2012 New Classical Releases Index

Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos & Rondo brillante

Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25, MWV O7: I. Molto allegro con fuoco

Written by rising high school senior Leandro Torres as part of the Compose Yourself Intensive program in August 2022.

ACO's Compose Yourself! program is for high school age musicians who want to compose their own music. Classes help young composers develop their creativity and learn professional standards in a supportive, hands-on environment. This program has a strong record of preparing students for the rigors of college and beyond.

Enough by Leandro Torres (ACO Compose Yourself Student)

Three Shades Without Angles

ISRC code: GBF071240808
Composer: Rachmaninov
Work: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini 
Movement: Variation 7 (Meno mosso)

Conductor: Michael Francis
Artist: Valentina Lisitsa
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra

If you want more information about this track please e-mail sync@decca.com 
Please quote GBF071240808 in the subject line.


Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Variation 7 (Meno mosso)

for none shall gaze upon the Father and live

Romantische Arien

Tannhäuser, WWV 70: Blick' ich umher in diesem edlen Kreise (Ansprache des Wolfram, 2. Akt aus: Tannhäuser WW 70)

"Shifting Sands" (2016) for trumpet and electronics, by Saad Haddad

Perusal Score, Program Notes, and Purchase Information: 
http://www.saadnhaddad.com/shiftingsandstrumpet.html

Theo Van Dyck, trumpet
https://soundcloud.com/van_dyck

Shifting Sands (version for trumpet and electronics)

"Kolmanskop", by Will Healy, performed by the Juilliard Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall. Conducted by Jeff Milarsky. This project was funded by the W.K. Rose Fellowship from Vassar College.

Program note:

Kolmanskop is a ghost town, located in a desert near the coast of Namibia. A German diamond mining settlement until its abandonment in the 1950's, the surrounding sands have filled the homes. The first time I came across pictures of Kolmanskop, I was awestruck by the beauty and strangeness of the place. The photographs looked like surrealist art, with mountains of sand, sometimes to the tops of doorways and roofs, inundating ornate colonial houses. 

In 2014, I was awarded the W.K. Rose Fellowship from Vassar College to go to Kolmanskop and compose a piece based on that setting.  I spent countless hours sitting in the houses last April with blank staff paper and a pencil, sketching out a plan for the piece. In the end, I wanted to represent more than just the visual elements of Kolmanskop. I tried to depict the idea of decay as the sand fills the houses, the sense of loss and nostalgia as the structures fade away, and the passage of time. The whole town is a bit like an hourglass--the more time that passes, the higher the sand becomes. I found a violin in one of the houses behind a glass case, apparently made by a violin-maker in Kolmanskop at the turn of the century. It was strange to know that in these eerily silent buildings there had once been music, and I decided to represent that with a recurring offstage violin solo. As the violin plays, it is often hidden by walls of sound, struggling to be heard above the orchestra. 

This piece is written in memory of my teacher, Steven Stucky. He and I had many discussions about the time, loss and what that meant in music, and those sections took on new meaning after his death. I want to thank him, as well as John Corigliano, Samuel Adler, and Harold Meltzer for their guidance on the piece. I also want to thank Mr. Milarsky and the Juilliard Orchestra for their hard work and their continuing dedication to making new music.

Kolmanskop

Trio for Violin, Horn, & Piano

KBS Classic FM - Beethoven's Four Seasons

Beethoven: Sonata For Violin And Piano No. 7 In C Minor, Op. 30 No. 2: 1. Allegro con brio

BABBITT - COMPOSITION FOR 12 INSTRUMENTS - Monod - BBC

Get in the mood where you wanna punch your opp in the face!

Stop It

modest attempt to record For Cornelius by Alvin Curran, true to some subjective hearingexperiences - a live transformation by Reinier van Houdt

Alvin Curran: Grand Piano-part from "For Cornelius"

Gregory Spears is an alumnus of both American Composers Orchestra's Underwood New Music Readings and the first ACO/Penn Presents New Music Readings in 2007. The New York Premiere of Spears' "Finishing" was given by ACO on Friday, November 14, 2008 at Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, reprising the work Spears created for the Penn Presents Readings. Spears says of this work, "'Finishing' is a meditation on endings. Within the piece the traditional chamber orchestra is augmented with the sound of mark-trees, dog-whistles, and small tape recorders to produce an ambient haze around a series of recurring trumpet calls. The title also refers to the practice of adding a seductive veneer to the cover of books-in this case depicted musically through shiny textures and an abundance of decorative flourish. I was also interested in the darker melancholic definition of "finish" as that which causes one's utter downfall or ruin."

For more information: http://bit.ly/14E7kVf

GREGORY SPEARS - Finishing

AmCompOrch

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