Riccardo Muti Conducts Mason Bates & Anna Clyne

“It’s the kind of score that brings out the musical dramatist in Muti: He and the CSO members . . . threw themselves into the music with considerable mega-wattage of their own.” — Chicago Tribune

Recorded live at their 2012 premieres, Mason Bates’ Alternative Energy and Anna Clyne’s Night Ferry are united on this one-of-a-kind release from CSO Resound. Both works were commissioned by the CSO and premiered under the baton of Riccardo Muti.

Anna Clyne writes of her work that it is a “sonic portrait of voyages; voyages within nature and of physical, mental and emotional states.” It is inspired by Schubert, and makes reference to the mood swings heard in his works as they shift rapidly between emotional extremes.

Bates calls Alternative Energy an “energy symphony,” which takes a voyage of its own. “Beginning in a rustic Midwestern junkyard in the late 19th century,” he writes, “the piece travels through ever greater and more powerful forces of energy — the present-day particle collider, a futuristic Chinese nuclear plant — until it reaches a future Icelandic rain forest, where humanity’s last inhabitants seek a return to a simpler way of life.”

Clyne Night Ferry
February 2012, Orchestra Hall, Chicago

Bates Alternative Energy
Mason Bates electronics
February 2012, Orchestra Hall, Chicago

Discs: 1
Record Label: CSO Resound
Release Date: May 2014

Digital Download Audio Quality: MP3, 320kbps