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To hear the excerpts, which are all in mp3 format, click on the CD icons
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In Cello Classics New & Old, David Finckel, who premiered Ritual Incantations in 1999 with the Aspen Music Festival Chamber Orchestra, once again performs the work, this time in a recording with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Felix Chiu-Sen Chen conducting. The work is paired with Dvorák's Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, in this 2005 recording (Taipei Symphony Orchestra recordings).
Listen to an excerpt from RITUAL INCANTATIONS, First Mvmt.
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Listen to an excerpt from RITUAL INCANTATIONS, Second Mvmt.
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Buy "Cello Classics New & Old," containing RITUAL INCANTATIONS
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CEREMONIAL, by Augusta Read Thomas, is the final piece on this Chicago Symphony Orchestra "From the Archives" recording. Thomas was the Mead Composer in Residence at the Symphony for Maestro Barenboim's last nine years there; CEREMONIAL was written especially for him, and was the first piece of music the Chicago Symphony played in Orchestra Hall in the twenty-first century. (Chicago Symphony Orchestra Recordings CSO CD06-2).
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Listen to an excerpt from CEREMONIAL |
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Buy "A Tribute to Daniel Barenboim," containing CEREMONIAL |
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A new CD of thirteen chamber works by Augusta Read Thomas, Prairie Sketches, conducted by Cliff Colnot and performed by the Callisto Ensemble plus guests, is available from Amazon.com. This is Thomas's third self-produced recording.
John von Rhein, music critic of the The Chicago Tribune, wrote on January 11 2005 "if the classical music world had an equivalent of the Oscars, Augusta Read Thomas might get the award for Most Prolific Contemporary Composer. Much of the composer's zest for putting together new sounds that reflect her rapturous delight in music comes through in her latest work for chamber ensemble, Prairie Sketches I: Diamonds on Orchid Velvet, which had its premiere by the Callisto Ensemble. When writing for voice and instruments, Thomas is particularly drawn to texts that resonate with spiritual wonderment and suggest intriguing possibilities of color and texture. Thomas's setting, like the poem, mirrors the shifting light over a windswept Kansas prairie from dawn to dusk to late evening. Winds, strings and harp build rich, resonant chords in the opening stanzas, bathed by the brilliance of the solo soprano lines. A mystical choral refrain, "My Soul, breathe deep," amplifies the image of tall green grasses reaching "to embrace silken sunlight." When the poetic imagery grows denser, so does the solo soprano part. Indeed, the vocal lines take on a bounding, filigreed energy that propels them high above a luminous field of instrumental activity punctuated by the bright metallic clangor of crotales and temple bells representing twinkling stars."
On the same day, Wynne Delacoma of The Chicago Sun-Times wrote "Like all of Thomas' compositions, Prairie Sketches explodes with color. Few composers have as keen an ear for the expressive possibilities in a cello's deep, dark rumble, a clarinet's smoky velvet or the clarion authority of a single, plucked harp string... In Thomas' music, poet Zimmerman's vast Kansas prairie was a joyful place of endless possibility."
Writing in the New York Times "Arts & Leisure" section in December 2006, Steve Smith enthuses, " In Prairie Sketches I, which includes harp and a chorus
of three female voices, Ms. Thomas revels in the poet Suzann Zimmerman's paean to a sweeping Kansas landscape with music by turns radiant and ethereal."
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Listen to excerpts from RUMI SETTINGS: Movement III |
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The new CD of works by Augusta Read Thomas, "...Words of the Sea...," is available from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra store and Amazon.com. Conducted by Pierre Boulez and featuring the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, "...Words of the Sea..." contains the seventeen minute title work, which was premiered by the CSO in December 1, 1996, and In My Sky at Twilight," a 19-minute work featuring soprano Christine Brandes and premiered in December 2002 by the CSO's MusicNOW Ensemble. In June 2006, Augusta Read Thomas re-released this CD, adding to it Carillon Sky for solo violin and 14 players, with Oliver Knussen conducting, Baird Dodge as violin soloist, and the CSO's MusicNOW Ensemble.
