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Alan Hovhaness: Mysterious Mountains

Gerard Schwarz Format: Audio CD
4.9 out of 5 stars 11 ratings
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Audio CD, 18 Dec. 2008
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Track Listings

1 I. Andante Con Moto
2 II. Double Fugue-Moderato Maestoso
3 III. Andante Espressivo
4 I. Andante Maestoso
5 II. Love Song To Hinako-Andante Espressivo
6 III. Prelude And Fugue-Largo Maestoso
7 I. Andante, Grazioso
8 II. Spririt Lake-Allegro
9 III. Volcano-Adagio/Allegro/Adagio
10 Lento Tempestoso

Product description

Hovhaness: Mysterious Mountains

Product details

  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 14.3 x 14 x 0.99 cm; 83.91 g
  • Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Telarc
  • Item model number ‏ : ‎ 2023334
  • Label ‏ : ‎ Telarc
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00008PROE
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
  • Customer reviews:
    4.9 out of 5 stars 11 ratings

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4.9 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • happysalvo
    5.0 out of 5 stars American Mystic's Odes to the Mountains
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 January 2012
    Verified Purchase
    As the title suggests, mountains are the inspiration behind the four works on this disc. There are three symphonies and a short tone poem (one of the composer's earliest works). Having read some rather sarcastic comments about Hovhaness's music in the press, I was unsure what to expect, but in the end I was very pleasantly surprised.

    There is much to enjoy in these works - lyricism, moments of great beauty and high drama (particularly in Symphony no 50, "Mount St Helens"), and it's all performed by the wonderful Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under the American maestro Gerard Schwarz, both of whom do the music full justice. The recording is excellent, but we have of course come to expect this from our friends at Telarc.

    Don't be put off by any negative publicity you may read about this composer - if you buy this disc you will enjoy it. This would make an ideal introduction to the orchestral music of Hovhaness and his sound world. Investigate without fear - highly recommended.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • S. H. Smith
    5.0 out of 5 stars Hovhaness Symphonies
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 February 2011
    This Telarc disc includes works spanning Hovhaness' career, but mountains are the inspiration behind all four. Mountains held a lifelong fascination for him, and feature in a large number of his pieces. Taking them in chronological order, the first work here is a short tone-poem, "Storm on Mount Wildcat" (Op.2,) composed when Hovhaness was 20-years old, and marked, unusually, "lento tempestoso".

    The Symphony No.2, "Mysterious Mountain", is probably the composer's best-known work, and has been recorded several times. It was commissioned and premiered by Stokowski in 1955 and, in effect, put Hovhaness on the musical map. The lyrical and hymn-like first movement is full of ethereal, melismatic effects and sensuous harmonies. The second movement is a double fugue with fast, scurrying strings over which, towards the close, the brass call in long-breathed phrases. The final movement returns to the character of the first, reaching a sonorous climax and an assertive conclusion.

    Symphony No.50, "Mount St. Helens", is an unashamedly programmatic work depicting the great volcanic eruption of 1980. The first two movements are predominantly lyrical and provide a portrait of the beauty - but also the grandeur - of Mt. St. Helens and its environment prior to the eruption. The third movement begins with a placid, hymn-like theme, followed by a spare-sounding flute solo, full of foreboding. Drums herald the explosion, and the entire orchestra erupts, the percussion battering out the rhythm. (There is some order, even in a volcanic eruption, it seems). Eventually the opening hymn returns, now blazing out in a glory of sound. This symphony has always been a winner with concert audiences, and, hearing it, one can understand why.

    The final work, Symphony No.66, "Hymn to Glacier Peak", is not dissimilar to the "Mount St. Helens", having a hymn-like first movement with a dance-like interlude, a second movement entitled "Love Song for Hinako" (Hovhaness' wife), and a final Prelude and Fugue (the latter almost obligatory for this composer) which ends in a full-throated hymn of praise to the peak of the title.

