Roger Sessions (1896-1985)
Chamber Music for Strings

 

Roger Sessions's stature among modern American composers is unquestioned. His influence as a teacher compares favourably with that of Schoenberg, Hindemith, and Boulanger. The catalogue of his 42 compositions includes nine symphonies, three concertos, two operas, and works in other large formats, as well as chamber music, most of which is represented on this recording. (The remaining work is a Second Quartet.) This is the first recording released of Sessions's Quintet. Sessions won every major award, including a Pulitzer Prize. Although he composed for three-quarters of a century, from 1910 to 1985, his most productive period came after the age of 60. Three of the works recorded here date from this late period.

His careers as a composer and a teacher were paralleled by a third career, that of a writer about music. A highly literate man, Sessions published four books and over 40 article