Four Centuries of Great Music August 3, 2025 Forgotten American Composers

Today on Four Centuries of Great Music is another episode in my continuing series of forgotten American composers from the 20th century.  These are composers whose music does not appear much in concert halls or radio playlists, who wrote great music, but music we don’t often hear anymore.  This is my plea to program this music more.

We open with Nicolas Flagello.  I do admit I have a conflict of interest here as I know one of his sons and his granddaughter.  But he is a composer we should hear more of in the concert hall.

Flagello was born in New York City on March 15, 1928, into a musical family. (His brother Ezio Flagello was a bass who sang at the Metropolitan Opera). He began studying composition with Vittorio Giannini, with whom he continued to study at the Manhattan School of Music.   After graduation, he joined the faculty and stayed there for over 25 years. 

As a composer, Flagello held firmly to a belief in music as a personal medium for emotional and spiritual expression. This unfashionable view, together with his vehement rejection of the serialism that dominated musical composition for several decades after World War II, hindered his music from attracting significant attention during much of his lifetime.
lagello died in New Rochelle, New York, on March 16, 1994 of a degenerative illness.
Here is 
Nicolas Flagello:   Missa Sinfonica   I. Kyrie
Nicolas Flagello:   Missa Sinfonica   II. Gloria
Nicolas Flagello:   Missa Sinfonica   III. Credo
Nicolas Flagello:   Missa Sinfonica   IV. Sanctus Et Benedictus
Nicolas Flagello:   Missa Sinfonica   V. Agnus Dei

John McLaughlin Williams & Ukraine National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Flagello: Missa Sinfonica - Rosner: Symphony No. 5
Naxos


Vincent Persichetti was born in  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 6, 1915.  Though didn’t come from a musical family his musical education began early. Persichetti enrolled in the Combs College of Music at the age of five, where he studied piano, organ, double bass and later music theory and composition with Russel King Miller, whom he considered a great influence.  He earned his bachelor's degree in 1936 from Combs College of Music and was immediately offered a teaching position.

By the age of 20, Persichetti was simultaneously head of the theory and composition departments at Combs, a conducting major with Fritz Reiner at the Curtis Institute, and a student of piano (with Olga Samaroff) and composition at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. He earned a master's degree in 1941 and a doctorate in 1945 from the Conservatory, as well as a conducting diploma from Curtis. In 1947, William Schuman offered him a professorship at the Juilliard School. His musicał style was marked by use of two elements he referred to as "graceful" and "gritty": the former being more lyrical and melodic, the latter being sharp and intensely rhythmic.

Persichetti died on August 14, 1987at his home in Philadelphia, of lung cancer.

Let’s listen to his Harpsichord Sonata No. 9, Op. 163.  It is in 3 movements 
Harpsichord Sonata No. 9, Op. 163: I. Moderato        7:08
Harpsichord Sonata No. 9, Op. 163: II. Andantino        2:47
Harpsichord Sonata No. 9, Op. 163: III. Allegro

Christopher D. Lewis
Persichetti: Harpsichord Sonatas
Naxos


I am opening this second hour with the music of Paul Creston
Paul Creston was born Giuseppe Guttoveggio on October 10, 1906 New York City to Sicilian immigrants.  He was self taught as a composer.  He has written symphonies, concertos, chamber music, piano compositions and vocal and choral music.  Creston never wavered in his commitment to traditional concepts of melody and tonality, and was often criticized for it. His music was overtly romantic and was  called 'compellingly sincere’ , It has received less prominence on the American scene since the 1960's than it had been before.


Today I will be playing two works of his first his saxophone sonata.  It is in 3 movements:
With vigor
With tranquility
With gaiety

Paul Creston: Saxophone Sonata, Op. 19
Alex Mitchell, saxophone & Jeremy Limb, piano
American Music for Saxophone & Piano
Naxos

Next is Paul Creston’s Trombone Fantasy, Op. 42
Christian Lindberg, trombone and James DePreist conducting the Malmö Symphony Orchestra
Walker - Zwilich: Trombone Concertos 
BIS Records

Howard Hanson (1896–1981)


Hanson was born in Wahoo, Nebraska, to Swedish immigrant parents on October 28, 1896.  He studied at Luther College in Wahoo, receiving a diploma in 1911, then at the Institute of Musical Art, the forerunner of the Juilliard School, in New York City, where he studied with the composition. And then attended 
Northwestern University, where he studied composition and piano, cello, and trombone. He earned his BA degree in music from Northwestern in 1916.  In 1916, Hanson was hired for his first full-time position as a music theory and composition teacher at the College of the Pacific in California. Only three years later, the college appointed him Dean of the Conservatory of Fine Arts in 1919.  After receiving the first Rome Prize given by the American Academy in Rome he was appointed in 1924 as the first director of the Eastman School of Music by George Eastman himself.   Hanson held the position of director for forty years, during which he created one of the most prestigious music schools in America.  He died Strong Memorial Hospital, in Rochester, NY on February 26, 1981.

Today we will be listening to Howard Hanson’s  Symphony No. 2 Op. 30 (Romantic).  It is in 3 movements
1.  Adagio— Allegro moderato— Lento molto espressivo — Piu mosso — Meno mosso — Tranquillo — Molto piu mosso— Animato — Molto meno mosso— Animato— Meno mosso
2.  Andante con tenerezza
3.  Allegro con brio — Molto meno mosso — Piu mosso — Animato — Largamente


Seattle Symphony & Gerard Schwarz
Hanson: Complete Symphonies
Naxos