Frederick Converse (1871­1940)‚ a pupil of George Chadwick and Joseph Rheinberger‚ was the first American to have an opera produced at New York’s Metropolitan. Listening to his expansive early tone poems‚ Endymion’s Narrative (1901) and The Mystic Trumpeter (1904)‚ one finds a composer with a good ear for orchestral colour and a seemingly unbounded admiration for the music of Liszt‚ Wagner and Strauss. These are attractive works‚ certainly‚ though lacking the narrative momentum and coherence that make the tone poems of Liszt and Strauss so immediately compelling. Endymion’s Narrative (after Keats) is the more engaging – note‚ for instance‚ the lovely melody that floats among the first desk winds and strings‚ accompanied by the wispiest of filigree in the violins (beginning around 2'35"). Turning to Flivver Ten Million (1927)‚ however‚ one seems to have encountered the work of a different composer. Not only is the musical language more advanced‚ but the ideas flow more naturally. The full title is Flivver Ten Million: A Joyous Epic inspired by the Familiar Legend ‘The Ten Millionth Ford is Now Serving Its Owner’. (Flivver was the name for Ford’s budget line automobile.) It’s a delightfully pithy piece – though admittedly short on melody – in which the clangourous din of the factory is transformed into a modernised Nibelheim‚ and the four­wheeled vehicle itself becomes a rather lovable anti­hero‚ à la Till Eulenspiegel. JoAnn Falletta elicits solid playing from the Buffalo PO‚ despite thinness in the string sound‚ and she savours many felicitous details of Converse’s scoring. The early tone poems could have benefited from a somewhat tighter rhythmic grip‚ but these are enjoyable performances overall. What about a follow­up volume so we can discover how Converse got from The Mystic Trumpeter to Flivver?