Schuman William: Symphony No. 8 / Ives: Variations on 'America'

This disc is the fifth and final release in Naxos’s acclaimed series of William Schuman’s symphonies, and concludes with his powerful and at times playful Eighth Symphony, in which the great American composer takes full advantage of the diverse instrumental colours available from a very large orchestra, including two harps, piano, and batteries of brass, wind and percussion instruments. The introspective Night Journey is based on Schuman’s score for Martha Graham’s ballet about Jocasta’s tragic destiny as both mother and wife of Oedipus, while his arrangement of Ives’s popular Variations on ‘America’, again rich in percussion, combines reverence and exuberance.