Roger Sessions: Symphonies Nos. 6, 7 & 9 (1995)

One might be forgiven for thinking that it's not Roger Sessions' music that is difficult, but its performers who make it so. Of all the recordings in the limited Sessions' discography, only Dimitri Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic ever got close to making Sessions remotely comprehensible. The rest range from the vapid Seiji Ozawa recordings to the void Akeo Watanabe recordings and none of them come close to making Sessions' music listenable, much less comprehensible.That is until this 1995 recording by Dennis ... Read More

One might be forgiven for thinking that it's not Roger Sessions' music that is difficult, but its performers who make it so. Of all the recordings in the limited Sessions' discography, only Dimitri Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic ever got close to making Sessions remotely comprehensible. The rest range from the vapid Seiji Ozawa recordings to the void Akeo Watanabe recordings and none of them come close to making Sessions' music listenable, much less comprehensible.That is until this 1995 recording by Dennis Russell Davies conducting the American Composers Orchestra of Sessions' Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth symphonies. For the first time since Mitropoulos and the N.Y.P.O., Sessions sounds listenable if not yet quite comprehensible at first listening. But then, no matter who's performing Sessions' music, it is formidably difficult and only repeated listenings can do anything to make it comprehensible. Fortunately, Davies and the A.C.O.'s performances can stand repeated listening. Sessions'... Read Less