Well, it’s actually not officially for sale until February 1st, but if you want to pre-order, you can do so by contacting the Oregon Symphony’s ticket office by calling 503-228-1353 or 1-800-228-7343, Monday–Friday, 10 AM – 9 PM. You can also pre-order at a variety of online outlets, but if you want the maximum amount of dollars to go back to the orchestra, buying directly from us is the best bet. It’s like buying from Powell’s instead of Amazon.
At the risk of tooting my own horn, it sounds fantastic. The Copland Third Symphony, in particular, is remarkable given that it was largely recorded in one live performance last spring. There was a patch session afterward to take care of extraneous noise and a few other blemishes, but that is par for the course with all ‘live’ recordings, and to do this particular symphony in this little amount of recording time, in the words of Carlos Kalmar, is “virtually unthinkable”.
Yeah, we’re bad ass.
Antheil’s A Jazz Symphony also gets a gutsy performance, with kudos to keyboard player Carol Rich (also featured prominently in the Copland and Piston works along with Yoko Greeney) for her virtuosic playing. Piston’s Suite from The Incredible Flutist benefits from the world debut of violinist Ron Blessinger in his role as ‘The Dog’.
You can hear samples of the recording at Pentatone’s website.
It’s a recording to be proud of, and hopefully the third in a growing series of recordings that will spread the musical reach of the Oregon Symphony around the world. Many thanks to the Pentatone label for their faith in all of us at the Oregon Symphony.