Roger Sessions: Symphonies 6, 7 & 9

Sessions (1896-1985) is an American composer with a voice all his own. He eschewed fads and trends and pretty much stuck to his own guns. Symphonies 6 and 7 (1966 and 1967) were composed during the Vietnam War and both reflect the turbulence of those years. The music partakes of aspects of serialism and atonality, but his music has its own internal logic. Symphony 9 (1978) has much of the same atonality, but there is much more breathing room--room for ideas to develop and for clusters to be set apart from themselves. This is very mature symphonic writing with a bang-up job on behalf of Dennis Davies and the American Composers Orchestra. --Paul Cook