ProMusica Chamber Orchestra champions new works by American women composers on Summit Records
The ProMusica Chamber Orchestra is to mark its 33rd anniversary by releasing Triumvirate – the first of three recordings featuring world premiere performances on disc – with specially commissioned works by three internationally-renowned American women composers.
Berkeley, California-born Gabriela Lena Frank’s Compadrago is a double concerto for cello and piano, with ProMusica joined by husband-and-wife duo David Finckel and Wu Han. The title, the composer says, “refers to a quintessentially Latin American idea: it signifies a special kind of camaraderie such as the bond between godparent and godchild or the friendliness between neighbors who might borrow sugar from one another. I found this spirit particularly well-suited for exploring the camaraderie between the soloists as well as between soloist and orchestra.”
Hindemith Prize winner Lera Auerbach’s Fragile Solitudes, Shadowbox for string quartet and orchestra, is described as “an 11-movement work of contrasting ideas – airy, sweet, dreamy lyrical music and driving, dynamic rushing music,” with the Borromeo String Quartet joining ProMusica.
The third work is Joan Tower’s Purple Rhapsody for viola and orchestra. Co-commissioned with the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the one-movement work is dedicated to violist Paul Neubauer, who also features on the recording.
Scheduled for release in November is Resounding, a compendium of four commissions by Christopher Theofanidis, Yenn-Chwen Er, Roberto Sierra, and Mark O’Connor, who also performs as solo violinist on a disc that includes a contribution by the Ahn Trio.
The last of the three anniversary CDs – pairing two works by Conrad
Tao (The Four Elements and Fanfare) with Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2 – will be released towards the end of the orchestra’s 2011-2012 season.
All three discs will be conducted by ProMusica’s music director Timothy Russell, and will be released by Summit Records.
Triumvirate is available from today, September 9.
