In Wednesday’s (1/19) Washington Post, Anne Midgette reports, “National Symphony Orchestra music director Christoph Eschenbach has kept his promise and brought a recording contract to his new orchestra. This week’s concerts, complete with a newly commissioned work honoring John F. Kennedy for the 50th anniversary of his inauguration as president, will be recorded and released on the Ondine label in May. It will be the NSO’s first new CD release in 10 years. The announcement Tuesday ups the ante for this week’s concerts, which center on a new work by Peter Lieberson, ‘Remembering JFK (An American Elegy).’ Conceived as a kind of counterpart to Aaron Copland’s beloved ‘Lincoln Portrait,’ Lieberson’s work will have its premiere Thursday night at a gala concert celebrating the Kennedy anniversary. It will be repeated three times at the NSO’s regular subscription concerts Saturday, Sunday and Monday. … The recording will also feature a bonus CD with excerpts of the concert the NSO played for the inauguration in 1961. On Thursday, the Lieberson work, which provides a musical setting for excerpts of Kennedy’s speeches, will be narrated by Morgan Freeman. Richard Dreyfuss, however, will take over narrating duties for the three subsequent concerts, and he will be featured on the recording.”
Posted January 19, 2011