 This is Thomas's second self-produced recording in eight months. Of the first disc, "In My Sky at Twilight," The New Yorker's Russell Platt said "Thomas, a prodigious talent, is the most accessible ambassador of the new modernism, and the piece, a fierce and jagged take on the love poetry of Sappho, Neruda, and Flaubert, among others, shines with passion and color." And Joshua Rosenblum said in an Opera News review, "Is it worth going online and paying eleven bucks to hear nineteen minutes of music for voice and chamber orchestra by Augusta Read Thomas? Definitely."
Words of the Sea and In My Sky at Twilight are two of Thomas's seven orchestral compositions for the CSO, and part of an impressive list of works for the world's premier orchestras that includes Ceremonial for Daniel Barenboim and the CSO, Canticle Weaving for Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Daylight Divine for John Nelson and the Ensemble Orchestra of Paris, Prayer Bells for Lucas Richman and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Aurora for Daniel Barenboim and the Berlin Philharmonic, Chanting to Paradise for Christoph Eschenbach and the NDR Symphony Orchestra, Galaxy Dances for Mstislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony, Light the First Light of Evening for Oliver Knussen and the London Sinfonietta, and Tangle for David Robertson and the CSO.
The four-movement Words of the Sea, was inspired by the Wallace Stevens 1934 poem "The Idea of Order at Key West," which contrasts the artless, natural power of a raging ocean with the notion of a voice in song. Each movement bears a subtitle taken from the poem: I. ...words of the sea...; II. ...the ever-hooded, tragic-gestured sea...; III. ...beyond the genius of the sea...; IV. ...mountainous atmospheres of sky and sea... (homage to Debussy). Seth Brodsky says in the liner notes, "As much as anything, the 17 loaded minutes of Words of the Sea constitute a wildly active barometer which, in Thomas's characteristically euphoric mode, records the rare climate of Stevens's poem." Words of the Sea, commissioned by the Ernst and Young Emerging Composers Fund of the CSO, was the beginning of an eight-year working relationship between Thomas and Pierre Boulez.
Donald Rosenberg of the Cleveland Plain Dealer said, "Words of the Sea [is] a vibrant series of aquatic images that had no difficulty standing alongside favorite pieces by Barber and Prokofiev. Words of the Sea is a healthy example of a work from a composer who is smitten with the chameleonlike qualities of the orchestra and knows how to exploit its myriad facets." And John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune said, "Thomas' music, particularly her orchestral music, fairly explodes with an extroverted boldness of utterance audiences and musicians alike find challenging yet immediate. It's music that doesn't sound like anybody else's — music that insists you pay attention."
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Buy "...Words of the Sea..." from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra store
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Buy "...Words of the Sea..." from Amazon.com |
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Grammy Award-winning recording!
"Colors of Love," the album by Chanticleer, won a Grammy Award at the February 2000 ceremony in Los Angeles for "Best Recording by a Small Ensemble, with or without conductor."
This recording of all contemporary music, featuring works by Augusta Read Thomas, Steven Stucky, John Tavener, Bernard Rands, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, and Steven Sametz, is available on Teldec (#3984-24570-2) from your favorite record retailer.
Commissioned by renowned choral group Chanticleer, Augusta Read Thomas composed THE RUB OF LOVE, "a short madrigal that is virtuosic and comical," and LOVE SONGS, an "extended experiment in choral texture," for the album COLORS OF LOVE .
This recording also contains performances by Chanticleer of commissioned works by Steven Stucky, John Tavener, Bernard Rands, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, and Steven Sametz. (Teldec, #3984-24570-2)
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Listen to excerpts from THE RUB OF LOVE |
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Buy "Colors of Love," containing THE RUB OF LOVE and LOVE SONGS |
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Listen to an excerpt from LOVE SONGS
III. Love is a Beautiful Dream |
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Jennifer Koh features Augusta Read Thomas's PULSAR on her Cedille release, "Rhapsodic Musings: 21st Century Works for Solo Violin." This 5:33 work takes its name from a kind of neutron star that spins rapidly, pushing out regular pulses of radiation. Marked "Passionate, intense, driving," the composition is accordingly packed with energy, much of it fortissimo. This is a piece, one might say, in which the violin discovers its inner trumpet. Also included on this recording are pieces by Elliott Carter, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and John Zorn (Cedille Records CDR 90000 113).
