MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
Plain text for smartphones & printers


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 


Support us financially by purchasing this disc from
Adolphus HAILSTORK (b.1941)
Symphony no.1 (1988) [21:10]
Three Spirituals, for orchestra (2005) [8:17]
An American Port of Call, for orchestra (1985) [8:33]
Fanfare on Amazing Grace, for orchestra (2003) [3:32]
Whitman's Journey I - Launch out on Endless Seas, for baritone, chorus and orchestra (2005) [17:37]
Kevin Deas (baritone)
Virginia Symphony Chorus/Robert Shoup
Virginia Symphony Orchestra/JoAnn Falletta
rec. L Douglas Wilder Performing Arts Center, Norfolk State University, Virginia, USA, 18 May 2011. DDD
NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559722 [59:08]

Yet another pupil of the inimitable Nadia Boulanger, the unlikely-sounding Adolphus Hailstork may not be a familiar name. His music is so ear-friendly, modest yet consequential that popularity is surely only a matter of greater exposure. Hailstork's debut on Naxos - with the weighty Second and Third Symphonies (8.559295 - see review) - was an important start, but it has taken an all-too-long five years for this follow-up to appear. 

The varied selection of works featured here was, according to the information supplied, recorded on the same day in concert. This makes it an all-the-more impressive set of performances, particularly from the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, deftly marshalled by Naxos stalwart JoAnn Falletta. Sound quality is good, with just a hint of thinness at times. Whatever audience was present has been expertly edited out.
 
Hailstork was born in Norfolk, Virginia, making this disc a very homely affair. The lively, good-humoured concert overture An American Port of Call is probably the composer's best known work. It was inspired by his home town and performed by its dedicatee orchestra. The four-movement neo-Classical-ish First Symphony is strongly Coplandesque, with a dash of Stravinsky, and thus a work of considerable warmth and charm. The Three Spirituals - a jazzy Everytime I Feel the Spirit, the famous Kum Ba Yah and a Gershwin-like Oh Freedom - are even more strongly reminiscent of Copland. The short Fanfare on Amazing Grace is more appealing than its title may suggest, and instantly memorable.
 
The odd title of the final work is explained by the fact that it was originally conceived as the first movement of a set of three. Hailstork now recognises it as a standalone work, paying tribute, via Walt Whitman's love-it-or-loathe-it poetry, to the "adventurous spirit of all people setting out on the seas of life." Hailstork's score is delicately orchestrated and aptly uplifting. It is fair to say that he is at his most patriotically and cinematically American here, as is big-voiced baritone Kevin Deas. Texts are included in the booklet, although a sing-along would probably only appeal to some Americans.
 
The disc is surprisingly short - Hailstork was surely as chafed as any would-be buyer that more of his music was not recorded here for posterity. It is something of an exaggeration to call Hailstork, as one prominent US review outlet does, "truly one of this country's most important [...] composers". For a risk-free dip into late-20th century orchestral waters, his music, like this recording, has many merits. Moreover, it is always heartening to see the stupendous musical heritage of 'dead white Europeans' embraced and advanced by someone who is 'none of the above'!
 
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk