As his contemporary and colleague Bernard Herrmann, Moross represents a special figure in the American musical scene of this century, starting to work both on the concert music world previously to devoted themselves to the music for the movies, although they never abandoned the concert hall. His only Symphony (which, like Herrmann, Moross numbered as 1 although he never do another one) comes during the World War II, and arose as a personal necessity to offer a joyful and relaxed work in such dramatic moments. Far from use a classic symphonic structure, Moross prefer to deliver four autonomous movements which, however, developed from four classical forms: Theme and Variations for the first one, a concertante Sonata for the second, an Invention for the third, and a big Fugue for the last one; still, the Symphony creates a wholeness sensation really amazing thanks, between other things, to the wonderful and personal thematic material. Very differente is The Last Judgement, a terrific ballet of 1953 which the composer himself considered as one of his best works, even it was never premiered. Moross had been started to work on the movies in 1950, although he already had several previous engagements on Ballet during the thirties, and his magnificent dramatic sense is present from the first bar of this attractive and beautiful music. The last work on the CD, the Variations on a Waltz were originated in a piano piece of 1944, just as is pointed by the sadly late Christopher Palmer on the compulsories notes of the CD, and its a light work, well-meaning, and magnificently handled and structured. A must CD.

Symphony nš1 (1943) - 20:07
The Last Judgement (1953) - 23:24
Variations on a Waltz for Orchestra (1966) - 14:16
London Symphony Orchestra - Conductor: JoAnn Falletta
KOCH INTERNATIONAL CLASSICS - 371882H1 / 58'

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