Symphony 2 "Romantic"

Adagio - allegro moderato: Andante con tenerezza: Allegro con brio

The Norfolk Symphony Orchestra's repertoire is mostly drawn from the mainstream of European culture; yet a hop across the pond to present a work as engaging and beautiful as Howard Hanson's Second Symphony is a welcome diversion. Hanson was a composer, a conductor, a musical statesman, an educator and, for forty years, director of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. As he is relatively unknown in this country, it might be helpful, in the understanding of his music, to learn something of his background.

Born in Wahoo, Nebraska to Swedish-American parents, Hanson was a child prodigy with early music lessons overseen by his mother. He continued his professional training at the Lutheran College, Wahoo, the University of Nebraska School of Music, Lincoln, the Institute of Music Art, New York, and the School of Music, Northwestern University, Evanston, earning a Bachelor's degree in 1916. That year he was appointed to the faculty of the College of the Pacific in San Jose, California, where three years later, still only twenty-three, he became Dean of the School of Fine Arts.

Hanson's earliest compositions included songs, piano pieces, two symphonic works, and music for the California Forest Play of 1920. In 1923 he became the first American composer to win the Prix de Rome. Living in Italy for a time, he completed his first symphony, conducting the first performance in Rome. He also wrote his great choral piece, "The Lament for Beowulf", a string quartet and two symphonic poems, "North and West" and "Lux Aeterna". Returning to the United States in 1924, he conducted the New York Symphony Orchestra in his "North and West" and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in the American première of his "Nordic Symphony". Hanson's most significant contribution to the American repertoire was his cycle of seven symphonies, which rank among the most widely appreciated American works in the genre. The Fourth Symphony was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1944.

Hanson became the Director of the newly established Eastman School of Music shortly before his twenty-eighth birthday. With this appointment, he was able to wield an inspiring influence over the course of a musical heritage which had been dominated by European and Old World cultures. In 1925 he initiated the American Composers Concerts and in 1930 he began an even more ambitious project, the "Annual Festivals of American Music". By 1971, two hundred compositions had been given their first performances with the composers present for rehearsals and concerts. Each Festival featured a ballet, opera, chamber and choral music and Hanson's inclusion of American works in symphony concerts and NBC radio broadcasts during the 1930s and 1940s helped to create a large audience for contemporary works by American composers. He was justly called the “Dean of American Composers” and became a spokesman for music in America. Recognition of his contribution to American life and culture included thirty-four honorary doctorates, election into the most prestigious national and international organisations, and buildings named in his honour. The small town of Wahoo still boasts of its famous musician on a large road sign.

Having established Howard Hanson's powerful position in American music, it is time to look at his compositions and, in particular, the "Romantic" Symphony. Written in 1930, a time when composers such as Debussy, Stravinsky and Schoenberg were challenging the traditions of western music, Hanson's symphony is extremely conservative. With the influence of his Scandinavian background and his deeply felt concern to create an "American" voice in the world of music, Hanson eschewed experiment and dissonance to create an immensely appealing work based on traditional harmony and melody. The very lushness of the writing is redolent of Hollywood; indeed, many years later, the Second Symphony was plundered to provide music for the film "Alien". The first movement starts slowly and gently; a brief swell of orchestral sound dies to lead to a quicker section interspersed with unashamedly rich melodic writing. Ending in the dark key of D flat, the music leads directly to the tender slow movement and the clarity of C major, a happy transition indeed. The energetic third movement’s opening idea is derived directly from the slow movement’s main melody. The music is driven forward compellingly; a triumphal statement of the theme by the brass finishes proceedings in a grand manner.