This new disc includes the world premiere recording of Henry Cowell’s Symphonic Set, Op. 17. The piece dates from the early 1940’s and is typically innovative, incorporating contemporary techniques and complexities, and «musics» of other cultures. Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 2 is filled with classical allusions and direct musical quotations, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, and other times as part of the overall musical fabric.

His harmonic, polyrhythmic, polytonal and polyphonic method was authentically inspired. Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, with soprano Linda Hohenfeld, is based on the closing paragraphs (an «autobiographical fragment») of a prose-poem by Tennessee-born author and critic James Agee. Barber’s beautiful and heartfelt music evokes time and place.

The Nürnberg Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Stephen Somary, a Leonard Bernstein student and protégé.