Program Notes — GERSHWIN IN NEW YORK
January 2, 2024
Samuel Barber (1910–1981) Symphony No. 1, in One Movement, Op. 9 (1936, rev. 1942) It must have been lonely to be Samuel Barber there for a while. Almost alone of mid-twentieth-century American composers he eschewed the era’s prevailing bleak modernism in favor of a rich musical language that emphasized melody, opulent harmonies, and traditional structures….