Boston Symphony Commissions
Naxos Classical (American Classics)
Eric Nathan, the space of a door
George Tsontakis, Sonnets
Timo Andres, Everything Happens So Much
Sean Shepherd, Express Abstractionism
Featuring:
Robert Sheena, English Horn
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, Conductor
SELECTED PRESS
Included on the The Boston Globe’s Boston area’s best classical recordings of 2019
“…the recent commissions on this disc are all eminently worth making available. Each of the four composers — Eric Nathan, George Tsontakis, Timo Andres, and Sean Shepherd — shows a gift for arraying a stream of ideas in vivid orchestral colors. Robert Sheena, the BSO’s longtime English hornist, is the superb soloist in Tsontakis’s “Sonnets.”
- David Weininger, The Boston Globe, 12.26.2019
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“Andris Nelsons has yet maintained the Boston Symphony’s illustrious track record for commissions since becoming its music director, as these premieres from 2016/17 demonstrate. Two of the works make ideal curtain-raisers – Erik Nathan’s the space of a door with its cumulative eliding between explosive tuttis and stealthy ensemble passages, and Timo Andres’s Everything Happens So Much, which is the nearest of these pieces to evoking those minimalist traits still prevalent in American music.”
- Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone, 03.2020
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“Shepherd’s Abstract Expressionism proves a striking contrast and complement to Sonnets. .... Tightly constructed, motivically;
brilliantly scored; and never failing to catch the ear with an unexpected turn or gesture, it’s music full of striking moments – like
the starkly alternating blocks of sound in the opening movement or the gleaming sonorities of the finale – and potent, restrained emotion.
“So is Nathan’s the space of a door, the disc’s opener. A serious but lively concert opener, it alternates blazing, vigorous sections, with static, desolate ones, both of which pay tribute to the composer’s late mentor, Steven Stucky. … Ultimately, these are performances that offer irrefutable proof – if any were needed – of Nelsons’ excellence as a new-music conductor and a welcome reminder of just how good the BSO can be outside the standard canon. May these commissions (as well as performances and recordings of them) keep on coming.”
- Jonathan Blumhofer, The Arts Fuse, 11.16.2019
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“Nathan's piece is a powerful and exhilarating curtain raiser, a kind of concert overture in interconnected scenes, beginning with an imposing opening partially borrowed from Bartók. Still passages alternate with masses of quasi-aleatoric string texture, with a central, thrillingly propulsive episode.”
- Records International, December 2019
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“This CD with Boston Symphony commissions opens with Eric Nathan’s The Space of a Door, a 12-minute piece with an atmospheric and gloomy beginning, followed by a hectic middle section. Then comes a cathedral-like sound, before the music ends reflectively again. Very well done, very well played and exciting!”
- Remy Franck, Pizzicato, December 2019
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“Each of the pieces by Timo Andres, Eric Nathan, George Tsontakis, and Sean Shepherd are great and worth a listen, and all are beautifully performed by the musicians of the BSO.”
Shawn Galvin, The Contemporary Ensemble, 11.19.2019
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“The Space of a Door […] opens with fury and closes with sadness. […] The orchestra sounds glorious, and the composers can consider themselves fortunate.”
Allen Gimbel, American Record Guide, March 2020
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Included on Steve Smith’s On The Record (National Sawdust).
ABOUT
“The Boston Symphony Orchestra has a long tradition of commissioning and performing important new music, and the four work on this album were commissioned and premiered by the orchestra and its conductor Andris Nelsons during the first years of his tenure. Eric Nathan takes us on a journey through a series of interconnected worlds, whereas George Tsontakis marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in a series of Sonnets for English horn and orchestra. Timo Andres carries on ‘conversations’ with composers of the past, while Sean Shepherd has been inspired by five giants of artistic modernism.” (Naxos)