Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Rossini - Overtures

Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45

Johannes Brahms wrote Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem), Op. 45, following the deaths of his mother and Robert Schumann, his mentor. Although Brahms based his Requiem on scriptural passages, beginning and ending the work with a blessing “Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4), he didn’t write it as a religious piece concerning itself with the souls of the departed, but as a cantata whose message is of comfort, acceptance, peace, and serenity for those left behind.

Gandolfi - The Garden of Cosmic Speculation (CD)

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is an actual 30 acre garden located in the Borders area of Scotland. The creation of architect and critic Charles Jencks and his late wife, Maggie Keswick, the garden was a 15-year project which was inspired by fractals, genetics, chaos theory, waves and solitons. Jenck’s garden and resulting book captured the imagination of Michael Gandolfi, an American composer whose earliest musical experiences were in rock and jazz improvisation, which he explored as a self-taught guitarist. Later he became interested in music composition and pursued formal studies and is now faculty member of the New England Conservatory and the Tanglewood Music Centre. “I have long been interested in modern physics,” Gandolfi commented “and it seemed proper for music to participate in this magnificent joining of physics and architecture. I discovered The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, and after a month or so of sketching musical ideas, I decided to focus on several aspects of the garden to which I had the strongest musical response.

Mozart: Requiem in D minor, K626

Rule Britannia

Golijov - Oceana

Sibelius: Kullervo, Op. 7

Holst: The Planets, Op. 32