American Princess

It’s good to welcome back this assemblage of Hanson’s Eastman-Rochester recordings made for Mercury. The collection consists of five well-filled discs with names great and small, though the album’s title can be taken with a grain or two of salt. Some of these might constitute masterworks but not all by any means, or even most. Hyperbole aside what is more valuable even than the time-accredited masterpieces here, is the collation of lesser works by less well known composers such as Bergsma, Kennan, McCauley, Rogers, Phillips and Moore. This is propagandist work to the great advantage of the listener who will doubtless not need reminding that the Mercury tapes sound splendid to this day and no apology need be made on their behalf.