Roy Harris, Symphonies Nos 7 & 9 - National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine

This recording is part of the American Classics series from Naxos and features two symphonies from a contemporary of Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copeland.

Roy was born LeRoy Ellsworth Harris in 1898, in Oklahoma. He was taught the piano by his mother and later took up the clarinet. He studied at University of California, at Berkeley, where he first met Copeland.

He wrote 13 symphonies in all, but the two featured on this recording have been neglected over the years. Symphony No 7 displays that strident quality, synonymous with American composers.

Harris's choice of writing a symphony in just one movement gives a feeling of compaction. All motifs are varied quickly and succinctly, creating a "soundscape" which subtly develops without breaks.

Like Bernstein, Harris wrote a piece to commemorate the shooting of John F Kennedy in 1963. Entitled Epilogue to Profiles in Courage - JFK, this is sandwiched between the two symphonies on the recording and bares a remarkable resemblance to his 7th Symphony.

The piece builds to a dramatic crescendo, again with strong use of percussion, particularly timpani, and is just enough to set the heart racing.

His 9th symphonic work reverts to a more conventional three-movement structure and opens with a clamour of bells and percussion - and the use of syncopation is something unusual in Harris's compositional palette.

Unusual texture

The use of the piano in a melodic and percussive role, together with woodwind passages written in the higher ranges, creates an unusual texture in the first movement.

In the second movement the cello plays a pavane-like melody, then passed on to the voice of the oboe, and again to the strings in an imaginative relay typical of Harris.

The symphony is brought full circle by the trumpets, joined by brass, strings and timpani to round off a varied collection of voicings and motifs - which bears characteristics of Debussy's impressionism, Mahler's drama and a young Stravinsky, experimenting with the power of rhythm.

All-in-all, a refreshing disc with a great deal to offer - especially if you want to lie back and dream up expansive US landscapes.