Augusta Read Thomas; Jacob Druckman; Stephen Hartke

Augusta Read Thomas; Jacob Druckman; Stephen Hartke

Augusta Read Thomas; Jacob Druckman; Stephen Hartke

List Price: ~~$17.99~~
Our Price: $8.72
You Save: $9.27 (52%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Listen soundtracks from this album

Listen soundtracks from this album

Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store

CD Details

Composer: Augusta Read Thomas
Composer: Jacob Druckman
Composer: Stephen Hartke
Conductor: Lorin Maazel
Orchestra: The New York Philharmonic
Performer: soprano "Heidi Grant Murphy
Performer: "The Hilliard Ensemble
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-06-01
Music Label: New World Records
Soundtracks:

Gathering Paradise: Emily Dickinson Settings, for soprano & orchestra
Summer Lightning, for orchestra
Symphony No. 3, for countertenor, 2 tenors, baritone & orchestra

Description of Augusta Read Thomas; Jacob Druckman; Stephen Hartke

These are the world-premiere recordings of orchestral works by three of the most acclaimed contemporary American composers. ?Composing for voice is my first passion in life, and as a result the largest part of my catalogue is music for voice: solo voice, small groups of voices, small or large choirs, with and without orchestral or other kinds of accompaniments. For me, the human voice?possibly the most subtle, complex, and fragile yet forceful, flexible, seductive, and persuasive carrier of musical ideas and meanings?has always been an inspiration for and influence upon my entire musical thinking. Emily Dickinson?s poems are intensely personal, intellectual, introspective, and offer a meditation on life, death, and poetic creation; her poems share a close observation of nature as well as consideration of religious and philosophical issues. The poems used in Gathering Paradise are marked by the intimate recollection of inspirational moments which are suggestive of hope and the possibility of happiness found in art and in the observation of the natural world. (Augusta Read Thomas) ?Summer Lightning is the latest and perhaps most brazen step my music has taken in recent works toward simplicity and candor. At times I feel like some fate-driven Istar, shedding veils of complexity and sophistication, moving inexorably toward a blinding light of simple truth. Perhaps it is, on the other hand, simply a regression to a child-like state of delight in those simple harmonies and rhythms that made being a musician the only path my life could take.? (Jacob Druckman, on the work?s 1991 premiere) Maestro Maazel invited me to consider creating a piece which might reflect on the anniversary of the September 11 attack. Shortly thereafter the idea of using this text came to mind because of the beautiful way it affords a broader historical context within which to view the crises of our own time. The resulting symphony is something of a sacred work, though from a humanist point of view. The text is an Old English elegy, perhaps one of the oldest surviving Old English poems, from the eighth or ninth century. In it the poet describes the ruins of a Roman city (perhaps Bath), contrasting the decay he sees with imaginings of the splendor that once was. What is particularly striking is that it does not moralize, as later memento mori poems do, but rather celebrates the creative spirit of the city?s vanished inhabitants. The text is somewhat fragmentary owing to the age of the volume in which it was found and the damage it had sustained. Thus the poem fades in and out, and the actual ending is entirely missing (though the final surviving line, ?That was spacious,? provides a satisfying close). The piece is cast in a single movement, but is clearly divided into four main sections: the slower ones (the first and the third) treat the descriptions of the ruined city, and the faster ones are the evocations of the greatness of the city at its height. (Stephen Hartke)

Classical CDs

Music > Styles

Music Genres

Bestsellers in Classical CDs

Winterscapes Image

Winterscapes
by London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.74
Price in other shops: ~~$6.99~~

The Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebee Image

The Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebee
by Dini Petty
Children's Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.38
Price in other shops: ~~$13.98~~

Beethoven Lives Upstairs Cdr Image

Classical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs Cdr
Release date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $24.97

Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos)) Image

Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))
by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann
Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.99

Jose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]
Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.86
Price in other shops: ~~$9.99~~

Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.90
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~

Rambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~

Winter Music: Composing the North
by John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.33
Price in other shops: ~~$25.95~~

Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $6.38
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~

Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~