David Diamond: Symphony No. 6, Rounds & Music for Romeo and Juliet

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David Diamond was one of those composers suppressed by the dominance of academic modernism despite his championing by Leonard Bernstein and Serge Koussevitzky, and his Symphony No. 6, written in the early 1950s, here receives its first recording. It's ironic in that the work was badly reviewed at its premiere, probably because it was too modernistic. Sample the startling contrasts of its first movement, Adagio - Allegro, fortemente mosso, worked out and reconciled in a wholly individual way. It gets an enthusiastic and professional performance here from the Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra under Arthur Fagen, together with fine engineering, and it's no surprise that the album has had commercial success in Britain as well as the U.S. Throw in a strong program, and the news is even better. The first two works fall more closely into neoclassic molds but remain distinctive. The Rounds for String Orchestra of 1944 were admired by Aaron Copland, and they are breezy pieces that make novel structures out of the simple polyphonic principle that lies at their base. The Music for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, from three years later, was probably the most famous of these three works in Diamond's heyday; it comprises five vivid scenes from the play. This is a real find that could easily presage the return of the Symphony No. 6 to the symphonic repertoire: sample once again its opening and hear how it grabs the listener's attention like few other works in the rotation today.

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