Fauré’s most beloved orchestral works are presented here in sumptuous, refined and beautifully recorded performances. With charismatic interpretations of the three short works for solo instruments and a rare recording of the choral version of the famous Pavane, this is a definitive collection of Fauré’s orchestral music.

With naturalistic imaging, depth of field and dynamic range, these recordings are engineered to audiophile standards and aim to capture as realistically as possible the sound of the orchestra performing on the Benaroya Hall stage. Digital content will be available in stereo, 96k 24-bit high resolution, and 5.1 surround sound.

This is the fourth disc on the Seattle Symphony’s new in-house label, reflecting the highly acclaimed partnership between talented young French conductor Ludovic Morlot and his American orchestra.

REVIEW:

Conjuring a wonderful palette of color from the Seattle Symphony, Ludovic Morlot manages to give his Fauré performances an unmistakably and idiomatically character from start to finish, and his subtle conducting is able to let his musicians communicate all the music’s emotions.

-- Pizzicato

The latest [2015] release from the Seattle Symphony’s Grammy-nominated label is a provocative coupling of two great works by European composers reflecting their response to the vibrant culture of the New World. Varèse’s Amériques, written only 30 years after Dvo?ák’s beloved “New World” Symphony, is a pivotal masterpiece that changed the course of music forever. In live performances of electrifying energy, and recorded in stunning sound, this is a mind-bending combination of masterpieces. - Seattle Symphony Orchestra

Following the Seattle Symphony’s first Grammy®-nominated Henri Dutilleux disc comes the second installment in the Symphony’s venture to record a complete survey of the orchestral music of this late, great, long-lived, and most important French composer whose music has been authoritatively described as “sumptuous… fastidious… rigorous… seductive… non-dogmatic…” – Guardian. This time Ludovic Morlot and his musicians turn their attention to Dutilleux’s most well-known and exciting orchestral work – Métaboles. Augustin Hadelich joins for a performance of the violin concerto, L’arbre des songes, with the disc completed by a performance of the composer’s Second Symphony (“Le Double”), the recordings realized within the spectacular acoustics of Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, and, in the cases of Métaboles and the Symphony No. 2, recorded live in concert. Founded in 1903, the Seattle Symphony continues to be one of America’s leading symphony orchestras. Music Director Ludovic Morlot has been leader of the orchestra since September 2011. Constantly astonishing audiences with his phenomenal technique, poetic sensitivity and gorgeous tone, violinist Augustin Hadelich’s remarkable consistency throughout the repertoire, from Beethoven to Thomas Adès, is seldom encountered in a single artist.

One of the popularly cherished notions about musical genius is that its products spring sui generis from the minds of composers. Originality is, to be sure, an important quality in nearly any compositional masterpiece. But as the accumulated trove of Western art music has grown over time, its substance and traditions have provided rich stimulus to composers’ imaginations. Each of the three compositions recorded here entails, among other things, an ingenious transformation of pre-existing musical material or styles. The eight-voice, Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth joins the Seattle Symphony and Ludovic Morlot in an exhilarating live performance of Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia. Morlot paired Berio’s Sinfonia with Boulez’s Notations and Ravel’s La valse, creating a sonic spectrum unlike any other. Hear every stunning detail of this recording in an immaculate 5.1 digital surround sound version engineered by 2017 Grammy winner for Best Surround Sound, Dmitriy Lipay.

In honor of what would have been Henri Dutilleux’s one-hundredth birthday, this commemorative box set is being released by The Seattle Symphony. This three-volume series is a critically acclaimed overview of all of Dutilleux’s major works for orchestra. This is an essential collector’s item for any lover of 20th century French music. The individual releases included in this box set have been nominated for a number of honors, included Grammy Award nominations for Best Orchestral Performance, Best Engineered Album, Classical, and received the Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo by Augustin Hadelich.

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REVIEW:

The defining recording project of Ludovic Morlot’s tenure as music director in Seattle, this luscious three-disc set is a compendium of the orchestral canvases of Henri Dutilleux, whose centenary has been celebrated this year. It’s all played with considerable refinement, but there are particularly special results when the poised violinist Augustin Hadelich joins in for “L’arbre des songes” and “Sur le même accord.”

­– New York Times (David Allen)

This terrific performance of the Cooke edition of Mahler’s Tenth is a rather swift performance, just 71 minutes, and certainly one of the best–right up there with reference recordings by Gielen (Hänssler/SWR), Sanderling (Berlin Classics) and Chailly (Decca).

I do have some reservations: the opening Adagio could have more gravitas at a slightly slower basic tempo, especially for it’s second thematic group, and the fourth movement doesn’t quite convince. It comes across as rather scrambled compared, say, to Gielen. Also, if you’re going to start the finale with the same muffled drum stroke that ends previous movement, why not play the first one softly, and launch the finale with a startling, Mahlerian bang?

Still, what this performance has all the way through is conviction: a total confidence in the music’s cogency and ultimate direction. It doesn’t sound threadbare or sketchy, even at the finale’s big climax, the optimal shape of which no arranger or conductor has quite figured out. The first scherzo bounces along brilliantly; the central Purgatorio flows with sinister grace; and most importantly, the last seven or eight minutes of the finale never drag, never turn static. The music’s last gasp relaxes in a way that’s truly fulfilling.

