Composer Nico MuhlyPhoto: Ana Cuba The Utah Symphony’s Dawn To Dust release features three new world premieres. Find out about Nico Muhly’s work Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra) and watch/listen to a preview from the Utah Symphony: Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra) is a sequence of five episodes describing, in some way, an element of Utah’s natural environment, as well as the ways in which humans interact with it. The first part (Landform) begins with a texture of strings, interrupted by forceful…
Composer Nico MuhlyPhoto: Ana Cuba Alexander Ortega looks at the commissioned works on Utah Symphony’s upcoming Dawn To Dust recording and interviews Nico Muhly about his process for Control: “Muhly, a renowned artist, took advantage of the USUO-contracted theme of Utah’s southerly landscape by accompanying the orchestra on their Mighty 5 tour of Utah’s national parks last year. Muhly illustrates the parks’ “interactive state” with people—whether it be early settlers’ industriousness in reaction to the…
I Care If You Listen TV features the latest videos from the Utah Symphony! Dawn To Dust World Premieres of Three Works Commissioned by the Utah Symphony Utah Symphony Thierry Fischer, Music Director Pre-Order on Amazon Today DAWN TO DUST contains live recordings of three significant and adventurous works by leading composers Augusta Read Thomas, Nico Muhly, and Andrew Norman. World-renowned percussionist Colin Currie performs on Andrew Norman’s “Switch.”
The Utah Symphony’s Dawn To Dust release features three new world premieres. Find out about Augusta Read Thomas’ work EOS (Goddess of the Dawn), A ballet for orchestra and watch/listen to a preview from the Utah Symphony: Photo © by Anthony Barlich My catalogue includes 45 additional works for orchestra or orchestral concerti, and I conceived most of my orchestral and chamber works as suitable for dance. I stand at the drafting table as I…
The Utah Symphony’s Dawn To Dust release features three new world premieres. Find out about Andrew Norman’s work Switch and watch/listen to a preview from the Utah Symphony: Andrew Norman © Jessa Anderson During rehearsals for the premiere performances of Switch, Colin Currie gave me an amazing metaphor for the piece. He said that playing Switch feels like being trapped (in the best possible way) inside a giant pinball machine. It’s an apt image for…
Dawn To Dust World Premieres of Three Works Commissioned by the Utah Symphony Utah Symphony Thierry Fischer, Music Director Pre-Order on Amazon Today First Listen: DAWN TO DUST contains live recordings of three significant and adventurous works by leading composers Augusta Read Thomas, Nico Muhly, and Andrew Norman. World-renowned percussionist Colin Currie performs on Andrew Norman’s “Switch.” The Utah Symphony, celebrating its 75th anniversary in the 2015-16 season, is one of America’s major symphony orchestras…
Audiophilia Magazine’s Anthony Kershaw hails the Utah Symphony’s Mahler recording as a “stunner”: “The orchestra sounds good in all departments, with some soloists highlighted to outstanding effect. … Fischer and his musicians are so musical in this potboiler of a symphony — together, they make the ‘Star Trek’ opening, the minor, inverted ‘Frère Jacques’ funeral tune and the klezmer music sound natural. Others make it sound like film music. … So, a fine execution of…
Thierry FischerPhoto Credit: Kousaku Nakagawa The Utah Symphony and music director Thierry Fischer perform at Carnegie Hall April 29th in a concert celebrating the orchestra’s 75th anniversary. The program features the New York premiere of American composer Andrew Norman’s Percussion Concerto, Switch, with Scottish soloist Colin Currie, commissioned by the Utah Symphony and Mr. Fischer, and includes Haydn’s Symphony No. 96 in D major, “Miracle,” Bartók’s Suite from the Miraculous Mandarin, and selections from the…
Dave Billinge has a new review for the Utah Symphony and Thierry Fischer’s Mahler: Symphony No. 1 “Titan” recording on MusicWeb International: “It is tempting to dismiss yet another Mahler First entering a crowded market as simply not needed. In this case it would be a mistake because this does offer something special… these players respond with as rhythmically vital a performance as you could wish to hear. … I have one small but significant…
ClassicsToday editor David Hurwitz reviews the Utah Symphony’s new Mahler: Symphony No. 1 recording: “Under Music Director Thierry Fischer, it’s clear that orchestral standards are considerably higher today … just as this SACD reflects improvements in engineering since the 1960s. Fischer leads a singularly appealing performance of this perennially fresh and engaging music. The first movement builds inexorably, the tempo accelerating steadily through the exciting final pages exactly as Mahler requests. Indeed, Fischer’s control of…
The Washington Post‘s tom Huizenga reviews the Utah Symphony’s Mahler: Symphony No. 1 “Titan” recording: “In Fischer’s hands, Mahler is well-balanced… the orchestra can be proud of this performance, with its brisk tempos and transparency in recorded sound. Winds are particularly expressive in the opening movement, where nature awakens in a haze of ethereal strings and chirps from oboes and clarinets before picking up the jaunty melody to one of Mahler’s own songs. … This…
The Utah Symphony’s Mahler: Symphony No. 1 recording gets a rave review from Graham Williams on Classical CD Choice: “Now, from the Reference Recordings Fresh! Label, we have a compelling new account of Mahler’s 1st Symphony recorded in state-of-the-art sound from this same orchestra under their current Music Director, the Swiss conductor Thierry Fischer.… The magical opening pages of the first movement are beautifully controlled with the off-stage trumpets suitably distanced yet absolutely audible. The…
The Arts Desk critic Graham Rickson has a new review of Thierry Fischer and the Utah Symphony’s Mahler: Symphony No. 1 recording: “Wonderfully played too, by an orchestra many won’t have heard of, under a conductor usually associated with French repertoire. Readers with long memories may remember a pioneering 1960s and 1970s Mahler cycle recorded by the Utah Symphony under Maurice Abravanel, frustratingly difficult to find now. Abravanel’s zeal compensated for the occasional lapses in…
Classical.net critic Brian Wigman calls the new Mahler Symphony No. 1 recording a “‘welcome back’ party” for the Utah Symphony: “…there is…much to admire. Whatever reservations I have with that Scherzo, the closing bars of it are thrilling. And the third movement strikes me as very well paced, with plenty of color and gorgeous woodwind solos. … And the Finale is marvelous…the climaxes are exciting as you could wish, with the final pages an absolute…
Utah Symphony’s Mahler Symphony No. 1 and True Concord Voices and Orchestra’s Far In the Heavens both get Gramophone Magazine features in the October 2015 issue! Far In The Heavens “… abundantly lyric, soothingly consonant works…True Concord’s…vocal blend gilds the unaccompanied works especially with a halo of resonance.” —Alexander Coghlan Order & Listen Now: ReferenceRecordings.comAmazonArkivMusicApple MusicSpotify Mahler: Symphony No. 1 “…the orchestra acquits itself with distinction. The opening dawn chorus is notable for its hushed…