Concerto for Small Orchestra
performed Mar 7, 2004

David Diamond (b.1915) is often referred to as "The Dean of American Composers," a dubious title that not only draws a chuckle from him, but is especially remarkable considering his divergence from many of the modernistic paths of the last 50 years. Diamond remained his own man, never bowing to pressures and never worrying himself when followers were few.

Diamond studied with luminaries Roger Sessions and Nadia Boulanger, and has taught at Salzburg and Juilliard. His style is firmly neo-Romantic and has influenced many of the most successful composers of our time. His music is undergoing a major revival with a cycle of recordings by the Seattle Symphony and Gerard Schwarz on the Delos label.

The Concerto for Small Orchestra, which dates from 1940, was written immediately after studies in Paris, when Diamond settled in at the Trask estate in Saratoga Springs, New York to tune out the world and bring his music to life. The Concerto is one of Diamond's orchestrally stunning works, "made of the finest musical materials," as Virgil Thomson noted. It is written in two parts which open and conclude with a Fanfare, with two Preludes and Fugues in between. The composer conducted its first performance with the Yaddo Chamber Orchestra on September 7, 1940.

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