HUBERT KLYNE HEADLEY (1906-1995): California Suite, Piano Concerto No. 1 "Argentango", Piano Concerto No. 2, Symphony No. 1 for Radio.

Description: His works were performed by Pierre Monteux, Howard Hanson, José Iturbi and Charles Munch accepted his symphony on commission from the French radio, yet today this California-raised composer is entirely forgotten - even by Slonimsky in Baker's. While seeming necessarily dated from today's vantage point, such creations as the California Suite of 1939 - written for the Golden Gate Exposition and whose three movements (Golden Gate, Yosemite and Fiesta) use a romantic impressionism for an abstract musical travelogue - and the symphony (1946) are valuable signposts of their period. The symphony particularly, in its single-movement, 13-minute length quite similar in form and length to both piano concertos, has that broad-shouldered, can-do optimism of Copland and Harris in the same period. Anna Bogolyubova (piano), Russian Philharmonic Orchestra; Dmitri Yablonsky.