bass-baritone Archive

The Music of HARL MCDONALD Volume 3 = var. orch. & cond. – Pristine Audio

by Audiophile Audition | Mar 9, 2017 | Classical Reissue Reviews

A series of non-commercial releases graces Vol. 3, devoted to the works of Harl McDonald. The Music of HARL MCDONALD Volume 3 = Violin Concerto; Elegy and Battle Hymn; Symphony No. 3 “A Tragic Cycle”; Builders of America (Washington and Lincoln) – Alexander Hilsberg, v./ Philadelphia Orch./ Eugene Ormandy/ Geroge Newton, bass-bar./ Indianapolis Sym. Orch./ Fabien Sevitzky (Elegy and Battle Hymn)/ Emelina De Vita. sop./ Philadelphia Orch. Chorus/ Musical Art Society of Camden/ Eugene Ormandy (Symphony)/ Claude Rains, narr./ Columbia Ch. Orch. and Chorus/ Harl McDonald (Builders of America) – Pristine Audio PASC 491, 79:13 [avail. in various formats from www.pristineclassical.com] *****: Whether the music of American composer, pianist, conductor, and administrator Harl McDonald (1899-1955) will endure remains debatable, but given his service to the Philadelphia Orchestra (1939-1955) and his devotion to the patriotic fervor of the period subsequent to Pearl Harbor, his work remains with us through the efforts of Pristine and audio restoration engineer Mark Obert-Thorn. Excepted from the 1953 studio session with actor Claude Rains from 26 April 1953, all of the performances on this disc derive from live broadcast performances. The Violin Concerto (1943) certainly warrants more frequent performances, given the virtuosic and ardently arioso reading […]