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A recent article in The American Scholar lists the author Sudip Boses 25 of the best American symphonies, beginning with Louis Moreau Gottschalks Symphony No. 1 from 1859 and ending with Christopher Theofanides Symphony No. 1 of 2009. Charles Ives obtains three listed works, but the others only one each. So there are 23 names on the list, and David Diamonds is not one of them.

I know that such a list is far from the last word (it would be interesting to solicit critical and well-informed academics to reach a consensus), but illustrates the position of Diamond and several other prolific composers of the Recent era. He lived from 1915 to 2005, long enough to see his music come down from a prestigious and promising place that he held in the repertoire, although he remained an honored name. Among his many works, he wrote 11 symphonies between 1940 and 1991 (plus two older symphonies).

This recording presents three works from his most successful era. Rounds for String Orchestra (1944), is a 15 minute work with three related movements. Robert Lintotts informative notes make a comparison between his slow movement and Samuel Barbers Adagio for Strings of 1936. Such comparisons are dangerous; Barber's work has a unified intensity that makes Diamonds enjoyable, well-worked piece workaday.

In 1947 Diamond composed Music for Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet also for string orchestra. The booklet indicates that it is much smaller than the other great 20th century Romeo and Juliet that of Prokofiev. Here is another devastating comparison. A few years ago, I attended a music program inspired by Pellas and Mlisande which included nothing of Debussy, but works by Faur, Sibelius and Schoenberg. Each job was distinctly different from the others and all fit into the program. I can not imagine the unconventional work of Diamonds making a lot of impression alongside Berlioz, Tchaikovsky or Prokofiev

which brings us to Diamonds Symphony No. 6 . It was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Charles Munch in 1957. After a performance at Carnegie Hall, it was criticized by the New York Times critic who disputed his alleged refutation of the compositional tradition. It's hard to believe that he heard what's on this CD. The diamond is one of the composers who did not adopt serialism or 12-tone or anything else, but it adhered to traditional thematic development as this symphony clearly demonstrates. This vigorous work, of about 27 minutes, deserves to be heard. This is, by the way, his first recording.

Are stylistic wars over? The public has long been wary of everything that was composed after the 1930s (or such a date), which is a shame. The American Classics series by Naxos contains recordings of five other David Diamond symphonies, all performed by the Seattle Symphony under the direction of Gerard Schwartz. Symphonies, in any case, deserve to be heard. One of them could still appear on a top 25 list.

Michael Johnson