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************ Multichannel Disc of the Month *********** * DEBUSSY: Images (complete); Jeux; La plus que lente – SF Sym./ Michael Tilson Thomas – SFS Media

************ Multichannel Disc of the Month *********** * DEBUSSY: Images (complete); Jeux; La plus que lente – SF Sym./ Michael Tilson Thomas – SFS Media

by | Nov 20, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

The latest from MTT and the SF Symphony is an all-Debussy SACD. * DEBUSSY: Images (complete); Jeux; La plus que lente – San Francisco Sym./ Michael Tilson Thomas – SFS Media multichannel SACD 821936-0069-2, 62:31 (10/28/16) *****: More superb recordings and performances from one of the best orchestras in the U.S. – the San Francisco Symphony. The mastery of orchestration possessed by the French composer is exquisitely demonstrated in this collection of his impressionist style. French composers nearly always did the best job of portraying Spain in their music, and Debussy’s Images is a great example. Each one of the six parts of Images has its own national coloration. Iberia is the central panel of the Images, and is a sort of love song on a grand scale to the country which so engaged some French composers, including him. In the Night Fragrances section Debussy caresses us with the scents of oleander and sweet chestnut, wild rose and thyme. The score is marked “Slow and dreamy.”  The last of the six parts, Rondes de printemps, is dedicated to the composer’s new wife, and quotes a French children’s song.  It is actually a fierce little tone poem. Jeux is one of […]

MASON BATES: Works for Orch. – SF Sym./ Michael Tilson Thomas /Mason Bates, electronica – SFS Media

MASON BATES: Works for Orch. – SF Sym./ Michael Tilson Thomas /Mason Bates, electronica – SFS Media

by | Mar 13, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

MASON BATES: Works for Orchestra [TrackList below] – San Francisco Sym./ Michael Tilson Thomas /Mason Bates, electronica – SFS Media multichannel (5.1) SACD SFS0065 TT: 1:11:14 (3/11/16) ****: Contemporary music with a first-rate multichannel recording. This is a very fine collection of music by the prolific and talented Mason Bates, a contemporary composer who has written contemporary symphonies and works that include electronic instruments. Earlier this year, he was named composer-in-residence of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (their first ever composer-in-residence appointment), starting this fall and through the 2017-18 season. Notable works include Alternative Energy, a symphony premiered by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Liquid Interface, a water symphony commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra; and The B-Sides, a symphony commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony. Those are the three works that reside on this multichannel SACD. The B-Sides is a lyrical work, but Bates pushes the symphonic boundaries with unique sounds, and even some sound clips from NASA. Sometimes it has the sound of film music, at other times it is dreamy or even playful. Liquid Interface is a treatise on liquids, with section titles like Glaciers Calving and On the Wannsee. Bates considers the […]