Schuman: Symphonies Nos. 3, 5 ("Symphony for Strings") & 8

Schuman's music belongs to the era that spawned Roy Harris (his teacher), Howard Hanson, and Aaron Copland. Schuman's Symphony No. 3 is a clear homage to Harris, broken rhythms and all. The Symphony for Strings (1943) comes at a time when Schuman's voice is finally his own. What could come off as exceedingly dry is here given a performance of great depth by Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. Schuman's Symphony No. 8 (1962) is truly modern, making extensive use of atonality and creating a series of stormy images--something that never appears in the music of Hanson, Copland, or Harris. A major re-release by Sony. --Paul Cook