I was listening to an mp3 of Symphony No. 2, “Romantic” by Howard Hanson and conducted and played by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony. All three movements of the piece are good in my opinion.
I was first introduced to the piece at the ending sequence in one of my all time favorite movie “Alien” as the alien was flushed into space by the blast of the engines of the shuttlecraft. The marriage of scene and music created a sense of relief that the alien was finally vanquished. What an excellent paring of celluloid and sound.
Any way, I heard the piece again on an NPR station and just had to add it to my music collection.
I have music on three forms. I own cassettes, CD and music files (most mp3 files). Compressed music files like mp3s compose the largest amount of music that I own.
The only time I buy CDs (I do not buy cassettes anymore) is when there are at least four cuts that I love on the CD and the rest of the songs on the CD are so so (in my opinion).
My music collection is composed mostly of popular/rock music of various time periods. I own and listen to music of various types including Spanish, Jazz, Blues, Classic, Movie Score and Country.
While I don’t think Symphony No. 2, “Romantic” is the best modern romantic classical music I’ve ever heard it sure is a beautiful piece of music.