HANSON, H.: Symphonies (Complete), Vol. 2 - Symphony No. 2 / Lux aeterna / Mosaics (Seattle Symphony, Schwarz) 8.559701
HANSON, H.: Symphonies (Complete), Vol. 4 - Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 / Elegy / Dies natalis I (Seattle Symphony, Schwarz) 8.559703

These recordings were previously released on the Delos label and it’s good that Naxos have re-released them for they are amongst the finest symphonies in the American tradition standing comparison in my opinion with Charles Ives and Virgil Thompson.

the two companion pieces benefit from Naxos’s reissuing…Lux aeterna, with its elaborate solo roles for ‘viola obbligato’ (sweetly played by Susan Gulkis Assadi), double bass and violin (a wonderful, Elgarian cadenza), emerges as music that American audiences would gratefully benefit from. Mosaics…ripples with glorious symphonic muscle.

L’Américain Howard Hanson (1896–1981) est l’exemple même de ces compositeurs essentiellement actifs dans la première moitié du XXe siècle dont les meilleures œuvres auraient dû entrer naturellement au répertoire des orchestres symphoniques. Mais il y a un «trou» quasiment irrécupérable à présent entre le XVIIIe et le XIXe siècle, que l’on ressasse inlassablement, et une certaine musique de création, après-guerre, qui s’est coupée du public. «Comment composer une symphonie après Mahler?» Chostakovitch a apporté une réponse pertinente. D’autres aussi. Dans la sphère américaine, Hanson est un compositeur intéressant. Cette symphonie de 1930, particulièrement significative de son romantisme lyrique et généreux, en témoigne. Félicitons Naxos de rééditer cet enregistrement Delos de 1988. Le couplage est excellent. © 2012 Le Devior

utterly gorgeous music, gorgeously played and recorded. If you don’t have it, you must—and if you don’t have this recording, it is hard to beat. © 2012 American Record Guide Read complete review on American Record Guide online

Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony do a fine job with…the best-known of Hanson’s seven symphonies—and provide a highly interesting contrast through the performance of the little-known Mosaics (1957), a set of variations that also offer some Nordic intensity but that are, in the main, clear, dramatic and quite well orchestrated. Lux Aeterna…clearly shows the instrumental influence of Respighi…Susan Gulkis Assadi, the violist in this performance, has a warm and lovely tone that melds well with the orchestral sound without ever dominating or attempting to dominate it; and the work itself offers a pleasant mixture of emotional and contrapuntal complexity. href="http://transcentury.blogspot.com/2011/11/grandeur-of-and-beyond-romantic.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Read complete review

This is a very nice work seldom if ever performed. © 2011 Film Music: The Neglected Art Read complete review

This further Naxos reissue of recordings first released by Delos follows hard on the heels of Volume 1 (8.559700). There’s a review from the early days of MusicWeb International by Ian Lace of the two Delos twofers* from which these recordings are taken in which he rightly singles out the Romantic Symphony as Hanson’s most approachable work and awards the performances and recording a ****(*) recommendation…It only remains for me to say that the Naxos reissues, on the showing of the first two volumes, deserve just as much praise and that this second disc is probably the best place to start: Lux Æterna and Mosaics are almost as appealing as the Symphony, though perhaps slightly less immediately approachable. The mp3 sound is good. I shan’t be jettisoning my copy of Hanson conducting his own First and Second Symphonies…but I look forward to hearing the remaining Naxos discs.

* these seem still to be available from some UK dealers.