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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Robert Spano conducts Lieberson & Theofanidis
Symphony No. 1 was commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with the generous participation of the Savannah Music Festival and the Immanuel & Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival. Mr. Spano conducted the world premiere at Atlanta Symphony Hall in April 2009. Theofanidis is a member of the Atlanta School of Composers, a continuing commitment by Robert Spano and the Orchestra to nurture and champion contemporary music through multi-year partnerships with a new generation of American composers. | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Jennifer Higdon: The Singing Rooms
The main feature of this new CD is the world premiere recording of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon’s new violin concerto with chorus entitled “The Singing Rooms”. Also receiving its debut on disc is Alvin Singleton’s “PraiseMaker” for chorus and orchestra, and the album concludes with Scriabin’s exotic and powerful “Poem of Ecstasy”. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus are conducted by Robert Spano. American composer Jennifer Higdon was born in 1962, and since the 2002 premiere of her Concerto for Orchestra has been much in demand. The piece was recorded on Telarc, (CD80620), by Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. “The Singing Rooms”, a violin concerto with an equally important part for chorus, was sparked by a request from violinist Jennifer Koh, for whom Higdon had previously composed a sonata with piano called String Poetic in 2006. The piece is part of a commissioning consortium with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra. For the poems Higdon turned to a colleague, Jeanne Minahan, who teaches creative writing and literature at the Curtis Institute. American composer Alvin Singleton has resided in Atlanta since 1985, when at Robert Shaw’s request he became Composer-in-Residence of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for three years [1985-88]. “PraiseMaker” was commissioned by the Cincinnati May Festival in celebration of its 125th anniversary. James Conlon conducted the first performance on May 22, 1998, with the Festival Chorus and Orchestra. Writing for this important choral festival, the composer requested an original text from Susan Kouguell, with whom he previously collaborated on The World Is Here with Me for Spelman College. Alexander Scriabin’s symphonic work “The Poem of Ecstasy” began about 1903 as a long prose poem that Scriabin felt would interpret his philosophy to a world hungry for enlightenment. The work is in one long movement, reflecting a succession of emotions from yearning, to striving, and finally fulfilment. “Robert Shaw's legacy in Atlanta of choral excellence is evident in these two premieres of works by composers with strong connections to that city's symphony and chorus...Spano focuses on forward motion and lucid textures - no mean feat in a work [the Scriabin] whose essential static nature can often sag.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2010 **** “Higdon's The Singing Rooms is a radical mix of concerto and oratorio whose idiom is remarkable for its extreme inoffensiveness...Scriabin's purely orchestral Poeme is the unexpected climax...These are expertly prepared performances, as is usual with Robert Spano and his orchestra.” International Record Review, January 2011 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Rule Britannia
“The Atlanta SO play brilliantly for Runnicles, and aside from coolly matter-of-fact performances of two of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance marches, the conductor proves a persuasive interpreter of some challenging scores.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2007 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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“The Scherzo of the Fifth Symphony is feather-light and luminous throughout, for example, and though the tempo is relatively relaxed, the music dances with an attractively cool grace. In the Preludio and Romanza, however, I want a greater sense of rapture (Previn and Haitink capture this elusive quality, each in his own way). Spano builds impressively tremendous climaxes, spotlighting the work's large-scale architecture with unusual clarity, but the overall result is oddly cool.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2007 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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‘…an opportunity to be with Brahms for nearly an hour in which the thoughtful, questioning mood is unbroken and its musical expression unblemished.’ Gramophone | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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“a major Wagnerian” Financial Times “It's a long time since we’ve had such a richly-gilded sound in this repertoire, darker colours in the lower register moving seamlessly to luminous tone above the stave… The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Runnicles sounds equally glorious, in warmly lit and irreproachably balanced sound that lends a striking realism to the individual colours of the woodwind solos...” BBC Music Magazine, October 2006 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | David Del Tredici: Paul Revere's Ride
“…David Del Tredici's Paul Revere's Ride… mixing Schubertian Lied, Handelian fugue, patriotic song and countless other musical borrowings into a stirring, exhilarating, humorous and ultimately touching miniature music-drama. Hila Piltmann negotiates the stratospheric, amplified soprano part with aplomb and her virtuosity is matched by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, who perform brilliantly both here and in the Theofanidis cantata under Robert Spano's direction. The orchestra give the central 'Lamentation' movement from Bernstein's Jeremiah Symphony a blistering intense reading, too; if only Nancy Maultsby didn't sound so strained.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2005 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Sacred: Inspirational and Spiritual Music for Choir and Orchestra
'Sacred' brings together works performed by the acclaimed conductor Robert Shaw and the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers, the outstanding Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, the legendary Mormon Tabernacle Choir and world-famous soprano Dawn Upshaw. Featured composers include Durufle, Faure, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff and Berlioz. | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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Gramophone Magazine