Symphony No. 1 (Sessions)

The Symphony No. 1 of Roger Sessions is a symphony in three movements, in E minor.

The three movements are as follows:^[1]

1. Giusto
2. Largo
3. Allegro vivace

It was completed in January 1927,^[2] and premiered by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra on April 22, 1927.^[3] It was dedicated to Sessions' father Archibald.^[2]

It is scored for three flutes (one doubling piccolo), three oboes (one doubling English horn), four clarinets, three bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, one tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, and strings.^[4]

Andrea Olmstead describes all of Sessions's symphonies as "serious" and "funereal".^[5]

Discography

• Roger Sessions: Symphony No. 1; William Bergsma: Music on a Quiet Theme; Russell Smith: Tetrameron. Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra [ihon Firuhamoni Kokyo Gakudan], Akeo Watanabe, cond. (Sessions and Smith); William Strickland, cond. (Bergsma). LP recording, 1 disc: analog, monaural, 33⅓  12 in. CRI 131. New York: Composers Recordings Inc., 1960. Reissued as part of Roger Sessions: Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 3. CD recording, 1 disc: analog/digital, 4¾ in., stereo. CRI Records, CR573. New York: Composers Recordings Inc., 1990. Reissued again on CD as New World Records NWCR573. New York: Recorded Anthology of American Music, Inc., 2007.

References

1. Sessions
2. Prausnitz, page 83.
3. Prausnitz, page 89.
4. Anonymous.
5. Olmstead, page 356.

Sources

• Anonymous. "Roger Sessions". Theodore Presser website (accessed 29 August 2015).
• Olmstead, Andrea. Roger Sessions: A Biography. New York: Routledge, 2012. ISBN 9781135868925.
• Prausnitz, Frederik. Roger Sessions: How a "Difficult" Composer Got That Way. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-19-510892-2
• Sessions, Roger. Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 3. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, 4¾ in., stereo. CRI Records, CR573. New York: Composers Recordings Inc., 1990. Reissued as NWCR573 by Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc., 2007. Cited on DRAM website (accessed 18 August 2015).

Further reading

• Imbrie, Andrew. "The Symphonies of Roger Sessions". Tempo (new series), no. 103 (December 1972): 24–32.