Robert Ward is best known for his opera on Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, though he composed a respectable body of instrumental music as well. He belongs to the school of the American neo-classicists, along with such figures as Piston, Creston, Persichetti, and many others. It was, in truth, a vital and often interesting group whose general stylistic parameters permitted the creation of effective, entertaining, and well-made music. You get the sense, both in Ward’s Fourth Symphony (three short movements) and in the Saxophone Concerto (two movements lasting about a quarter of an hour in total), that he has deliberately limited himself expressively in this tidy, refined music, much more so than in his operas.
Sonic Sculpture, which has more sheer opulence as well as a higher level of dissonance (think of Copland’s Connotations), also reveals a wider range, but it too is remarkably concise–10 minutes–and disciplined. So if these pieces are more noteworthy as examples of a particular musical style than as the expression of riveting musical individuality, they are no less enjoyable for that. Just as so many “second tier” composers of the classical era wrote good music very much of its period, so did composers like Ward. The performances under Gerhardt Zimmerman are wholly sympathetic and well recorded, and there isn’t so much of Ward’s orchestral output available that fans of approachable mid-20th century American music will want to pass this by.
