BSO and James Levine Release First Major Recordings
Works by Ravel, Brahms, Mahler and Bolcom
By: Ariel Petrova - Feb 20, 2009
The Boston Symphony Orchestra releases its first major recordings with Music Director James Levine—Ravel's complete Daphnis and Chloé, Brahms's A German Requiem, Mahler's Symphony No. 6, William Bolcom's Eighth Symphony, and Bolcom's Lyric Concerto for flute and orchestra—available on the orchestra's own BSO Classics label through its website at bso.org. These initial releases featuring James Levine and the BSO are drawn from recordings made during live performances at Symphony Hall, part of an ongoing project to record all of Mr. Levine's BSO concerts for archival purposes and possible recording consideration.
In anticipation of these new recordings, the Boston Symphony Orchestra broke new ground on December 1 with the launch of the first-ever orchestral music download service to offer tracks in both standard MP3 and HD Surround formats. All four recordings will be available as downloads Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé and Brahms's A German Requiem will also be available on compact disc. These recordings will be available as of Thursday, February 19, and can be purchased online at bso.org, as well as at the Symphony Shop, located in Symphony Hall in Boston, MA. Starting in mid-March, BSO fans will also be able to buy all four digital albums through iTunes, Amazon.com, and CDBaby.
"It means so much to me that these new releases on BSO Classics – my first recordings with the Boston Symphony – represent the BSO's extraordinary qualities in so many ways," said Music Director James Levine. "These recordings are the beginning of what we intend as an ongoing series of performances recorded in Symphony Hall during actual concerts in the presence of an audience. Today's state-of-the-art advanced recording techniques make it possible to hear all the specific character of the orchestral sound, and the unique acoustic of this great hall, in a more vivid and detailed presence than ever before, and provide the listener with the feeling of being at the concert – a very sophisticated souvenir of live performances without the need for studio techniques or recording in an empty hall.
"Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé is one of the Orchestra's signature works both in concert and on recordings, reflecting the BSO's longtime international reputation for performance of the great French repertoire. Besides being part of any great orchestra's core German repertoire, the Brahms German Requiem and Mahler 's Sixth Symphony represent profoundly original and individual creations by both composers. William Bolcom's Eighth Symphony, a BSO 125th anniversary commission, is a unique work by one of our best American composers, and one of the very few symphonies to include a chorus singing throughout the entire piece. It was written not just for the BSO, but also for the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the BSO's official chorus for more than thirty years under the inspired leadership of John Oliver, which is heard also in the Brahms and Ravel works. In Bolcom's delightful Lyric Concerto for flute and orchestra, we have the brilliant soloist for whom the piece was originally written, Sir James Galway; and the soloists in the Brahms, Christine Schäfer and Michael Volle, are just two of the recent generation of German-born artists in the international forefront. I'm thrilled to have this chance to share with you the immediacy and vitality of some of our most exciting musical experiences!"
Ravel's complete Daphnis and Chloé, recorded on October 5 and 6, 2007, was chosen to reflect the orchestra's long history as an ardent advocate of the French symphonic repertoire, particularly that of Ravel. This luminous score, one of the composer's most important works, was commissioned in 1909 by Sergei Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes and contains some of the Ravel's most stunning, atmospheric, and exciting orchestral writing. This new BSO recording features the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, conductor.
The recording of Brahms's A German Requiem, drawn from performances of September 26 and 27, 2008, marks the first time Maestro Levine has conducted the orchestra in this great masterpiece. A German Requiem, Brahms's largest work, is the composer's profoundly personal response to the Requiem text, dating back to music he wrote following his mentor Robert Schumann's suicide in 1854, as well as music composed at the time of his own mother's death. The recording features the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, conductor, and acclaimed German soloists Christine Schäfer, soprano and Michael Volle, baritone.
Mahler's Symphony No. 6, recorded on October 10, 11, and 14, 2008, was performed as part of Maestro Levine's multi-year survey with the BSO of the works of Gustav Mahler. Symphony No. 6 is the central work in a trilogy formed by his purely instrumental symphonies 5, 6, and 7. Written in 1903 and 1904, this intensely emotional piece—often referred to as his "Tragic" Symphony—is considered to be one of the composer's most heartfelt symphonic statements.
