Roy Harris was born on Lincoln’s birthday in a log cabin in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. If that doesn’t imbue a composer with a sense of destiny, I don’t know what will.
Harris went on to became one of our great American symphonists. In particular, his Symphony No. 3 of 1939 has been much beloved and frequently performed. Unfortunately, we don’t hear all that much of his music anymore. And that’s a damned shame.
So thank you, Princeton University Orchestra, for reviving Harris’ Symphony No. 3 on your opening concerts this weekend at Richardson Auditorium, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3:00, on the same program with Hector Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique.”
Most of the orchestra’s personnel, mind you, are not music majors, but rather committed dilettantes pursuing degrees in other fields, such as astrophysics, bioengineering, computer science, linguistics, sociology, philosophy, and a lot of other things in no way related to music. Also, a substantial number of the players turn over every year as students graduate.
Yet on those occasions when I have been privileged to hear them perform, the orchestra has never been less than solid – interpretively safe, perhaps, but on occasion they surpass themselves. And I have heard them tackle Mahler’s 3rd, “Ein Heldenleben,” and the complete “Daphnis and Chloé.”
Most recently, a performance with the Princeton University Glee Club of Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius” was revelatory, finally unlocking the magic of the piece for me, which I had previously known only from recordings. Music director Michael Pratt, who has led the orchestra since 1977, is a miracle worker.
I can’t wait to hear Harris’ symphony. I’d travel a lot further to enjoy music from this now-neglected “greatest generation” of American symphonists. What a delight to have some of it right here, in my own backyard!
For tickets, follow the link:
https://tickets.princeton.edu/
The orchestra’s 2025-26 season:
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