Rochberg: Symphony No. 5; Black Sounds; Transcendental Variations.(Sympphony No. 5; Black Sounds; Transcendental Variations)(Sound Recording Review)

Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra/Christopher Lyndon-Gee (Naxos 8.559115)

I first became acquainted with the music of the American composer George Rochberg (b. 1918) about the time I became acquainted with this magazine, about 25 years or so ago, when I picked up a Nonesuch recording of his Third String Quartet, and I wrote a review of that LP that was published in these pages (I had thought about looking up a copy of that review so that I could quote from it, but the really old copies of the magazine are buried in some drawer somewhere, and even if I could work up enough energy on this beautiful late-summer Saturday morning to look for it, I would probably be paying for it the rest of the day with respiratory distress brought on by all the dust and mold I would no doubt stir up). That work, in fact, makes a kind of reprise on this new Naxos CD, as the Transcendental Variations for string orchestra are based upon the slow movement of the Third Quartet.

This CD opens with the world premiere recording of the Symphony No. 5. According to the liner notes, Sir Georg Solti offered the original commission for this work, which was first played during the 1986 season by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Seventeen years later, it is has finally been recorded--far from Chicago, as it turns out--as once again Naxos has boldly brought forth another interesting recording of music not in the mainstream at a low price, just as Nonesuch used to do. Three cheers for Naxos!

And let's have some cheers for Rochberg, too, who has written some wonderful music that deserves much wider exposure. His Fifth Symphony ...