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Dawn To Dust

Colin Currie, Thierry Fischer, Utah Symphony Orchestra

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Original Recording Format: DSD 64
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3 World Premiere Recordings in Stereo and 5 Channel DSD! 

The Utah Symphony Orchestra celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2015 by commissioning three significant and adventurous works by leading composers Augusta Read Thomas, Nico Muhly and Andrew Norman. Performed at concerts throughout the year, the pieces were recorded live and released on this acclaimed audiophile album in April 2016. World-renowned percussionist Colin Currie joins the orchestra on Norman’s Switch.

Conductor Thierry Fischer says “Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra) is a sequence of five episodes describing, in some way, an element of Utah’s natural environment, as well as the ways in which humans interact with it. The first part (Landform) begins with a texture of strings, interrupted by forceful chords. A solo oboe works slowly on top of this process and is itself interrupted by a progression of aggressive chords that slowly ascend, presented at two different (but close enough to rub against one another) speeds.

These ascending forms become more seismically unstable, and a trio of pitched percussion (xylophone, marimba, and vibraphone) creates a more mathematical grid; here, as in many other places in Control, I tried to reference, however obliquely, the music of Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), whose visionary work Des Canyons aux Étoiles (1972) deals with Utah’s landscape and the spiritual possibilities found therein. The section ends as it began, but somehow changed, observed by the pitched percussion, and subtly transformed.”

The Soundmirror production team tells us “Listening to the Utah Symphony Orchestra play in Maurice Abravanel Hall and based on our experience of making orchestral surround recordings in a number of different venues, we chose 5 DPA 4006 microphones as our main microphone array. Supplementing those with “spot mics” to clarify the detail of the orchestration, we worked toward realizing above goals.

Extensive listening sessions with Maestro Fischer and orchestra musicians were crucial in refining the final balance. This recording was made, and post produced in 64fs DSD on a Pyramix workstation from Merging Technologies to give you, the listener, the highest sound quality possible.”

Three YouTube videos of the three compositions:
“Switch”: watch video
“Control”: watch video
“Eos”: watch video

Utah Symphony Orchestra
Colin Currie, Percussion
Thierry Fischer, Conductor

Tracklist

Please note that the below previews are loaded as 44.1 kHz / 16 bit.
1.
EOS (Goddess of the Dawn), A Ballet for Orchestra- I. Dawn
04:46
2.
EOS (Goddess of the Dawn), A Ballet for Orchestra- II. Daybright and Firebright
02:29
3.
EOS (Goddess of the Dawn), A Ballet for Orchestra- III. Shimmering
01:40
4.
EOS (Goddess of the Dawn), A Ballet for Orchestra- IV. Dreams and Memories
03:38
5.
EOS (Goddess of the Dawn), A Ballet for Orchestra- V. Spring Rain
03:26
6.
EOS (Goddess of the Dawn), A Ballet for Orchestra- VI. Golden Chariot
01:13
7.
EOS (Goddess of the Dawn), A Ballet for Orchestra- VII. Sunlight
01:08
8.
Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra)- 1. Landform
03:55
9.
Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra)- 2. Mountain
04:30
10.
Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra)- 3. Beehive
04:53
11.
Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra)- 4. Petroglyph & Tobacco
03:55
12.
Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra)- 5. Red Dust
05:17
13.
Switch (for Solo Percussion and Orchestra)
28:33

Total time: 01:09:23

Additional information

Label

SKU

FR719SACD

Qualities

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Channels

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Artists

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Composers

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Genres

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Mastering Engineer

Mark Donahue – Soundmirror, Boston

Conductors

Instruments

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Original Recording Format

Producer

Dirk Sobotka – Soundmirror, Boston

Recording Engineer

John Newton – Soundmirror, Boston

Recording location

Maurice Abravanel Hall, Salt Lake City, Utah

Recording Software

Merging

Recording Type & Bit Rate

DSD64

Release DateApril 8, 2016

Press reviews

Classical Music Writer for the The Wall Street Journal

Andrew Norman uses the percussionist as a “switch” who triggers music of different characters from other orchestral sections. As the fitful and episodic piece unfolds, snatches of melodic themes in the strings, woodwinds or brass are fired off but interrupted, disrupting linear flow like a filmmaker cutting to and from different time periods. The concerto, available on a Utah Symphony album for Reference Recordings, ends as quietly as it begins, upending expectations.

