Symphony No. 2, Op. 30, “Romantic”

• Hanson composed his Symphony No. 2 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra commissioned the work in honor of their 50th anniversary, and they premiered it on Nov. 28, 1930.¹
• Hanson had a strong relationship with the Boston SO; he appeared as a guest conductor with them many times over the course of his career.²
• Hanson intended this symphony to reflect a neo-Romantic aesthetic, in contrast to the modernism popular in contemporary art music. In his words, the symphony was “a protest against the growing Schoenbergism of the time.”³

“To create a work young in spirit, Romantic in temperament, and simple and direct in expression.”

Howard Hanson, on the intention of his “Romantic” Symphony⁴

1.  Ruth T. Watanabe and James Perone, “Hanson, Howard,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed March 11, 2021,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000012342.
2. Ibid.
3.  Quoted in Betsy Schwarm, “Symphony No. 2 (Work by Hanson),” Encyclopædia Brittanica (September 11, 2013), accessed March 11, 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Symphony-No-2-by-Hanson. 
4. Ibid.