Rob Barnett writes (on Musicweb) about Peter Mennin's Fifth Symphony:
"One of two sons, Peter Mennin was born Mennini. His elder brother Louis retained the final 'i' but his two symphonies (1960 and 1963) have so far failed to capture the imagination. Mennin’s own nine symphonies have done relatively well and all except the first two have
Peter Mennin
been recorded. His reputation rests a step down from the hallowed symphonist threesome: Schuman, Piston and Harris. The Fifth Symphony starts with the same sort of grittily determined tag that launches Harris’s Fifth . . . The first of the four movements is energetically propulsive. For contrast the following Canto (a typical title and mood for Mennin) proceeds in meditative calm with violins sweetly singing and surging - almost Finzian in their restful confidence. At one time the Fifth was the symphony was the one you were most likely to encounter in the record shop. It was on a Mercury LP (SRI 75020) in a good if rather boxily recorded version conducted by Howard Hanson. In fact the taut heroic-tragic horn writing in the outer movements sometimes sounds like a Hanson symphony!"
Peter Mennin (1923-1983), son of Italian immigrants to the US, was not only a gifted composer but a successful music administrator - becoming Director of Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory, and President of the Juilliard School in New York. After a spell in the US Air Force from 1941, he studied with Howard Hanson at the Eastman School of Music, and appropriately enough it's Hanson with his Rochester orchestra who are playing in this recording (referenced above).
Cartridge: Ortofon Xpression
Phono amp: Graham Slee Accession MC
Turntable: CTC Classic 301 with SME M2-12R
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