to a lively pia mosso section, notable for some fine woodwind playing. The second movement is a broad and expressive Largo, standing in strong contrast to the short scherzo-like Dies Irae. A pastoral beginning to the last movement leads to a more animated middle section, the close being tranquil and at the same time impressive in the urgency of its musical message.

For connoisseurs of American music, this disc is an answer to a prayer ; recording, interpretation, living presence (and the composer on the podium) all contribute to making it a triumph for all concerned.

D.S.