Anyone who investigated George Whitefield Chadwick's Third Symphony (10/94) should equally enjoy getting to know its predecessor. Chadwick began work on his Second Symphony in 1883 and it was first performed by the Boston Symphony with the composer at the helm in December 1886. The audience response was enthusiastic—as indeed, it had been two years previously when the wholly charming Scherzo was premiered separately by the same orchestra. This captivating Allegretto scherzando—a distant cousin in many respects to the equivalent movement in Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony—tends to show up the comparative dearth of truly memorable melodic material elsewhere, though the succeeding Largo e maestoso also contains some strikingly eloquent invention. Be that as it may, the symphony as a whole—with its stylistic echoes of Brahms and Dvorak—will surely come as a thoroughly engaging discovery to many, especially when lent such dashingly committed advocacy as it receives here. The Symphonic Sketches (1895–1904) comprise an amiable, rather than particularly distinctive orchestral set. All four tableaux inhabit a cosy harmonically unadventurous world, and though Chadwick's scoring can be effective (attractively lyrical solos for cor anglais and principal violin in the nostalgic second movement ''Noel'', for example), there is little that lingers in the memory, even after repeated hearings.
As we have come to expect by now, these are most accomplished, superbly persuasive performances from Neeme Jarvi and his excellent Detroit orchestra. Certainly, in the symphony, Julius Hegyi and the hard-working Albany SO on a rival New World release now sound more than a little cautious by comparison, though conversely Hegyi's more measured tempo for the Scherzo perhaps better conveys the sheer joy of Chadwick's delightfully playful inspiration. Superior, beguilingly warm-toned Chandos sound is a further bonus.'