Dausgaard also has the orchestra playing with tremendous flair and virtuosity. They make the music sound almost easy (in a good way). You’d never know that this performance was captured live, before a dead-silent audience. The sonics too are excellent. So: a recording that sheds new light on the work, and reflects proudly on all concerned.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

A momentous release, as Morlot and the Seattle Symphony follow their acclaimed recording of Ives’ Symphony No. 2 with the next installment that includes four of the composer’s greatest works. The rarely recorded Symphony No. 4 is a haunting summation of American musical styles, and one of the masterpieces of American music. It receives here a live performance of staggering authority and eloquence that brings Ives’ multi-layered sonic canvas to new life. Recorded alongside Symphony No. 3 and Ives’ two most beloved short orchestral works, this release is engineered to audiophile standards and set to be an authoritative voice among recordings of Ives’ discography.

REVIEW:

These live performances are outstanding, and the coupling gives you what is basically “the essential Ives” orchestral music. The Fourth Symphony is a tricky piece, particularly in its second and fourth movements, whose chaotic climaxes need to ride that border between riotous, tuneful abundance and mere noise. Morlot gets it, and the orchestra provides a lean, clear sonority that convinces you that something meaningful is happening down there underneath the welter of sound. Only the “simple” third movement might raise an eyebrow, with it’s extremely quick tempo, but the phrasing helps to make the approach more convincing than you might at first believe.

The two short pieces, The Unanswered Question and Central Park in the Dark, belong together, but seldom get presented that way. It’s great to have the opportunity to hear them in their proper sequence. Finally, Morlot offers a very attractive, flowing account of the Third Symphony, with textures keenly observed in order to provide this gentle music with the maximum amount of color. It’s all very well recorded before a quiet and attentive audience. The sonics do lack the richness of, say, Litton on Hyperion, my versions of reference, but this is by any standard awfully good.

-- ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Charles Ives 150 (1874-1954)

Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony release here their third disc featuring the music of Charles Ives. One of his most beloved works, Three Places in New England, is meticulously mastered to capture the nuances of Ives’ intricate musical language. Recorded alongside his Orchestral Set No. 2 and New England Holidays, this release takes you on a haunting journey through Ives’ nostalgic visions of America at the turn of the century. With naturalistic imaging, depth of field and dynamic range, all Seattle Symphony Media recordings have been engineered to audiophile standards and aim to capture as realistically as possible the sound of the orchestra performing on the Benaroya Hall stage.

The Seattle Symphony is one of America’s leading symphony orchestras and is internationally acclaimed for its innovative programming and extensive recording history. Under the leadership of Music Director Ludovic Morlot since September 2011, the Symphony is heard from September through July by more than 500,000 people through live performances and radio broadcasts. It performs in one of the finest modern concert halls in the world in downtown Seattle. Its extensive education and community engagement programs reach over 65,000 children and adults each year.

REVIEW:

Ives’s mature works are always a challenge, and the Seattle Symphony rises to the occasion. This is their third Ives program, a daunting and brave undertaking. Ives’s hyper-complex skein of sound is impossible to fully sort out, but the Seattle players clarify much of it, from the eerily quiet piano solos to the massive multi-ensemble explosions.

I am particularly taken with the quiet sections, and there are many in this program. Morlot brings out the surreal poetry with loving care. The spooky, ecstatic atmosphere in Housatonic at Stockbridge is beguiling; listen to those swirling strings and burnished brass. The fade-out after the shattering climax is pure goosebumps.

So is all of Elegy to Our Forefathers, where the many layers emerge clearly from an Ivesian mist. The bells and harp envelop the listener, thanks to the intimate recording, which puts us in the middle of the orchestra. From Hanover Square North, with its ethereal chorus and mellow horn, has a ghost-like richness—a paradox that makes this recording stand out.

Ives’s big epiphany was the converging marching bands he heard on a sports field, depicted with Proustian nostalgia in Decoration Day; here the effect is natural and musical, not merely raucous. The distant trumpet is elegant and poised, and the clashing marching bands sound as if they are having a good time. This is a gentler version than the dramatic one by Michael Tilson Thomas, another outstanding Ivesian. Morlot emphasizes warmth rather than brilliance—a welcome approach in the pile-ups where all hell breaks loose on a dozen levels. Like his idols, Emerson and Thoreau, Ives could be contemplative as well as contentious, a quality Morlot obviously appreciates.

-- American Record Guide

Following acclaimed recordings of French revolutionaries Berlioz, Boulez, Dutilleux and Messiaen, Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony return with a release of works by contemporary French composer Marc-Andre Dalbavie. This album features Dalbavie’s La source d’un regard alongside his concertos for oboe, flute and cello. Morlot has championed the music of his countrymen throughout his career — and this album defines his legacy as a foremost interpreter of contemporary French repertoire. The Seattle Symphony is one of America’s leading symphony orchestras and is internationally acclaimed for its innovative programming and extensive recording history. Under the leadership of Music Director Ludovic Morlot since September 2011, the Symphony is heard from September through July by more than 500,000 people through live performances and radio broadcasts. The ensemble has a deep commitment to new music, commissioning many works by living composers each season.

A 2021 GRAMMY Nominee for Best Orchestral Performance!

Thomas Dausgaard and the Seattle Symphony release thought-provoking live performances of two extraordinary orchestral works composed near the turn of the 20th century: Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra and Alexander Scriabin’s The Poem of Ecstasy. Recorded in the stunning acoustics of Benaroya Hall, these bold, colorful scores celebrate the search for creative meaning and the triumph of the human spirit. With naturalistic imaging, depth of field and dynamic range, all Seattle Symphony Media recordings have been engineered to audiophile standards and aim to capture as realistically as possible the sound of the orchestra performing on the Benaroya Hall stage.