David Diamond lived in Italy for nearly sixteen years during the 1950s, where his music was often rejected for being considered 'old-fashioned' due to the dominance of the twelve-note avant-garde.
Composer's Artistic Vision
David Diamond created his Symphony No. 4 with Gustav Theodor Fechner's theories of life and death in mind, viewing life as a continual sleep, an alternation between sleeping and waking, and eternal waking.
Critical Reception
David Diamond and other neo-Romantic composers were dismissed as 'irrelevant' by figures like Pierre Boulez during the post-World War II era, when serialism dominated contemporary classical music.
Composition History
David Diamond composed his Symphony No. 2 in 1942-43 during a period of anxiety for him as an American whose country was at war and as an artist lacking financial stability.
Performer Biography
Gerard Schwarz, the conductor on this album, has been the Music Director of the Seattle Symphony since 1985 and has released over eighty compact discs with them for leading record companies.
Composer's Artistic Vision
David Diamond, the composer, believed that a romantically inspired contemporary music, tempered by reinvigorated classical technical formulas, was the way out of creative chaos in music.
Composition History
David Diamond's Symphony No. 4 was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation and dedicated to Natalie Koussevitzky, the late wife of conductor Serge Koussevitzky.