Listen to an excerpt from Pulsar |
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Buy "Rhapsodic Musings," containing Pulsar |
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The Walden Chamber Players are current and former members of prestigious musical organizations such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National
Symphony Orchestra, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Artistic Director Christof Huebner is a member and current Artistic Director of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Members of the ensemble perform at leading festivals throughout the United States and abroad.
This recording, "Sun Threads," was funded in part through a grant
from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. The CD contains premiere recordings of:
A Circle Around the Sun for piano trio (2000) 5:01
Sun Threads for string quartet (1999-2002) 29:47
Toft Serenade for violin and piano (2006) 7:54
Scat for oboe, string trio, and piano (2007) 6:18
Silent Moon for violin and viola (2006) 9:00
Moon Jig for piano trio (2005) 5:07
Listen to an excerpt from A Circle Around the Sun |
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Buy "Sun Threads," containing the above works |
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Augusta Read Thomas's GATHERING PARADISE, settings of Emily Dickinson poems, is featured on this New York Philharmonic recording, with Lorin Maazel conducting and soprano Heidi Grant Murphy. "As one would expect a composer of Thomas's symphonic bent, the orchestration, which employs a large instrumentarium, , vividly mirrors and subtly underscores the text." (New World Records 80648-2).
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Listen to an excerpt from GATHERING PARADISE |
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Buy "New York Philharmonic — Thomas/Druckman/Hartke," containing GATHERING PARADISE |
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Augusta Read Thomas's SPIRIT MUSINGS was performed by the Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center as part of Tanglewood's 2003 season, and part of it is featured on the new recording, Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood — A 10th Anniversary Celebration. Commissioned by Thomas van Straaten, this work for violin and chamber orchestra has a duration of eleven minutes. Movements II and III are represented here.
Of Spirit Musings, Seth Brodsky writes in the All Music Guide, "its opening violin line, spidery and liquid, gradually enlists and entangles the entire ensemble in a volatile venture of expansion and contraction, elastic and intensely lyrical. The work's sound is also characteristic of Thomas' music: a swirl of thirds, sixths, and tritones envelopes the ensemble in the most radiant tintinnabulation, betraying Thomas' devotion to French music (Debussy, Messiaen, Boulez), but also to the great contrapuntalists (Bach and Byrd). But in their "finite infinity," the concise, intimate breath of her gestures confess great sympathy with Mahler and her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson." (Tanglewood, TWD-CD1)
Listen to excerpts from SPIRIT MUSINGS |
Excerpt 1
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Excerpt 2
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Buy "Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood — A 10th Anniversary Celebration," containing two movements from SPIRIT MUSINGS |
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Recorded at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montréal, Québec, Odd Couple pairs Matt Haimovitz with Geoffrey Burleson, presenting works for cello and piano by Augusta Read Thomas, David Sanford, Elliott Carter, and Samuel Barber. Thomas's Cantos for Slava, in celebration of Mstislav Rostropovich — and first performed by Haimovitz and Burleson in spring of 2008 — is featured on this Oxingale Records CD (OX2015).
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A world premiere recording, conducted by Cliff Colnot, of Augusta Read Thomas' TERPSICHORE'S DREAM for chamber orchestra (2007), as performed by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago based freelance musicians, Robert Chen, concertmaster. This is Thomas's fifth self-produced recording on her ARTCD label.
Edward Reichel of the Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah) writes, "Terpsichore's Dream is an evocative, atmospheric piece that is filled with subtle lyricism and rhythmic vitality. It's the kind of piece that appeals to both musicians, because it spotlights them individually and sectionally, and to audiences, because of its irresistible infectiousness. Colnot and his players give a fabulous reading that captures the vibrancy of the music. Their playing is articulate and their execution is immaculate. And throughout they bring a luminous expressiveness to the performance."
