Arnold Rosner: Music for Symphonic Wind Band
Arnold Rosner (1945–2013) was a New Yorker through and through, but his musical language reached across time and culture, clothing the modal harmony and rhythm of pre-Baroque polyphony in rich Romantic colours, thus producing a style that is instantly recognisable and immediately appealing. Having written his Eighth Symphony for symphonic wind band, he took a liking to the medium, composing seven more works for this popular feature of American university life, none of them recorded before now. Their inspiration is eclectic – from ethnic material and natural phenomena to religious stimuli – but Rosner’s unerring balance of dignity and energy is common to all of them and stamps them with a sound that is uniquely his.
Density512
Jacob Aaron Schnitzer, conductor
Nicholas Perry Clark, conductor
Listen To This Recording:
Dances of Initiation, Op. 98 (1993) (8:18)
- I. Maestoso (2:06)
- II. Andante moderato (3:06)
- III. Allegro (2:56)
- Eclipse, Op. 100 (1994) (12:27)
- RAGA!, Op. 104 (1995) (10:45)
- De Profundis, Op. 91 (1991) (10:11)
- Now Cometh the Redeemer, Op. 119 (2005) (10:01)
Three Northern Sketches, Op. 117 (2003) (13:16)
- No. 1, Ice Sculpture (3:50)
- No. 2, Pastorale (3:14)
- No. 3, Aurora (6:12)
- Lovely Joan: Rhapsody on an English Folksong, Op. 88 (1990) (8:39)
First Recordings
Gramophone :
‘Having been mightily impressed by previous Rosner albums from Toccata Classics, I approached this newcomer of wind band works with high expectation. I was not disappointed. […] this fine, varied programme should entice the ear. […]
Now Cometh is the masterpiece of nobility of spirit. […] De profundis [is] a compositional tour de force. […]
Recorded in the Bates Concert Hall in Austin, Texas, the sound Andrew DiRemiggio-Stoltz is first-rate. Well worth investigating.’
—Guy Rickards, Gramophone