Albany Records: New American Music

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Music for the sophisticated listener.

With this disc, we proudly welcome the Cleveland Chamber Symphony to the Albany Records family. It is one of the finest ensembles of its kind in America. It is a professional ensemble-in-residence at Cleveland State University whose mission is to present new music along with neglected masterworks from the past. It was founded in 1980 by its Music Director, Edwin London. Minnesota-born Ross Lee Finney, now emeritus professor and Composer-in-Residence at the University of Michigan School of Music, has been a prominent American composer and teacher for more than 55 years. Edwin London is a great champion of the American composer. He was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Oberlin. He began his career playing French horn, jazz and classical. He studied with Philip Greely Clapp at Iowa State. Francis Thorne, a founder of the American Composers Orchestra, left a highly successful career as a Wall Street investment broker in the mid-thirties to become first a jazz pianist and later a composer of concert music. His maternal grandfather was Gustav Kobbe, noted critic and author of the celebrated Kobbe's Opera Book, still in print and widely used. This performance of Thorne's Symphony No. 6 is a live recording of the premiere performance held on March 4, 1996.

Ross Lee Finney, composer
Narrative for Cello and Chamber Orchestra
Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Edwin London, conductor, Norman Fischer, cello

Edwin London, composer
Before the World Was Made
Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Edwin London, conductor, Christine Schadeberg, soprano

Francis Thorne, composer
Symphony No. 6 for Stringed Instruments
Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Edwin London, conductor

Review:

"The Finney piece is the first on this very fine concert by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony under its conductor, Edwin Lond. Ross Lee Finney (b. 1960) wrote the first movement in his seventies and then completed the work with the addition of the concluding Allegro some ten years later.Throughout the work Finney's memorable melodic sense helps the listener maintain his bearings - this is a work with readily identifiable themes rather than motivic cells that become hard to follow as the complexity mounts.This strikes me as a major addition to the repertoire for cello and Chamber Orchestra. Francis Thorne's Symphony No. 6 is also a lovely piece.The performances, in part composer-led of course, seem to be fine, and the recorded sound is very good. Heartily recommended." (Fanfare)

Music for the sophisticated listener.

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