SFS Media To Release ""Mahlerís Symphony No. 1"" From Four-Time Grammy Winners Michael Tilson Thomas And The San Francisco Symphony

Second Installment of MTT/SFS Mahler Symphony Cycle in Stores September 17

7-Oct-02

Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) conducts the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in Gustav Mahlerís Symphony No. 1 in a new recording on the Orchestraís SFS Media label, to be released on September 17. The second release in the Orchestraís Mahler symphony recording cycle, the disc was recorded live in concert last September in Davies Symphony Hall. The series is being recorded with Sony Direct Stream Digital technology and released in the SACD hybrid format, playable in conventional CD as well as SACD stereo and SACD surround formats. The recording will be available in all retail outlets, including the San Francisco Symphony Store and the SFSís on-line retail store, shopsfsymphony.org. The disc follows the internationally acclaimed MTT/SFS live concert recording of Mahlerís Symphony No. 6, the first recording in the cycle, which entered the top of the Billboard classical chart within the first week of its release last February. This release coincides with performances of Mahlerís Symphony No. 3 in Davies Symphony Hall September 25-28 (to be recorded live for SFS Media) and at Carnegie Hall on October 10, both featuring mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung.""The First Symphony shows Mahler at his most characteristic and vulnerable - for here he makes an enormous symphony out of the sonic stuff we all know from our lives,"" states Tilson Thomas. ""Mahler was like a cinematographer in music, creating enormous soundscapes that include everything we know of life. Mahlerís first three symphonies are in a sense salvation symphonies, based on the model of works such as Beethovenís Fifth and Ninth. These are works that start in a mysterious or tragic mood and progress toward transfiguration. His First Symphony concerns the voyage from a lonely contemplation of nature to a radiant assuredness about manís place in the universe. From a spiritual point of view, it is one of the most confident first symphonies in Western music.""Michael Tilson Thomas has distinguished himself as one of the worldís foremost Mahler interpreters, and through his signature performances, as one of the composerís most compelling advocates. Now entering his eighth season as Music Director, he and the San Francisco Symphony have formed a musical partnership hailed as one of the most inspiring and adventurous in the country. In 1974, at the age of 9, Tilson Thomas made his SFS debut conducting Mahlerís Symphony No. 9. Since then he has led the Orchestra in nearly all of the composer'í works and led a June 1998 SFS Mahler Festival. MTT and the SFS have also recorded Mahlerís ""Das klagende Lied"" for the RCA Red Seal label. In 1995, Tilson Thomasís valedictory year as Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, he led that orchestra in a complete cycle of Mahlerís symphonies, and their recording of Mahlerís Symphony No. 7 was honored with the prestigious Toblacher Komponierhauschen 2000.In addition to the September performances of the Third Symphony, the MTT/SFS Mahler project continues in the 2002-03 season with live concert recordings of the Ninth Symphony in April 2003. The project, begun in September 2001, includes plans to record all of the composerís nine symphonies and the Adagio from the unfinished Tenth Symphony for SFS Media. All recordings will be made in the emerging new format of Super Audio CD (SACD) through a contribution from Sony Corporation, which is providing all the technology and equipment to facilitate recording in the new format.Other MTT/SFS recordings include their debut release, a live concert recording of scenes from Prokofievís ballet ""Romeo and Juliet,"" which won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance. The RCA Red Seal disc was released in February 1996 and immediately debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Classical Chart. Since then, the orchestra and conductor have topped Billboardís Classical Chart with recordings of music of Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, and more. In 2000, their all-Stravinsky recording was honored with three Grammys, including awards for Best Classical Album and Best Orchestral Performance, Also recently released is the critically acclaimed RCA Red Seal disc, ""Charles Ives, An American Journey,"" an exploration of the visionary American composer featuring baritone Thomas Hampson and the SFS Chorus.