SACDs - Harrison, L

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American Mavericks

American Mavericks


Cowell:

Synchrony

Piano Concerto, HC 440

Jeremy Denk (piano)

Harrison, L:

Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra

Paul Jacobs (organ)

Varèse:

Amériques


Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony release live recordings from their memorable 2012 American Mavericks festival, featuring seminal works by Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison and Edgard Varèse, in Hybrid SACD format.

The latest release from Michael Tilson Thomas and the Grammy® Award-winning San Francisco Symphony features stunning live recordings from their wildly successful American Mavericks festival, a slate of concerts and special events focusing on the compositional voices who created a new American sound for the 20th century and beyond.

Following two weeks of concerts in March 2012 in San Francisco, MTT and SFS took to the road to present these concerts throughout the US, attracting international attention.

Presented in premium audio Hybrid SACD, the recording captures performances of four works by three influential but seldom heard 20th century masters. Henry Cowell's Synchrony and his Piano Concerto, with Jeremy Denk, combine Cowell's distinctive musical language with exceptionally expressive playing. Lou Harrison's eclectic compositional style and organ soloist Paul Jacobs’ spectacular virtuosity are on full display in the Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra. This unique recording concludes with Edgard Varèse's monumental Amériques and the orchestral siren that influenced generations of composers.

“a brilliantly virtuosic and detailed account (in its 1927 revision) of Amériques...[The Piano Concerto's] solo part is dashingly well played by Jeremy Denk.” The Guardian, 25th October 2012 ***

“None of the music here pretends to be subtle. The mystical flavour of Henry Cowell’s atmospheric Synchrony takes the Stravinsky of The Rite of Spring a stage further...The San Francisco Symphony and Tilson Thomas give scintillating performances.” Sunday Times, 28th October 2012

“Michael Tilson Thomas's time at the helm of the San Francisco Symphony has been marked by a courageous dedication to modernist American outsiders, and American Mavericks bears out the orchestra's experience with such outré material.” The Independent, 3rd November 2012 *****

“Jeremy Denk, the gifted soloist, dismisses the [Concerto]’s technical difficulties with ease, as does the trumpeter who begins Cowell’s Synchrony with a sinuous three-minute solo, hot as molten lava...In Varèse’s intoxicating celebration of new horizons, Amériques, Tilson Thomas drives his orchestra through the teeming sounds with tremendous vigour.” The Times, 9th November 2012 ****

“Tilson Thomas doesn't play these composers like they're waggish tricksters, or possessed by idealistic amateurism...Tilson Thomas peels the orchestra open like a considerable box of delights...This is an exceptionally fine Ameriques, filled with depth and sonic glare, and not a little menace.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013

“This is one of the boldest pieces of programming to have come my way in a long time...Tilson Thomas turns in a superb performance, remarkable as much for the delicacy of the quiet moments as for the raucous climaxes.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2013 *****

“Tilson Thomas, at his best in this kind of off-beat repertoire – a man on a mission - should be loudly applauded for his adventurous programming.” MusicWeb International, 2nd May 2013

GGramophone Magazine

Editor's Choice - February 2013

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Avie - SFS0056

(SACD)

$22.25

Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days.

A Bridge of Dreams

A Bridge of Dreams


Body:

Lullabies (5)

Boyd:

As I Crossed A Bridge Of Dreams

Edwards, Ross:

Sacred Kingfisher Psalms

Harrison, L:

Mass for Saint Cecilia’s Day

Sola, Liu:

The Seafarer

Paul Hillier (recitation)


with Andrew Lawrence-King (harp)

Ars Nova Copenhagen, Paul Hillier

Dacapo present scintillating vocal music from the Pacific Rim featuring composers and poets from China, Japan, California, New Zealand, Australia and one ancient Anglo-Saxon Seafarer.

This is unusual and lovely music sung by the Grammy Award winning vocal ensemble, Ars Nova Copenhagen, under their conductor Paul Hillier, and with early harp virtuoso Andrew Lawrence-King.

These are composers who have consciously looked beyond Western aesthetic traditions to create a musical language with a variety of different reference points. Some have found their sources close at hand in the aboriginal cultures of the land where they live, while others have looked towards the religions and music of Asia. The results are still concert music—not musical exotica—but the direction from which their ideas have arrived gives their music a sense of openness and receptivity.

“Anne Boyd's As I crossed a bridge of dreams (1975) gives its title to the CD and, with its rapt sostenuto, steals the show. Almost endlessly sustained, immaculately imagined, and - like everything else here - admirably performed.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2012

“This is an intriguing disc of barely known and often very beautiful music by composers from Australisia, the United States and China. It would be hard, I think, to imagine music more transparent than that of Lou Harrison's Mass for Saint Cecilia's Day...The music's transparency and long-breathed quality give every opportunity for the voices of Ars Nova to shine in a very particular way, really as chamber soloists.” International Record Review, February 2012

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Dacapo - 6220597

(SACD)

$17.75

(also available to download from $10.50)

Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.)

Composers

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