THE SEATTLE SYMPHONY RELEASES LIVE PERFORMANCES OF OLIVIER MESSIAEN’S DES CANYONS AUX ÉTOILES... (“FROM THE CANYONS TO THE STARS...”)
LATEST SEATTLE SYMPHONY MEDIA ALBUM FEATURES CONDUCTOR EMERITUS LUDOVIC MORLOT AT THE PODIUM AND GUEST ARTIST STEVEN OSBORNE ON PIANO
RELEASE INCLUDES SOLOS BY THREE SEATTLE SYMPHONY MUSICIANS: PRINCIPAL HORN JEFFREY FAIR, PRINCIPAL PERCUSSION MICHAEL A. WERNER, AND ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL TIMPANI & PERCUSSION MATTHEW DECKER
WORLDWIDE RELEASE NOVEMBER 17, 2023
Seattle, WA – On November 17, 2023, the Seattle Symphony releases a live concert album featuring Olivier Messiaen’s Des canyons aux étoiles… (“From the Canyons to the Stars…”), which takes inspiration from the rock spires, birdsong and night sky of Utah’s national parks. With Judith Fong Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot at the podium and guest artist Steven Osborne on piano, the Symphony presents Messiaen’s starry-eyed journey through nature and the divine, originally recorded before a live audience in the stunning acoustics of Benaroya Hall in 2022.
Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony perform Olivier Messiaen's Des canyons aux étoiles… (“From the Canyons to the Stars…) at Benaroya Hall. Photo by James Holt / Seattle Symphony.
Des canyons aux étoiles... employs 13 string instruments, each playing a separate part; an extensive battery of percussion, including aeoliphone and geophone; and solo piano, whose part was composed especially for Messiaen’s wife, the superb French pianist Yvonne Loriod. The live performances at Benaroya Hall were presented alongside video projections of inspiring national parks and monuments, with videography by Deborah O’Grady and lighting design by Seth Reiser.
Many of the passages in Des canyons aux étoiles... are intended to evoke the vivid hues of Bryce Canyon and its surroundings. Although he never employed the term “synesthesia” to describe his co-experience of sound and color, and admitted that it is a subjective phenomenon, Messiaen did say that “whenever I hear or read music, I see color complexes in my mind that go with the sound complexes.” Reversing that process, Messiaen often composed what he considered specific colors into his music.
Seattle Symphony Principal Horn Jeffrey Fair solos with the Seattle Symphony in a performance of Olivier Messiaen's Des canyons aux étoiles… (“From the Canyons to the Stars…) at Benaroya Hall. Photo by James Holt / Seattle Symphony.
Countless tourists have marveled at Bryce Canyon’s titanic pillars of rust-hued rock, yet Olivier Messiaen also listened. When he visited in 1972, the French composer said that he felt the presence of God not only as the creator of unforgettable camera-ready geological formations, but as a real presence resounding through and above canyon walls. In Des canyons aux étoiles… (“From the Canyons to the Stars…”), Messiaen transformed his tour of Bryce Canyon and two other monuments of the American West — Cedar Breaks and Zion Park — into sacred music filled with birdsong, sensuous melodies and divine breath.
Seattle Symphony Media shares the music of Messiaen with listeners everywhere on November 17, 2023; digital downloads and CDs are available through all major online music retailers and streaming services. This recording is also available on stereo, 96k 24-bit high resolution and Dolby Atmos spatial sound, engineered by the 2017 Grammy Award winner for Best Surround Sound and 2021 Grammy Award nominee for Producer of the Year, Classical, the Seattle Symphony’s own Director of Audio & Recording, Dmitriy Lipay.
To obtain a physical or digital review copy of the release, photos, liner notes or any other information on Seattle Symphony Media, please contact Courtney Bullard at press@seattle.symphony.org.
RECORDING DETAILS
OLIVIER MESSIAEN
DES CANYONS AUX ÉTOILES... (“FROM THE CANYONS TO THE STARS...”)
Ludovic Morlot conductor
Steven Osborne piano
Jeffery Fair horn
Matthew Decker glockenspiel
Michael A. Werner xylorimba
Seattle Symphony
Worldwide Release Date
November 17, 2023
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
Catalog Number: SSM1028
Producer: Dmitriy Lipay
The Seattle Symphony releases Des canyons aux étoiles… (“From the Canyons to the Stars…”), which takes inspiration from the rock spires, birdsong and night sky of Utah’s national parks. With Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot at the podium and guest artist Steven Osborne on piano, the Symphony presents Messiaen’s starry-eyed journey through nature and the divine. Two concerts of the entire 110-minute-long work were recorded in the stunning acoustics of Benaroya Hall. Digital downloads and CDs will be available through all major online music retailers and streaming services on November 17, 2023.
OLIVIER MESSIAEN DES CANYONS AUX ÉTOILES... (“FROM THE CANYONS TO THE STARS...”)
