Mennin: Moby Dick - Symphonies Nos. 3 and 7

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Peter Mennin was a leading member of the school of American symphonic
composers who came of age in the 1930s and 1940s, a group that includes
David Diamond, William Schuman and others. Cast in a traditional design of
three movements in a fast-slow-fast pattern, Symphony No. 3 is a work of great
contrapuntal energy, percussive accents and propulsive rhythms. The composer
described the passionate slow movement as “an extended song ... making use
of sustained voice-weaving.” Symphony No. 7 develops in a single movement of
remarkable contrasts and intensity. An exception to Mennin’s “pure” compositional
approach, the concertato Moby Dick depicts “the emotional impact of the novel as
a whole.” This recording has been acclaimed as “a fine tribute to an inexplicably
neglected figure of the century’s American music scene” (Chicago Tribune).