Analysis of Selected Works:
American Panorama [1935]

Amfitheatrof's most popular -- and accessible (although some, including Alexander 'Sandy' Courage, the composer best-known for the theme from the original Star Trek television series, would argue today that it is, perhaps, too accessible) -- concert work was composed in 1935 before the composer set foot on American soil. The programmatic content of the music is based upon pictures, gramophone recordings (in particular, the Paul Whiteman Victor discs featuring music by Gershwin and Grofé), stories related by friends returning from holiday in America and, of course, his own imagination. In his preface to the printed edition of the score Amfitheatrof speaks of '...vital energy... strength, action and gain...sentiment and nostalgia...of [his] interest in America and its peoples'. The work, which is some fifteen-minutes in duration, is composed for a large symphony orchestra featuring an expanded percussion section. Otherwise, certain other instruments are required to produce unusual sound effects, with players instructed, 'Violinists hum while playing...',' horns blow with mouthpieces inverted...', 'tuba player sing through your instrument...', etc. Amfitheatrof's intent was to produce the 'sound' of steam engines, fog horns, sirens, machinery, construction work - industrial America of the early 20th-Century.

The world-premier was given in 1937 by the Turin Theatre Orchestra under the baton of the visiting Dmitri Mitropoulos, who later included the work in his repertoire. The first performance in the United States took place on 13th November, with the composer conducting the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra's homecoming concert at Northrop Auditorium [University of Minnesota]. The work, which also featured in his fortnightly concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in January 1938, elicited favourable comments from the Boston music critics, including that of Ruth Marsters of the Boston Sunday Advertiser, who remarked '...Symphony Hall has been resounding with some extraordinary music of late...The music to which we refer is called American Panorama...presented for the first time [14th January] when its composer made his bow to Boston audiences conducting the regular pair of concerts...'. Similarly, the unidentified critic in the 15th January edition of the Boston Globe stated, 'Mr Amfitheatrof's own American Panorama, a vast and breezy work, claimed the most topical interest of the afternoon. It was presented for the first time in Boston'. Miklos Rózsa later recalled for this writer a particular performance under the baton of Jose Iturbi at the Hollywood Bowl in the mid-1940s as being 'very well received' by the audience.

Copyright (c) 2001 by John Steven Lasher. All Rights Reserved.

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