Listen to an excerpt from TERPSICHORE'S DREAM
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Buy TERPSICHORE'S DREAM from Amazon.com for $7.00 |
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"Music from Raritan River" features the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo performing Augusta Read Thomas's memory:SWELLS. Commissioned by Raritan River Music, memory:SWELLS is written for the unusual tuning of E, A, C, G, B, E (Guitar 1) and D, A, C-sharp, G, B, F (Guitar 2), designed to enhance the non-traditional aspects of the guitar sound. (Albany Records, TROY860).
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Listen to an excerpt from memory:SWELLS |
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Buy "Music from Raritan River" containing memory:SWELLS |
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The world premiere recording of Augusta Read Thomas's FOUR ETUDES is featured on this album of performances by James Giles, pianist. The four etudes are "Orbital Beacons - homage to Berio," "Fire Waltz - homage to Bartók," "Cathedral Waterfall - homage to Messiaen," and "On Twilight - homage to Boulez" (Albany Records, TROY860).
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Listen to an excerpt from FOUR ETUDES (Cathedral Waterfall - homage to Messaien) |
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Buy "American Virtuoso" containing FOUR ETUDES |
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Augusta Read Thomas's Love Twitters is included as one of a baker's dozen of American composers' works featured on this album Pianist Nicola Melville commissioned this work with the request that it be "recognizably American music"; the result was Thomas's Love Twitters, which uses Irving Berlin's "They Say It's Wonderful as its basis. (Innova Records #691).
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Listen to LOVE TWITTERS |
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Buy "Melville's Dozen," containing LOVE TWITTERS |
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VIGIL, by Augusta Read Thomas, is included on this album of performances by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, featuring Norman Fischer as solo cellist. Also included are George Burt's Exit Music III: an Interlude, Edward Miller's Beyond the Wheel , and Edwin London's TWO A'Marvell's FOR WORDS (GM Recordings #2045).
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Listen to an excerpt from VIGIL |
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Buy "Sound Encounters II," containing VIGIL |
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Augusta Read Thomas is featured twice on Blooming Sounds (Works for Unaccompanied Violin). Her 2003 work, Pulsar, was commissioned by the BBC jointly with the Royal Philharmonic Society, and first performed by Ilya Gringolts in London. Incantation dates from 1995, and was premiered by Catherine Tait. Both works are presented here in their world premiere recordings. The album's other eight tracks include late twentieth century works by Sharafyan, Khoudoyan, Segerstam, Felder, as well as Hindemith's Sonata Op. 31, No. 2 (Albany Records, TROY810).
Listen to an excerpt from PULSAR |
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Listen to an excerpt from INCANTATION |
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Buy "Blooming Sounds," containing PULSAR and INCANTATION |
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Silhouettes, the four-movement marimba transcription of Augusta Read Thomas's Dialogs (two movements from this solo guitar work) and PIANO ETUDES #2 and #4, is performed on this CD by Nathanial Bartlett. The four movements are named for the great classical and jazz masters to whom Thomas paid modest homage in the piece: I. Like Toru Takemitsu crossed with Bill Evans, II. Like Igor Stravinsky crossed with Thelonius Monk, III. Like Pierre Boulez crossed with Oscar Peterson, and IV. Like Béla Bartók crossed with Art Tatum. (Albany Records #TROY855)
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Listen to an excerpt from SILHOUETTES |
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Buy "Precipice: Modern Marimba," containing SILHOUETTES |
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among dawn flowers, by Augusta Read Thomas, is featured on De Toda La Eternidad, an album of songs by American women composers, along with offerings by Libby Larsen, Louise Talma, Margaret Bonds, and Gabriela Lena Frank. among dawn flowers is a 5:07 work in two movements, for soprano and piano, with a text by Basho. The work was premiered by Barbara Ann Martin in Denmark in 2001. This premiere recording features the soprano Bonnie Pomfret and Laura Gordy on piano. (ACA Digital Recordings #CM20090)
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Listen to an excerpt from AMONG DAWN FLOWERS |
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Buy "De Toda La Eternidad," containing AMONG DAWN FLOWERS |
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Augusta Read Thomas's LIGHT THE FIRST LIGHT OF EVENING, written for Oliver Knussen, is one of thirteen works by contemporary composers on "Snapshots," on the London Sinfonietta label (SINF CD1-2004). "Snapshots" is the recording of the Royal Festival Hall fiftieth birthday tribute to Knussen, and each of thirteen compositions features was composed as a birthday present for him. George Benjamin conducts the London Sinfonietta. LIGHT THE FIRST LIGHT OF EVENING is composed for orchestra, and this recording represents the world premiere.
