AT 1 MINUTE 10 SECONDS

Hymns As Themes

While on the topic of overlooked works, I wonder what’s happened to Virgil Thomson’s utterly original Symphony on a Hymn Tune. Though completed in 1928, the piece did not have its official premiere until 1945, when Thomson conducted it with the New York Philharmonic. But a four-hand piano arrangement circulated in the 1930s and influenced composers like Copland, who was struck by the music’s daring simplicity and hints of brass bands, church choirs and more. Thomson uses a couple of favorite hymns as themes, often milking the tunes for motivic bits that are spun into intricate passages. In this winning performance by the New Zealand Symphony, listen to the first rendering of a hymn tune in warm strings, with one phrase tweaked in “wrong-note” dissonance for brass and winds; then, at 6:58, catch the stubborn tangle of counterpoint that ends the opening movement. ANTHONY TOMMASINI