A 2021 GRAMMY Nominee for Best Classical Compendium!

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony illuminate the gorgeously evocative world of Alban Berg in the newest release from the Grammy Award-winning SFS Media label. Hear the heartbreaking pathos of Berg's Violin Concerto brought to life by Gil Shaham; the soaring, multicolored Seven Early Songs performed by acclaimed soprano Susanna Phillips; and the spellbinding Three Pieces for Orchestra, in which the composer solidified his reputation as a master of spacious expression. 

REVIEWS:

The performance of the Violin Concerto by Gil Shaham is deliberate and a bit languid, its slow tempos in keeping with the memorial function of the work, but it is in the Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6, that Tilson Thomas really shines, showing his continuing ability to get the orchestra to punch above its weight and tease out the knotted threads of these intense pieces. As an entr'acte, there is soprano Susanna Phillips in Berg's Seven Early Songs, lush evocations of turn-of-the-last-century Vienna that deepen the overall effect of an album that adds to Tilson Thomas' record of accomplishment in retirement and would make a fine introduction to Berg.

– AllMusicGuide.com (James Manheim)

To the Three Pieces for Orchestra MTT imparts a real understanding of their lavish colouration while always maintaining a sure sense of line and clarity of texture.

– Gramophone

Berg’s shimmering, often Mahlerian soundscapes are lovingly rendered by Tilson Thomas. Shaham brings tonal beauty and power to the sublime Concerto, while Phillips’s voice is radiant in the Seven Early Songs.

– BBC Music Magazine