John Knowles Paine won’t win any awards for originality, but these three works from the period 1872-77 are pleasing, well-crafted, and worthy of repetition. The First Symphony has been recorded previously, but not better than this version featuring JoAnn Falletta and the Ulster Orchestra. Paine’s C minor is not Beethoven’s in terms of energy and drama, but it’s also not droopy or flaccid in the manner of, say, Spohr. The inner movements are actually quite distinctive, the Adagio especially, and the Finale does not suffer from that typical, romantic “finale problem”. In other words, it moves.
The Overture to As You Like It begins with a gracious slow introduction and continues with a charming allegro that is, once again, very well sustained rhythmically. Shakespeare’s Tempest is described in the booklet as a “powerful Lisztian tone poem”. Well, Lisztian it certainly is not, which for many will be a good thing, nor is the music terribly powerful–definitely not stormy; but it is vital and colorful, as in the memorably beautiful writing for woodwinds and harp in the section called “Ariel”. As in the symphony, the performances are completely satisfying, and very well recorded too.
