William Schuman (1910-1992)

[Mirror Image]

Where did you find that?  Cool.  However, if it is a later Columbia pressing, it may not be worth it unless I am planning on playing frisbee in the park.

Searching Google images, I just typed in Schuman: Symphony No. 3 Bernstein Vinyl and it brought up this image.

[Scion7]

I said some of his more extreme things (Ligeti) - not everything!   

[lescamil]

Not bad at all, lescamil.  Could you rip it again at 320kps constant bit rate?  And possibly take a digital pic of the back cover?  Thanks.
This one's chances of a CD issue are probably nil and nil.      And we'd never get that fine cover reproduced if it was.  Steigerwalt's always been a fine player.

William Schuman's piano concerto is a lot of fun, but it's not a major piece in his catalogue. In the decades following its 1943 première (Tureck's performance), he himself almost had forgotten about it. It took an account by Gary Steigerwalt in 1978 to remind the composer and to inspire him to write more piano music.  ClassicalNet - 2001

I actually ripped it to a WAV file, but I only converted it because I didn't want to upload such a huge file. I will have a go at ripping it again probably, but not for a while. Also, I don't have quite a good enough camera to take good pics of the covers. I always have light problems and such when I try. Anyhow, I'm glad this recording is getting more attention, at least!

Don't forget Persichetti's PC, which I haven't heard.

You must hear it sometime, for it's a great piece. It's a bit grittier and denser than a lot of these other American Piano Concertos from this time. If you've heard Persichetti's later symphonies, you know what to expect. The Mennin is rather similar to it, actually. It is not boring and conventional by any means, either!

[Scion7]

I actually ripped it to a WAV file, but I only converted it because I didn't want to upload such a huge file. .... Also, I don't have quite a good enough camera to take good pics of the covers. I always have light problems and such when I try.

Yes, there's no need for a WAV or FLAC - 320 kps CBR is more than good enough listening - and won't be much larger than the Variable Bit Rate you used before.
You can use your existing WAV and just convert it.
What if you took the cover outside and took a pic in the sun?  Should eliminate the light problem.  A scanner would also be very nice!  Just wanted to see what it looked like - Turnabout often had magnificent covers/notes.  I think I like this version a slight bit better than the McCabe.

[Mirror Image]

You must hear it sometime, for it's a great piece. It's a bit grittier and denser than a lot of these other American Piano Concertos from this time. If you've heard Persichetti's later symphonies, you know what to expect. The Mennin is rather similar to it, actually. It is not boring and conventional by any means, either!

I'll have to check this out. Thanks!

[Karl Henning]

We've probably posted this before, but time to bring it forth again:

http://www.youtube.com/v/TXH6Qcak4Zo

[Mirror Image]

We've probably posted this before, but time to bring it forth again:

http://www.youtube.com/v/TXH6Qcak4Zo

William Schuman seems like a nice guy or at least from this appearence here on "What's My Life?" I'm really looking forward to reading his biography. I'm especially interested in his rivalry with Peter Mennin. From what Colin told me, they despised each other. That will be some juicy reading.

[Karl Henning]

Composer rivalries in The Big Apple is a heartbreak . . . .

[eyeresist]

Composer rivalries in The Big Apple is a heartbreak . . . .

Some one should make it into an opera.

[Mirror Image]

Composer rivalries in The Big Apple is a heartbreak . . . .

I don't know if they had a rivialry or not. Colin told me they despised each other, but, again, I'm going to be studying this as I would like to know why these two composers disliked each other.

[Karl Henning]

I don't know if they had a rivalry or not. Colin told me they despised each other, but, again, I'm going to be studying this as I would like to know why these two composers disliked each other.

A fair distinction (and my post was not entirely serious).

I believe Mennin succeeded Schuman as President of the Juilliard Music School; I've no idea how that fact plays in how well (or poorly) the two liked one another.

[snyprrr]

A fair distinction (and my post was not entirely serious).

I believe Mennin succeeded Schuman as President of the Juilliard Music School; I've no idea how that fact plays in how well (or poorly) the two liked one another.

