The American composer Christopher Rouse (who died in 2019 aged 70) had a muscular and powerful musical voice, capable of great expression and wide appeal. He was a committed symphonist, writing six in all—this final one was commissioned by the Cincinnati Orchestra who premiered it a month after Rouse’s death. Rouse’s last symphony serves as a personal epitaph, written in the full knowledge of his impending end. It is cast in a traditional four movements in which, like Mahler’s Ninth (which partly served as a model), its two faster movements are enclosed within two slow ones. Rouse writes movingly for the flugelhorn, its mournful sound regularly punctuating the work. The symphony’s masterstroke comes in the finale with a low drone played by the double basses, evoking Rouse’s body clinging to life. And then it stops. Louis Langrée directs this major addition to the American symphonic tradition with palpable conviction.