Symphony No. 2 and String Quartet. No.1

In 1985 Picker was commissioned by the Meet the Composer Residencies Program in cooperation with the Houston Symphony to write a large work for orchestra. He decided upon a symphony developed from his previously written song AUSSÖHNUNG (Reconciliation) to a poem of Goethe. Picker's SECOND SYMPHONY is a "big" work, worthy of the genre and incorporating a compelling dramatic design of seven movements flanked by a prelude and a postlude -- all of which inventively elaborate material found in the exquisite seventh movement for soprano and orchestra. The album also contains the composer's STRING QUARTET No. 1 ("New Memories").