Listen to an excerpt from LIGHT THE FIRST LIGHT OF EVENING |
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Buy "Snapshots," containing LIGHT THE FIRST LIGHT OF EVENING, directly from the London Sinfonietta shop |
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Augusta Read Thomas's SPIRIT MUSINGS, is included in this recording of new American works for soloists, performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony. Also included are works by Jacob Druckman, John Musto, and Jeffery Jacob (Albany Records # TROY347).
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Augusta Read Thomas's SPRING SONG has prominent placement on CRI's LINES FOR SOLO CELLO, featuring performances by cellist Scott Kluksdahl.
"SPRING SONG resulted from a previous collaboration with Kluksdahl, who presented west coast premiere performances of (Thomas's) cello concerto VIGIL. The performance so inspired her that she asked him if she could write a solo work, and he eagerly accepted. The work is like the gradual descent of a bird from the heights of flight to gravity-bound earth, starting in the cello's upper register and gradually covering the entire range of the instrument. It moves from a pure monophonic line to denser textures with double stops, at the same time incorporating progressively more tonal gestures (including a series of triumphant-sounding major sixth double-stops that first appear about two minutes in, and return near the conclusion). " (Composers Recordings, Inc., CRI #762)
Listen to an excerpt from SPRING SONG |
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Buy "Lines for Solo Cello," containing SPRING SONG |
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SEAHORSE SERENADE, for chamber orchestra, was commissioned by the Shedd Aquarium for the Seahorse Symphony exhibit, and performed for this CD by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The piece is playing as a tape loop in the Seahorse exhibit at the aquarium for the next several years.
** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **
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Augusta Read Thomas's ECLIPSE MUSINGS is featured on this recording of American works for flute and guitar, performed by Bonita Boyd (flute) and Nicholas Goluses (guitar). Also included are works by Katharine Hoover, Joan Tower, and Roberto Sierra (Albany Records # TROY379).
** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **
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Buy ECLIPSE MUSINGS on
American Music for Flute & Guitar |
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MEDITATION FOR TROMBONE AND ORCHESTRA by Augusta Read Thomas is featured on this album, AMERICAN TROMBONE CONCERTOS - Volume 2, featuring performances by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Christian Lindberg as soloist, and Grant Llewellyn conducting. Also included are concerti by Christopher Rouse, and Carlos Chávez (BIS #CD-788).
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Listen to an excerpt from MEDITATION FOR TROMBONE AND ORCHESTRA |
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To buy "American Trombone Concertos -- Volume 2," containing MEDITATION FOR TROMBONE AND ORCHESTRA, please contact A.R.T. Musings Publishing Company. |
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Augusta Read Thomas's TRIPLE CONCERTO and WIND DANCE are prominently featured on this First Edition recording of The Louisville Orchestra, along with two compositions by Tania León (First Edition LCD010).
** NOTE: These works have been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and are no longer available. **
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The Avalon String Quartet performs Augusta Read Thomas's FUGITIVE STAR live at Caramoor. Also featured are quartets by J. Haydn (Op. 33, No. 2) and Beethoven (Op. 59, No. 2).
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Listen to an excerpt from FUGITIVE STAR |
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Buy FUGITIVE STAR on THE AVALON STRING QUARTET, Live at Caramoor,
directly from New Tangent Records |
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Augusta Read Thomas's CHANT, commissioned and premiered by The Fischer Duo in Houston in 1991, is featured in this collection of works composed in the 1990s. Other works on the recording are by Samuel Jones, George Rochberg, and Pierre Jalbert. The recording is available on the Gasparo label (GSCD-349).
