Symphony No. 4 (Sessions)

The Symphony No. 4 of Roger Sessions was composed in 1958.[1]

It has three movements:

  1. Burlesque
  2. Elegy[2]
  3. Pastorale[3]

It was commissioned by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra for the Minnesota Centennial, and premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Antal Doráti [4] on January 2, 1960.[5]

The second movement's basically slow tempo is interrupted twice by faster episodes. This movement was intended as an elegy for the composer's brother, John, who died in 1948.[6] The finale, also slow, increases in intensity towards its close.[7] Andrea Olmstead describes all of Sessions's symphonies as "serious" and "funereal".[8]

Discography
  • Roger Sessions: Symphony No. 4, Symphony No. 5, Rhapsody for Orchestra. Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Christian Badea, cond. Recorded April 6, 1986, at the Ohio Theatre, Columbus Ohio. LP recording, 1 disc: digital, stereo, 12 in. New World NW 345-1; CD recording, 1 disc: digital, stereo, 4¾ in. New World NW 345-2. New York: Recorded Anthology of American Music, 1987.

References
  1. The last page of the score as published is signed with the date of completion.
  2. Opening of Elegy is quoted as example 6 in Imbrie. Imbrie, Andrew (1972). "The Symphonies of Roger Sessions". Tempo. New Series (103): 24–32. ISSN 0040-2982. JSTOR 943951. OCLC 1767255.
  3. Marks Music Corporation 1963 score.
  4. Helm, Everett (May 1960). "Reports from Abroad". Musical Times. Musical Times Publications Ltd. 101 (1407): 316–7. ISSN 0027-4666. OCLC 53165808.
  5. "Roger Sessions: Compositions". Retrieved 23 May 2009.
  6. Prausnitz (2002), Roger Sessions: How a "Difficult" Composer Got That Way at Google Books; p. 281; Steinberg, Choral Masterworks at Google Books, p. 253.
  7. Badea's recording on New World; Marks Music score.
  8. Olmstead, Andrea (2012). Roger Sessions: A Biography, p.356. Routledge. ISBN 9781135868925.

Further reading
  • Imbrie, Andrew (1972). "The Symphonies of Roger Sessions". Tempo (new series), no. 103 (December): 24–32.
  • Stern, Howard Gordon (2001). "Techniques of Formal Articulation and Association in the "Pastorale" of Roger Sessions' Symphony No. 4 and Cantata alla luna". PhD diss. Waltham: Brandeis University. ISBN 9780493142173.


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