    Alan Hovhaness, rather like Malcolm Arnold and George Lloyd in this country, never succumbed to the winds of fashion, even in the heady 1950s and 1960s, and yet his music has always maintained a foothold in the repertoire - at least in America. Fads may come and go, but Hovhaness, at his best, remains undimmed.
    13 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Captain Video
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, spiritual music.
    Reviewed in the United States on 20 November 2015
    Verified Purchase
    This disc contains three very beautiful and spiritual symphonies and a shorter early work. Since the three symphonies are all in the same basic style, the disc may reinforce the misconception that all of Hovhaness' music sounds just about the same. Anybody who thinks so needs to listen to works that sound very different from these like, for example, Symphony 19, Vishnu, Symphony 14, Ararat, and Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints. As a matter of fact, the short early work, Storm on Wildcat Mountain, sounds significantly different. This record is especially suitable for people who love Mysterious Mountain and want to hear additional music in that style.
    Hovhaness had the bad fortune of composing beautiful, spiritual music at a time when the classical music establishment insisted that atonal, dissonant, and abstract music was the wave of the future. As a result, his music was unfairly neglected. But the 20th century is over and composing beautiful, spiritual music is back in fashion. Therefore it is time that Hovhaness finally receives the recognition he deserves: AS ONE OF THE GREATEST COMPOSERS OF THE 20TH CENTURY.
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  • Barry N. Bishop
    5.0 out of 5 stars Mystical Mountains
    Reviewed in the United States on 19 November 2013
    Verified Purchase
    When we first truly became aware of Alan Hovhaness it was through attending a performance of "Mysterious Mountain", his second symphony. Slowly his works are becoming available in the broadcast media and in concert halls, and this is fortunate because his his rich orchestral chord shifts and meditative sounds echo our own spiritual longings in music. This CD offers three of his symphonies--No. 2, No. 50, "Mount St. Helens", and No. 66, "Hymn to Glacier Peak"--along with a shorter piece, "Storm on Mount Wildcat". It reveals his mystical attachment to mountain fastnesses, and his music carries the listener both into the high reaches of such regions and also inward to confront the searching chords of our own souls. With his Armenian heritage melding into his American life, Hovhaness is an American gem all too often not recognized in his home country. Fortunately that lack of awareness is slowly changing and this CD could offer a wonderful introduction to those still unfamiliar with this composer.
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  • Eric S. Kim
    5.0 out of 5 stars So Mysterious
    Reviewed in the United States on 8 December 2008
    Verified Purchase
    This is the first CD from Hovhaness that I've ever bought. Well, obviously, this isn't going to be the last. The symphonies "Mysterious Mountain" and "Hymn to Glacier Peak" are two of the finest 20th-Century Classical pieces ever written and performed. The composer's love for mountains are really apparent here, and you could almost picture yourself on these peaks when the music drives into your ears. The most powerful on this CD is "Mt. St. Helens". At the time when the moutnain erupted, Hovhaness brings a more sophsticated and dramatic quality. It's riveting, all right.

    I think now is the time to see which Hovhaness CD I should purchase next. I think I'll go with "And God Created Great Whales" next time. A+
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  • R. Walters
    4.0 out of 5 stars All right performances, but I find the conductor's performance ...
    Reviewed in the United States on 10 August 2014
    Verified Purchase
    All right performances, but I find the conductor's performance of the Mt. St. Helen's Symphony with the Seattle Symphony much stronger and more audibly 'present.'
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  • Paul A. Powell
    5.0 out of 5 stars Three winners on one disc
    Reviewed in the United States on 27 September 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I wanted this disc especially for Hymn to Glacier Peak which is out of print. Having Mysterious Mountain, Mt. St. Helens, and Storm on Mount Wildcat is a convenient way to access some of the mountain symphonies Hovhanes has written. Hint to NAXOS, how about a disc set of all of his mountain symphonies? And maybe another one with all the planets?
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