Now that it’s almost July, UGA’s new CD including the world premiere recording of My Hands Are a City (also the third movement of Symphony No. 1) is finally available.
Naxos does an enjoyable podcast about their new releases which I listen to whenever I can; their latest is an interview with conductor John Lynch about the album. John says such lovely things about us. I had to go and listen again.
I’m quite familiar with everything on the record (I was at some of the sessions) but I when I received the CD last week I listened to the whole thing all the way through and was completely floored. It not only sounds amazing (engineered by the great Bruce Leek, pictured so eloquently in the above JM link), but the disc also tells an engaging story about ecstatic celebration, with my piece, Kristy’s gorgeous piece, and Hammersmith as the big “descriptive” works, basically serving as pillars.
JM’s Kingfisher’s Catch Fire is a rocket ship in the middle of the record. It’s both a spectacularly crystal-clear recording, where I hear all kinds of things I never heard live (that contrabassoon! Who knew the chimes came in there?) and, for the bombastic nature of the 2nd movement, an amazingly subtle performance.
The CD is up on Amazon now, but you can also download it, which, let’s be honest, is what you’ll do. My track is “Album Only” on both the iTunes Store and the Amazon MP3 Download store. Probably because it’s kind of long. Sorry ’bout that.
Your recompense will be that while on iTunes, you can pick up the University of New Mexico’s new As the scent of spring rain… recording on Summit Records for $0.99. That’s like $.03 for every bi-tonal cluster! Act now.
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