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Listen to an excerpt from CHANT |
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Buy AMERICAN MUSIC IN THE 1990s |
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ANGEL CHANT is featured on this album of Piano Trios by Robert Helps, Eric Moe, Tamar Diesendruck, and Augusta Read Thomas, performed by the Lions Gate Trio.
Centaur Records features this recording in the catalog of new releases, at http://www.centaurrecords.com/new-releases.htm. The recording is available as Centaur #CRC 2410.
** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **
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Buy ANGEL CHANT on PIANO TRIOS BY HELPS, MOE, DIESENDRUCK, AND THOMAS |
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Augusta Read Thomas's ANGEL SHADOWS, commissioned and premiered by Laurel Ann Maurer at Carnegie Hall, is the title work on this anthology of American flute music. Along with the world premiere recording of ANGEL SHADOWS, this album contains world premiere recordings of works by Thom Ritter George, Meyer Kupferman, and Dana Paul Perna, as well as performances of Walter Piston's and Lowell Liebermann's Sonatas for Flute and Piano. The recording is in the 4-Tay catalog (4-Tay #4006).
** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **
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Buy ANGEL SHADOWS |
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This album of piano music performed by Patricia Goodson includes Augusta Read Thomas's WHITES, as well as works by John Harbison, Stephen Jaffe, Randall Woolf, and Robert Harry Kyr. (Albany Records #231)
** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **
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Buy "Strange Attractors - New American Music for Piano," containing WHITES |
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This album of clarinet pieces commissioned by the Band and Orchestral Division of the Yamaha Corporation of America, and performed by Arthur Campbell, includes Augusta Read Thomas's From Icarus with GustO, as well as works by Shulamit Ran, Bruce Saylor, Pieter Snapper, and others. The album is available on the Gasparo label (GSCD-341).
** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **
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Buy "Premieres for Clarinet," containing From Icarus with GustO |
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Augusta Read Thomas's PASSION PRAYERS is featured on the Network for New Music's new Albany Records recording , DREAM JOURNAL. The Network for New Music also commissioned the piece.
"PASSION PRAYERS, a nine-minute work formed in several sections of varying character, is an homage to the lyrical, expressive, sensitive, eloquent and poetic qualities of Scott Kluksdahl's [cello] playing." (Albany Records, #TROY488)
Listen to an excerpt from PASSION PRAYERS |
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Buy "Dream Journal," containing PASSION PRAYERS |
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Augusta Read Thomas's CHANT (1990, rev. 2002), here in its premiere recording, is "sober and ecstatic at once. It begins with the solo cello, keening in a spare song in long arcs. The piano, while always an equal partner to the cello, above all offers punctuation, interjections, and outbursts that underpin and motivate the cello part." This work joins others by Richard Wernick, Robert Helps, and Elliott Carter, on "Sound Vessels," duos for cello and piano performed by Scott Kluksdahl on cello and Noreen Cassidy-Polera on piano (Centaur CRC 2765).
Listen to an excerpt from CHANT |
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This album of band works performed by the DePauw University Band, conducted by Craig Paré, includes Augusta Read Thomas's consortium-commissioned piece, Magneticfireflies. "Thomas' wind textures feature cross fades and lightning-fast contrasts in instrumental colors, dynamics, and rhythm; like a kaleidoscope, with an initial prodding of motion, it is in constant movement, only rarely returning to the familiar." The album is available from Mark Custom Recordings (MCD-5438).
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| Listen to an excerpt from MAGNETICFIREFLIES |
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Buy "Toccata Festiva," containing MAGNETICFIREFLIES |
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Love Songs for Chorus, featuring the Woodley Ensemble with Elizabeth Blakeslee on harp, conducted by Frank Albinder, contains Augusta Read Thomas's Love Songs for mixed chorus a cappella (settings of seven famous epigrams on the subject of love), as well as Bernard Rands' Canti d'amor and ...among the voices..., and William Hawley's Six Madrigals. The album is available on the ARSIS label (CD 138).
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Augusta Read Thomas's BELLS RING SUMMER is included on this CD of cello works performed by Matt Haimovitz, along with others by such diverse composers as Tod Machover, Luna Pearl Wolf, Lou Harrison, Toby Twining, and Jimi Hendrix
Anthem is available on the Oxingale Records label of Artemis Classics (OX2004).
