American composer Roy Harris created his first symphony in 1933 and called it after that year. He started composing at the end of the 20s, getting lessons from famous teacher Nadia Boulanger in Paris. While in Paris, he wrote his first significant works (concertos and a string quartet), but 1933 is his first large scale composition.
Harris is best known for his symphonies, and he wrote 18 of them. Not all as long as this one, sometimes they were just a single movement. Many were not even written for orchestra: a lot of them were for chorus or solo voice, some were for jazz band or a military band.
I bought this record because at the back it carries a curious signature, one that looks like the handwriting of Dutch composer Otto Ketting. I have already written about Ketting, when I wrote about his opera Ithaka. Since Ketting had an interest in recent classical music, particularly from America, I can assume it really was his.
