George Rochberg: Symphony No. 2; Imago Mundi

CML call number: CD/CLASSICAL/Rochberg
Bernard Holland wrote in the New York Times: "The Second Symphony, finished a decade or so after the end of World War II, was a delayed response to it. Mr. Rochberg the soldier was a man wounded in more ways than one. The first movement is close to violence, though violence managed with a discrimination and order that true combat knows only in theory. The Adagio floats and drifts, opaque and with a dreariness that becomes very beautiful. Much of the work speaks a 12-tone language of Mr. Rochberg's devising, but given the highly charged nature of the music, such matters do not need too much of the listener's attention. Also on this CD is 'Imago Mundi,' from 1973. In this homage to Japanese culture, Mr. Rochberg seems to have found a measure of peace. You hear a moment of blaring band music, a nature scene replete with birds and distant thunder, and elegant eruptions of orchestral sound. But more pervasive are Mr. Rochberg's analogues for Japanese winds and drums, played against lingering, drawling held notes and featuring flattened tone and little swoops of portamento" ("Classical Recordings," 11/20/05).