THEY WERE LOVERS!! !! !! !!









or not

[Dundonnell]

Since I am being quoted as the source of the information regarding the Schuman/Mennin relationship let me be clear about this-

I have not read Walter Simmons's book "Voices of Stone and Steel: The Music of William Schuman, Vincent Persichetti and Peter Mennin". I would love to buy and read a copy but at £44.95 it is a bit outside my price range for a single volume

I have read many of the reviews of the book, of which the best is probably-

http://www.classical.net/music/books/reviews/0810857480a.php

In his review in "Tempo" however Bret Johnson writes:

"Much is made of Schuman's career as an administrator, both as President of Julliard and Director of the Lincoln Center, where he had frequent personality clashes with Mennin (his successor at Julliard), who detested what he saw as Schuman's opportunism and vulgar courting of publicity".

It is worth noting that Schuman was a popular figure. He could count among his friends both Persichetti and, most importantly, Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein performed and recorded many Schuman works with the NYPO. Schuman appears to have had an outgoing personality.

Mennin, on the other hand, was notoriously secretive and reticent about his own music. He was single-minded, utterly determined to be his own man regardless of fashion or popularity. Populism was anathema to Mennin. He loathed self-promotion or any form of "dumbing-down". He was a perfectionist and expected perfection in the ethos he instilled at the Julliard, where he scrapped many aspects of his predecessor's curriculum. Since that predecessor was the same William Schuman one can envisage a degree of tension between the two composers

But that is the limit of my knowledge and-without accessing Simmons's book- I can add nothing further.

It is not, of course, uncommon for composers to dislike each other or to resent the success that another enjoys. One thinks immediately of the adulation enjoyed by Benjamin Britten in post-war Great Britain and the bitterness of other composers-Vaughan Williams, Bliss, Walton-all of whom regarded Britten as competent but over-rated.

[Karl Henning]

. . . It is not, of course, uncommon for composers to dislike each other or to resent the success that another enjoys.

Did I mis-read, Colin, or is there more that you've not cited here?  I don't see from the selection that Mennin resented the success that Schumann enjoyed. It almost seems that you exceeded the text in that, but perhaps there's more that I have missed..

Or maybe I've mistaken you, in thinking that you imputed this ignoble motive to Mennin . . . .

[Dundonnell]

No...I certainly did not intend to impugn Mennin's personal or professional integrity by suggesting that he resented Schuman's relative popularity.

Indeed, in the brief character sketch I tried to paint I would have thought that the clear inference to draw was that Mennin cared not a whit for popularity or critical acclaim.

The last paragraph, in that sense, was a non-sequitur for which I apologise if it led you or anyone else to infer that the observation about composers resenting the success enjoyed by others applied to Mennin.

[Karl Henning]

Very good. Glad to find that I had somehow got hold of the wrong end of the stick!

[Mirror Image]

Thanks for coming to rescue me Colin! I got tired of saying well Colin said this or Colin said that, so now, at least, people can read it from the horse's mouth.

Changing gears and getting back on topic, how about that Violin Concerto? What do you guys think about it?

[snyprrr]

Pulled out No.5 (Sony). The slow movement is typically beautiful in that astringent neo-classic way, but I do find the outer movements of string orchestra works like this to be so 'giant string quartet'-ish. I have yet to hear Pettersson's. I recall a string orchestra work by Stanley Wolfe, I think, on a CRI disc, called Canticle (1958?), that had the Schuman slow movement in spades.

[Mirror Image]

Pulled out No.5 (Sony). The slow movement is typically beautiful in that astringent neo-classic way, but I do find the outer movements of string orchestra works like this to be so 'giant string quartet'-ish. I have yet to hear Pettersson's. I recall a string orchestra work by Stanley Wolfe, I think, on a CRI disc, called Canticle (1958?), that had the Schuman slow movement in spades.

"Giant string quartet-ish." Hmmm...interesting terminology. The last movement of Schuman's 5th ("Presto") never fails to bring a smile to my face, especially a motif that begins towards the end where the double basses begin a phrase and repeat over and over while the violins provide some energetic counterpoint. It's a very cool part that I seem to always repeat many, many times over before I finish listening to the whole movement.

[The new erato]

Changing gears and getting back on topic, how about that Violin Concerto? What do you guys think about it?

The best violin concerto written by an US composer in my opinion.