Elie Siegmeister had a multi-faceted career in American music as composer, performer, writer and educationalist, but his music has not maintained the same international profile as his contemporaries such as Barber and Schuman. All the same, on the evidence in this second volume of Boulton’s series (Vol 1 was reviewed in March), he should be taken seriously. The earliest piece here, Theme and Variations (1932), shows Siegmeister throwing off some of the neoclassical trappings of his four-year study with Boulanger and making his own response to Copland’s hard-hitting Piano Variations of two years earlier. But this is a concise, cogently argued set of variations of considerable promise from a composer of only 23.
Next, chronologically, comes Sunday in Brooklyn (1946), also known in an orchestral version, and the style is quite different. The relaxed bluesy idiom stems from both Copland and Gershwin but the pieces meander, outstaying their initial charm. Both the sonatas – No 2 (1964) and No 3 (1979) – show Siegmeister in declamatory stance. In this more abrasive idiom No 2, especially, shows Siegmeister closer to Sessions than Barber. There are effective contrasts of texture even if Siegmeister breaks little new ground. Boulton is well recorded throughout.'