Synopsis

On today’s date in 1942, Bruno Walter conducted the New York Philharmonic in the premiere of the Second Symphony of the American composer John Alden Carpenter.

Like Charles Ives, Carpenter led a double life as a composer and successful businessman. He was born into a wealthy family, and from 1906 until his retirement in 1936, served as Vice President of George B. Carpenter & Co., his father’s railroad and shipping supply company.

Carpenter studied music at home and abroad, and even took composition lessons from Sir Edward Elgar. In 1914, Carpenter scored a national success with his first big orchestral work, a whimsical symphonic suite titled Adventures in a Perambulator, and in 1921 wrote a very popular jazz-inspired ballet titled Krazy Kat, based on a wildly popular newspaper comic strip of the day.

By the 1940s, Carpenter’s works were being performed by America’s leading orchestras and famous maestros like Bruno Walter and Fritz Reiner. To celebrate his 75th birthday, the newly-formed National Arts Foundation promoted performances of his music in the U.S, Europe, and Australia.

But in the decades following his death in 1951, much of Carpenter’s work has been forgotten. Naxos of America released this first-ever recording of his Symphony No. in 2001 — 59 years after the work’s 1942 premiere.

Music Played in Today's Program

John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951) Symphony No. 2 National Symphony of Ukraine; John McLaughlin Williams, conductor. Naxos 8.559065