Artist: Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra
Album: Piston: Symphony No. 6 / Concerto For Orchestra / Concertino for Piano and Orchestra / Concerto for String Quartet, Winds and Percussion
Genre: Classique
Release Date: 2021
Audio Format:: FLAC (tracks) 24 bit, 44,1 kHz
Duration: 01:01:31
Total Tracks: 9
Total Size: 569 MB

Tracklist:

1-1. Emerson String Quartet – Symphony No. 6: I. Fluendo espressivo (07:28)
1-2. Emerson String Quartet – Symphony No. 6: II. Scherzo: Leggerissimo vivace (03:21)
1-3. Emerson String Quartet – Symphony No. 6: III. Adagio sereno (10:59)
1-4. Emerson String Quartet – Symphony No. 6: IV. Allegro energico (03:59)
1-5. Emerson String Quartet – Concertino for Piano and Orchestra (12:38)
1-6. Emerson String Quartet – Concerto for Orchestra: I. Allegro moderato ma energico (03:16)
1-7. Emerson String Quartet – Concerto for Orchestra: II. Allegro vivace (04:02)
1-8. Emerson String Quartet – Concerto for Orchestra: III. Adagio – Allegro moderato (05:40)
1-9. Juilliard Orchestra – Concerto for Strine Quartet, Wind Instruments and Percussion (10:04)

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You never hear that much about Citadel. I am not at all sure why that should be. Their catalogue is at ease in spanning both classical and film worlds. Much of their classical side comprises reissues of rare repertoire. The label hosts a high proportion of ‘gold standard’ Americana as this and other discs demonstrate.The range covered on the CD is wide. It takes in two works from the 1930s, adds the 1950s symphony (surely the disc’s raison d’etre) and concludes with a work from his very last year. The Symphony is in four movements of which the second and fourth are very short. In the early 1960s the Soviets seem to have taken to recording foreign orchestral works. They recorded the Alan Bush and Rawsthorne Second Symphonies and are also reputed to have done Roy Harris’s Fifth Symphony. The Piston Symphony was written for the 75th anniversary of the Boston SO as also was the Martinu Fifth Symphony (the two were coupled together on an LP and toured together during the mid-1950s).

The Sixth does not have the direct access to lyricism which you find in the Second or Fourth Symphonies. The work dazzles with refinement (harp and strings in first movement) and with virtuosic scampering figures (I thought of Walton’s Britten Variations). The masterly adagio sereno opens with a prominent sombre cello lament leading to the searing starlight of the strings and then rising to a brassy statement of contorted and impassioned grandeur. The concluding allegro energico is a hailstorm of brightness – recalling some of the propulsive energy of the second symphony’s finale.