ROBERT WARD: Quintet for Oboe and String Quartet; Raleigh Divertimento for Nonet; Bath County Rhapsody for Piano and String Quartet; Arioso and Tarantelle for Viola & Piano; First Symphony – Joseph Robinson, oboe/Ciompi Quartet/Czech Nonet/Jane Hawkins, piano/Jonathan Bagg, viola/Czech Philharmonic Ch. Orch./Alan Balter, cond. – Albany TROY1063, 67:36 *****:
Robert Ward is another living American composer who writes in a generally tonal style and deserves more attention than he has received. Groves describes his style as derived largely from Hindemith plus the influence of Gershwin. He attended both the Eastman School of Music and Juilliard and studied with Bernard Rogers, Howard Hanson and Aaron Copland.
The four chamber works are all most enjoyable listening. The four-movement Oboe Quintet and the Rhapsody are the main works here – melodic and flowing. Ward wrote his First Symphony in 1942 while still a Juilliard student. Its three movements are all around four minutes length and it abounds in strong melodic ideas, clothed in color-rich orchestrations.
– John Sunier
