HOUSTON (Feb. 16, 2018) — The Houston Symphony announced today the international release of the live recording of Music of the Americas led by Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Recorded over the course of two concert weekends in early 2017, the album brings together 20th century composers from North and South America with four lively, dance-inspired works. The CD is now available for purchase through houstonsymphony.org. It’s also available in digital formats for streaming and downloads through Spotify, iTunes and Amazon.
Released on the Dutch classical music label Pentatone, Music of the Americas features works by George Gershwin (An American in Paris), Silvestre Revueltas (Sensemayá), Leonard Bernstein (Symphonic Dances from West Side Story) and Ástor Piazzolla (Tangazo).
“For this new recording, we decided to feature four contrasting works that do not cover the entire continent, but rather provide impressions of America and illuminate as many colors in the music as possible. The common denominator in all these works is the rhythm which is highly articulated, flexible and energized,” said Orozco-Estrada.
• In Sensemayá, Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas was inspired by an eponymous poem by Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén. The poem and the music depict the sacrifice of a snake in a traditional Afro-Cuban religious ceremony.
• Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story—one of the most popular musicals of all time— illustrates the story of two rival gangs in New York by juxtaposing a jazz-blues ‘American’ idiom with a more ‘Latin American’ Puerto Rican sound, in which the Cuban mambo, cha-cha and the Mexican huapango are also integrated. Symphonic Dances from West Side Story includes many of the musical’s most popular tunes, including “Mambo,” “Cool,” and “Somewhere.”
• Ástor Piazzolla’s Tangazo incorporates neo-classical elements such as a fugue into the tango, the national Argentinian dance music par excellence.
• George Gershwin’s symphonic poem An American in Paris paints an evocative picture of an American’s adventures in the city of light with his trademark jazzy style.
The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Naxos, Koch International Classics, Telarc, RCA Red Seal, Virgin Classics and, most recently, Pentatone. An additional recording, Haydn—The Creation, will be released on Pentatone in April 2018.
Music of the Americas is now available through the Houston Symphony’s website at houstonsymphony.org. The album is also available in digital formats for streaming and high-resolution downloads through Spotify, iTunes and Amazon.
About the Houston Symphony
During the 2017-18 season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its fourth season with Music Director Andrés Orozco- Estrada and continues its second century as one of America’s leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring and recording activities. The Houston Symphony, one of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston June 21, 1913. Today, with an annual operating budget of $33.9 million, the full-time ensemble of 88 professional musicians presents nearly 170 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Additionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s four Community-Embedded Musicians offer over 900 community-based performances each year, reaching thousands of people in Greater Houston.
The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Naxos, Koch International Classics, Telarc, RCA Red Seal, Virgin Classics and, most recently, Dutch recording label PENTATONE. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category.
For tickets and more information, please visit houstonsymphony.org or call 713-224-7575.
About PENTATONE
PENTATONE is a Dutch classical music label specialising in high-end, multichannel surround sound recordings. It was founded in 2001 by three former Philips Classics executives. PENTATONE’s catalogue includes performances by conductors Kent Nagano, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Paavo Järvi, Charles Dutoit, Sir Neville Marriner, Mikhail Pletnev, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Sir Colin Davis, Vladimir Jurowski, Marc Albrecht and Lawrence Foster; artists Arabella Steinbacher, Johannes Moser, Denis Kozhukhin, Joyce DiDonato, Julia Fischer, Jake Heggie, Mari Kodama, Nareh Arghamanyan, Martin Helmchen; and orchestras such as the Russian National Orchestra, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the New Dutch Academy and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.
HOUSTON SYMPHONY MEDIA CONTACTS:
Vanessa Astros: (713) 337-8560, vanessa.astros@houstonsymphony.org
Mireya Reyna: (713) 337-8557, mireya.reyna@houstonsymphony.org
PENTATONE MEDIA CONTACT:
Silvia Pietrosanti: +31 35 548 07 26
Silvia.pietrosanti@pentatonemusic.com
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