Symphony No. 2 (Sessions)

The Symphony No. 2 of Roger Sessions was begun in 1944 and completed in 1946.^[1]

It is in four movements:^[2]

1. Molto agitato - Tranquillo e misterioso (D minor - all keys are "more or less".)^[3]
2. Allegretto capriccioso (F minor)
3. Adagio tranquillo ed espressivo (B-flat minor)
4. Allegramente (D major)

The symphony is dedicated "To the Memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt", who died while Sessions was composing the Adagio tranquillo.^[2] The score is dated "Princeton-Gambier-Berkeley, 1944-46" - it was begun in Princeton, work continued at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and finished at the University of California at Berkeley.

Though the work was originally commissioned by the Ditson Fund of Columbia University,^[2] the premiere, under Pierre Monteux and the San Francisco Symphony, took place 9–11 January 1947.^[2][4] It received its New York City premiere somewhat later, January 12 1950.^[5]

Notes

Recordings

1. Mitropoulos/NY Philharmonic (Columbia LP, 1950 and CRI CD)
2. Blomstedt/San Francisco Symphony (London CD, 1994)

References

• Canarina, John; Neville Marriner (2003). Pierre Monteux, maître at Google Books. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 1-57467-082-4.
• Prausnitz, Frederik (2002). Roger Sessions: how a "difficult" composer got that way at Google Books. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0-19-510892-2.
• Steinberg, Michael (1998). The Symphony: A Listener's Guide at Google Books. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512665-3.