Audiostream

Reference Recording’s new release Dawn to Dust with the Utah Symphony Orchestra, Thierry Fisher conducting (in DSD 256 from Native DSD) was part of the 75th anniversary season of the Utah Symphony that featured world premieres of orchestral works commissioned from three leading American composers. The instruments emerged from a deep back background with a superior soundstage of great width and depth.

Recorded sound is demonstration quality. Highly recommended!

This excellent release presents three inviting, evocative new works commissioned and recorded to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Utah Symphony. Each piece is a unique, virtuosic essay for the ensemble, and Thierry Fischer leads his players with confidence through a daunting program, captured in stunning sound.

This is essential listening for fans of new American orchestral music. The triptych gives a fascinating cross-section of current trends, and Reference Recordings’ “Fresh!” moniker is an incredibly accurate description of the results. The notes on the pieces are by the composers themselves, and it is interesting to see how the prose and musical writing mirror each other. Full personnel listing of the wonderful Utah Symphony is included. Recorded sound is demonstration quality. Highly recommended!

Stereophile Magazine

The visionary new music, system-testing percussion, and a virtual rainbow of colors that distinguish Dust to Dawn, the latest album in Reference Recordings’ Fresh! series guarantee that it will become a hit among music-loving audiophiles who dare play tracks beyond 3 minutes in length. The inventive genius that courses through the recording’s three compositions: Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra) by Nico Muhly, 34; Switch by Andrew Norman, 37; and Eos (Goddess of the Dawn), a ballet for orchestra by Augusta Read Thomas, 52—is, in and of itself, enrapturing, formidable, and breathtaking. But when combined with the spectacular coloristic and percussive effects captured by the Soundmirror engineering team, you have a recording certain to earn Dust to Dawn at least one Grammy nomination and countless airings at audio demos.

The Utah Symphony, under the direction of Thierry Fischer, commissioned the music in honor of its 75th birthday. The most spectacular piece of the lot, Norman’s single-movement, 28-minute Switch, showcases the phenomenal percussionist, Colin Currie, as well as the orchestra’s percussion ensemble.

Switch’s off and running battery of constant surprises initially comes across as a wigged-out variant of Loony Tunes Meets Keystone Cops. The music is so out of the box that Currie told the composer during rehearsals that playing Switch “feels like being trapped (in the best possible way) inside a giant pinball machine.” Certainly, your head may feel like a pinball as Norman’s percussive thwacks, gongs, crashes, pounds, and God knows what else go careening back and forth between your speakers and all over your listening environment.

Norman conceived one section of Switch as an experience where “slapstick acts as a kind of cosmic channel changer, ripping everyone from where they are and placing them down in an entirely different sonic world.” It’s certainly a wild carnival ride, whose climax could very well leave you gasping for breath. But lest you infer from this description that Switch is all surface effects, rest assured that it is far more. Which is not to say that you’re going to find rest through most it. But beyond the surprises and assaults, Norman’s music includes some unexpected mystical transitions that ultimately transcend the game playing as they lead you into a truly magical world where wonder is the norm. Switch is an astounding experience.

Muhly’s tour of Utah’s wondrous landscapes may be less purely visceral, but it, too, abounds with mystery. Starting out with thrilling low trombone and percussion, it builds and then shimmers with mesmerizing waves of color and harmony. While Muhly has no fear of letting it all hang out, especially when a storm of red dust builds, he’s equally content with moving inward, observing, and gazing with wide-eyed stillness. There is much brilliance here.

Grammy-winning Read Thomas, whose Eos celebrates the Goddesses and nymphs of Greek mythology (with a few Gods thrown in for good measure), is far more content to let the yin side of her personality emerge as her creation dances through your listening room. The opening of the ballet is luminous, the sounds of darting rain wonderfully effective, and the kinetic effects most gratifying. If Eos ultimately seems a bit lightweight in the company of Control and Switch, it will surely find a home in the hearts of listeners who prefer to dream without being awakened with a bang (or, in Norman’s case, thousands of bangs). It certainly gives you some time to ground before Muhly and Norman take you on wild and colorful journeys you will not soon forget.

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