Song of the Sea: tone poem after Whitman (1923)

Festival of Pan op.9 (1899): Largo, molto tranquillo Allegretto grazioso Quasi scherzando Animato Poco tranquillo Largo, molto tranquillo

American Sketches: symphonic suite for orchestra (1929)
i Manhattan (Molto maestoso Allegro molto e con brio)
ii The Father of Waters (Molto largamente e tranquillo Adagio espressivo)
iii Chicken Reel (Allegro con spirito scherzando)
iv Bright Angel Trail (Adagio maestoso Andante moderato Misterioso)

World Premiere Recordings
BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA
Keith Lockhart conductor

Recorded at Air Studios, Hampstead, London, 5-6 April & 18 September 2011

The American composer Frederick Shepherd Converse was a leading name in American music up to the Second World War. It was Converse who composed the first American opera, performed at the Met in New York. Yet despite being widely heard in his day, after his death in 1940 he was soon eclipsed by the new generation of Copland, Harris, Barber and their contemporaries. His revival is long overdue, vividly demonstrated by this programme of colourful orchestral tone poems the four movements of American Sketches from the late 1920s, the early Festival of Pan (after a Keats poem) and the evocative Song of the Sea, a tone poem after Whitman. Whether you respond to the lyricism of the Festival of Pan and Song of the Sea or the varied scenes of American Sketches, this is enjoyable music to which you will return time and again.

“The BBC Concert Orchestra members respond to this music as if they’ve been playing it all their lives ... and Keith Lockhart gives these ambitious structures shape and direction ... Nothing less than an enthusiastic recommendation will do.”
Martin Anderson, Fanfare, May/June 2012

“Keith Lockhart leads the British forces in clear, cohesive readings, and the recorded sound picks up any number of nuances. The result is an interesting and enjoyable expansion of our knowledge of early 20th Century Americana.”
O’Connor, American Record Guide, May/June 2012