Among the orchestras and musicians with recent recording news are the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and the pianist Leon Fleisher. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and its music director, Marin Alsop, are featured on a Harmonia Mundi CD of three works by Kevin Puts: the Symphony No. 4 (“From Mission San Juan”), as well as Puts’s choral works “To Touch the Sky” and “If I Were a Swan,” which feature the vocal ensemble Conspirare. This summer the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and its music director, Gil Rose, are releasing two new albums on their own BMOP/sound label: Michael Gandolfi’s From the Institutes of Groove and Jacob Druckman’s Lamia. The Boston Symphony Orchestra is releasing John Harbison’s six symphonies this month as digital downloads (available as mp3 and in hi-def stereo at www.bso.org). The recordings were made live at BSO performances in 2010-11 and 2011-12 at Symphony Hall. Harbison recently received the orchestra’s Mark M. Horblit Award for Distinguished Composition by an American Composer, an award created in 1947 whose first recipient was Aaron Copland. The Buffalo Philharmonic and its music director, JoAnn Falletta, have released an all-Gershwin CD on the Naxos label featuring Rhapsody in Blue and the “Catfish Row” Suite from Porgy and Bess, among other works. Falletta also regularly records for Naxos with the Virginia Symphony and the Ulster Orchestra (in Belfast, Northern Ireland), where she is also serves as music director. Music Director Alan Gilbert leads the New York Philharmonic in the orchestra’s eighth digital album made during 2012-13 season: Steven Stucky’s Symphony (a co-commission with the Los Angeles Philharmonic), the world premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Prospero’s Rooms (a Philharmonic commission), and Ives’s Symphony No. 4. The 85th birthday of pianist Leon Fleisher on July 23 is being marked by Sony Classical with the release of the 23-CD Leon Fleisher: The Complete Album Collection. Fleisher has a full concert and touring schedule during 2013-14, which includes a season appointment as the Cleveland Orchestra’s artist in residence.
Posted July 24, 2013
