In praise of Howard Hanson

Back in August I asked the question Whatever happened to Howard Hanson? (portrait right)

Well, the answer is his music continues to find persuasive advocates, and a new recording has just been awarded a coveted Gramophone magazine Editor's Choice award. The acclaimed recording is by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra conducted by Erich Kunzel, and it is on Telarc.

In my original article I enthused about the classic Chuck Gerhardt LP of the work, and the reviewer shares my enthusiasm. Here is a quote from the Gramophone review:

'I first discovered Howard Hanson's Second Symphony as a teenager from an old RCA LP conducted by Charles Gerhardt. It's lushly composed with an abundance of melody and some very ear-catching orchestral colour. Here's a new recording that does the music proud - Telarc's expertise in Cincinnati's Music Hall really pays dividends, especially with the SACD version.'

Picture credit - lovely portrait of Howard Hanson linked from Marcofreddi.org
Image owners - if you do not want your picture used in this article please contact me and it will be removed. If bandwidth is a problem with your permission I will host your image.
Report broken links, missing images, and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to My first classical record

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