Listen to an excerpt from BELLS RING SUMMER |
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Buy "Anthem," containing BELLS RING SUMMER |
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Augusta Read Thomas's ANGEL MUSINGS, here performed by its commissioning organization, The Orion Ensemble, is a chamber work in two movements. "A densely packed composition, Angel Musings paints a cosmic picture of the transformation from darkness to light by exploring extremes of dynamics and textures. As Thomas suggests, the music could be taking place in the moment between death and rebirth...Collaborating in rehearsal with the Ensemble musicians, Augusta Read Thomas summed up Angel Musings as such: "The loud, explosive, rhythmic chords bring forth the energy of star constellations above — particularly meaningful for a group called Orion."" (Recording produced by The Orion Ensemble, www.orionensemble.org).
** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **
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Augusta Read Thomas's SONATA for solo trumpet is presented here on Terry Everson's CD, Parable, along with other trumpet works by such notable composers as Norman Dello Joio, Vincent Persichetti, Jan Krzywicki, Joseph Turrin, and Robert Suderberg. "Fanfare and dramatic song, two musical gestures ideally suited to the trumpet, are combined under vibrant rhythmic and dynamic diversity to form the musical argument of Augusta Read Thomas' unaccompanied sonata. The work was completed in London while Thomas was pursuing postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music."
** This work has been withdrawn from the composer's catalog, and is no longer available. **
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Love is a Beautiful Dream, an excerpt from Augusta Read Thomas's seven-text choral work, LOVE SONGS, is performed expertly by Chanticleer on their 25th anniversary collection, "Chanticleer - A Portrait." Chanticleer premiered the work, which was commissioned by seven commissioners for their significant others, in 1997, and it is joined here by eighteen other notable works spanning the history of music from Gregorian chant to "A Charlie Brown Christmas." (Teldec Classics, #0927 49702-2)
Listen to an excerpt from LOVE IS A BEAUTIFUL DREAM |
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Buy "Chanticleer - A Portrait," containing LOVE IS A BEAUTIFUL DREAM |
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The San Francisco Girls Chorus, conducted by Susan McMane, present a selection of works including Augusta Read Thomas's TWO E. E. CUMMINGS SONGS on their double CD, "Heaven and Earth." TWO E. E. CUMMINGS SONGS was commissioned for the Chorus's 30th Anniversary season, and appear on the "Earth" disc, along with works by Szymko, Paulus, Neaum, Frank, Mollicone, Gershwin, Berlin, and Arlen (SFGC0901).
Listen to an excerpt from "Two E. E. Cummings Songs: II. (kiss me)" |
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Buy "Heaven and Earth," containing TWO E. E. CUMMINGS SONGS,
from the San Francisco Girls Chorus
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The Amelia Piano Trio presents Augusta Read Thomas's "...a circle around the sun...", which was composed for them (as a commission by The Children's Memorial Foundation of Children's Hospital, Chicago, in honor of George D. Kennedy), on their demo album, Scrumptious Morsels.
Listen to an excerpt from "...a circle around the sun..." |
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Augusta Read Thomas's Eagle at Sunrise, is featured on the Ying Quartet's United States: LifeMusic2, along with compositions by Med Rorem, Chen Yi, Jennifer Higdon, and William Bolcolm. As part of their LifeMusic project, The Ying Quartet commissions two new works per year from established and emerging artists. The initial inspiration for each piece on this CD is drawn from some aspect of life in America. (Quartz Music Ltd., QTZ2055)
Listen to an excerpt from EAGLE AT SUNRISE |
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Buy "The Ying Quartet play LifeMusic2 (United States)," containing EAGLE AT SUNRISE |
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Farnham Youth Choir marks 25 years of performing and recording with Celebration!, featuring Augusta Read Thomas's Four Basho Settings, with texts from four haiku by Matsuo Basho ("Skylark," "Cuckoo," "Butterfly," and "Dawn Flowers").
Listen to an excerpt from "Four Basho Settings" |
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