BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, Paul Beard )
Conducted by Alfred Wallenstein
Roy Harris, one of America's leading composers, was born in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, in 1898. and studied at the University of California; in 1926 he went to Paris and became a pupil of Nad:a Boulanger, returning to the U.S A. three years later. His Third Symphony was written in 1937 and first performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under Koussevilzky, in 1939. It is in one continuous movement and is built up of quite simple themes: a striking feature of the work is the impression it gives of continuous development, each theme appearing to grow out of the one that precedes it.
Deryck Cooke