The other new release is the Eighth Symphony for chorus and orchestra by the versatile Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer William Bolcom. A BSO 125th Anniversary Commission, the work was recorded during its world premiere performances February 28, 29 and March 1, 2008, and represents the culmination of Bolcom's long fascination with the works of William Blake. This powerful work sets poems from three of Blake's "prophetic books": America a Prophecy, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,and Jerusalem, and features the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, conductor. The recording also includes Bolcom's Celtic-flavored Lyric Concerto for flute and orchestra, from performances of September 29 and 30, 2006. The soloist is the popular flutist extraordinaire Sir James Galway, an important advocate of new music for his instrument as well as a supreme interpreter of the classical flute repertoire, and for whom the piece was written.
These recordings were produced by Elizabeth Ostrow, with recording engineers John Newton and Jesse Lewis. Dirk Sobotka served as editing engineer and Mark Donahue was mixing and mastering engineer. All engineers on this project are with Soundmirror in Boston, MA.
PURCHASING OPTIONS FOR NEW RECORDINGS
The BSO is the first orchestra to offer downloads in HD Surround, sound which uses multichannel audio to enrich the listener's experience and reveal audio details never before heard in traditional MP3 format downloads. Patrons can purchase these new recordings as individual tracks, full albums, or as complete multi-movement works at the orchestra's website at bso.org. Music sold in 320 kbps open MP3 formatting will cost $8.99 an album, and the HD Surround albums, available in PC Lossless encoding, will cost $12.99. Individual track prices will vary based on the duration of each track; the cost of complete works will be based on the number and duration of movements in a work. The Ravel and Brahms recordings are also available for purchase on compact disc with Hybrid Super Audio CD. They can be purchased online at bso.org, as well as at the Symphony Shop, located in Symphony Hall in Boston, MA. Starting in mid-March, BSO fans will also be able to buy all four digital albums through iTunes, Amazon.com, and CDBaby.
RECORDINGS SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE
Additionally the BSO's online music store offers a subscription service, for which patrons will pay a fixed price for unlimited access to the music store for 3-month and 12-month durations. The 3-month subscription will be available for $30 and the 12-month subscription for $50. In the coming weeks, subscriptions will offer a search function, allowing music store visitors to search by different composers, conductors, genres, and release dates; and a wish list function that will integrate patrons' online music store wish lists with their myBSO.org wish lists. MyBSO.org is an online individual BSO account where patrons can personalize their account preferences for access to custom-tailored calendars of upcoming performances and exclusive offers.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT BSO'S NEW DOWNLOAD SERVICE
Since its December 1 launch, the BSO's new download service has offered a selection of previously released and historic BSO, Pops, Chamber Players, and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra recordings, though at present only the Boston Symphony Chamber Players disc is available in HD Surround. Boston Pops selections include Oscar and Tony, with Keith Lockhart conducting award-winning music from Broadway and Hollywood; Sleigh Ride, featuring holiday classics, such as the Pops' signature holiday piece, "Sleigh Ride," written by Leroy Anderson especially for the orchestra; and tracks from America, a collection of beloved patriotic favorites. Other albums available include the Boston Symphony Chamber Players Mozart Chamber Music for Winds and Strings and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra's Beethoven, Ravel and Shostakovich. Also available for download on the website is The Symphony Hall Centennial Celebration Collection, a collection of live broadcasts of 48 works from Symphony Hall dating from 1943 to 2000. The recordings include such landmark broadcasts as Serge Koussevitzky conducting Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 2, "The Age of Anxiety," with Bernstein on piano, and Seiji Ozawa conducting Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms,all pieces that were premiered by the BSO. Other recordings include Charles Munch conducting Debussy's La Mer; William Steinberg conducting Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 in C minor; and Pierre Monteux conducting Richard Strauss's Don Quixote.
BSO.ORG
The Boston Symphony Orchestra's extensive website, www.bso.org is the largest and most-visited orchestral website in the country, receiving more than 7.5 million visitors annually and generating $45 million in revenue since its launch in 1996. The BSO's website offers fans information and music beyond the concert hall, providing interactive new media that includes "Classical Companion," an interactive supplement to special BSO concerts that provides interviews with composers and performers, archival images, and video and sound clips. BSO Concert Preview Podcasts, focusing on each of the programs of the BSO's 2009-2010 season, are available through www.bso.org and on iTunes. In addition to purchasing digital music downloads, visitors to www.bso.org can also purchase tickets and merchandise, as well as make donations.