DISC ONE
PART ONE
OLIVIER MESSIAEN LE DÉSERT
Total Timing: 4:10 // Catalog Number: SSM1028 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
OLIVIER MESSIAEN LES ORIOLES
Total Timing: 6:11 // Catalog Number: SSM1028 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
OLIVIER MESSIAEN CE QUI EST É CRIT SUR LES ÉTOILES
Total Timing: 6:15 // Catalog Number: SSM1028 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
OLIVIER MESSIAEN LE COSSYPHE D’HEUGLIN
Total Timing: 4:15 // Catalog Number: SSM1028 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
OLIVIER MESSIAEN CEDAR BREAKS ET LEs DON DE CRAINTE
Total Timing: 7:16 // Catalog Number: SSM1028 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
PART TWO
OLIVIER MESSIAEN APPEL INTERSTELLAIRE
Total Timing: 5:55 // Catalog Number: SSM1028 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
OLIVIER MESSIAEN BRYCE CANYON ET LES ROCHERS ROUGE-ORANGE
Total Timing: 13:50 // Catalog Number: SSM1028 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
DISC TWO
PART THREE
OLIVIER MESSIAEN LES RESSUSCITÉS ET LE CHANT DE L’ÉOILE ALDÉBARAN
Total Timing: 8:50 // Catalog Number: SSM1028 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
OLIVIER MESSIAEN LE MOQUEUR POLYGLOTTE
Total Timing: 9:33 // Catalog Number: SSM1028 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
OLIVIER MESSIAEN LA GRIVE DES BOIS
Total Timing: 4:57 // Catalog Number: SSM1028 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
OLIVIER MESSIAEN OMAO, LEIOTHRIX, ELEPAIO, SHAMA
Total Timing: 9:10 // Catalog Number: SSM1028 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
OLIVIER MESSIAEN ZION PARK ET LA CITÉ CÉLESTE
Total Timing: 10:03 // Catalog Number: SSM1028 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
Recorded in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, Washington.
Olivier Messiaen’s Des canyons aux étoiles... (“From the Canyons to the Stars...”) was recorded live in concert June 2 & 4, 2022, as part of the 2021/2022 Delta Air Lines Masterworks Series.
LUDOVIC MORLOT | CONDUCTOR
Ludovic Morlot has been Music Director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra since September 2022. Previously, he spent eight years as Music Director of the Seattle Symphony and now serves as its Conductor Emeritus. Morlot’s innovative programming encompassed not only his choice of repertoire, but theatrical productions and performances outside the traditional concert hall space. Under Morlot’s baton, 19 recordings were released via the Seattle Symphony Media label, and the orchestra received five Grammys and was named Gramophone’s 2018 Orchestra of the Year. Morlot’s conducting resume includes his appointment to Associate Artist of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in 2019; performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles, Seoul and Bergen philharmonic orchestras, Royal Concertgebouw, Czech Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Budapest Festival, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He was Artistic Director and a founding member of the National Youth Orchestra of China (2017–2021), and was Chief Conductor of La Monnaie (2012–2014).
STEVEN OSBORNE | PIANO
Celebrated for his insightful interpretations, musicality and technique, Steven Osborne is a much sought-after soloist, chamber musician and recitalist. He’s held residencies at London’s Wigmore Hall, Antwerp’s deSingel, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and has given recitals in all of the UK’s most prestigious venues as well as the Wiener Musikverein, Royal Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and NYC’s Carnegie Hall. His programs range from Beethoven and Schubert to Fauré, Messiaen, Poulenc, Debussy, Stravinsky, Ravel and Rachmaninov. In March 2021, he celebrated his 50th birthday with both a special concert at the Wigmore Hall and the release of his latest album, French Duets, with long-time friend and colleague Paul Lewis. Osborne’s 31 recordings have accumulated numerous awards, including in the best instrumental category at the 2021 BBC Music Magazine Awards for his 30th recording, Prokofiev’s War Sonatas. Osborne is currently Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Patron of the Lammermuir Festival and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In January 2022, Osborne was awarded an OBE in the UK New Year’s Honours list.
JEFFREY FAIR | HORN
Jeffrey Fair has been Principal Horn of the Seattle Symphony since 2013 and a member of the orchestra since 2003 whose playing has been described as having a “stunning presence and power.” He also performs as Principal Horn of the Seattle Opera and has served as guest Principal of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra and Dallas Symphony. Music festival appearances as Principal Horn include the Eastern Music Festival, Arizona Music Festival, Mainly Mozart Festival and Festival Mozaic. Fair is a former faculty member at the University of Washington, and he appears throughout the country as a soloist, chamber musician, clinician and teacher.
MATTHEW DECKER | TIMPANI/PERCUSSION
Matthew Decker began his position as Assistant Principal Timpanist/Section Percussionist in the Seattle Symphony in the 2016/2017 season. Before joining the Symphony, Decker spent two seasons as the Assistant Principal Percussionist of the North Carolina Symphony and also had a season-long fellowship with the New World Symphony. His resume includes concert appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Malaysian Philharmonic, Columbus Indiana Philharmonic and the Battle Creek Symphony in Michigan, with which he made his solo debut in 2009. Decker was a 2011 fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and also spent two summers at the Music Academy of the West and Round Top Festival. Decker has worked with conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur, Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert and Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, had the privilege of performing in a master class with Yo-Yo Ma, won the 2010 Kerope Zildjian Scholarship, and was a finalist in the 2009 Atlanta Snare Drum Competition. A student of North Carolina’s Eastern Music Festival in 2008, he’s been on the faculty since 2016.
MICHAEL A. WERNER | PERCUSSION
Before joining the Seattle Symphony as Principal Percussion in the fall of 2009, Michael A. Werner was a percussionist with the Metropolitan Opera for 13 years and Principal Percussion for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for two years. Werner has also performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Chamber Ensemble, Metropolitan Opera Percussion Ensemble, Pittsburgh Symphony, Seattle Chamber Music Society, the Canadian Brass and Empire Brass ensembles, and at the Santa Barbara International Percussion Festival. Werner is on the faculty at The New School for Music in New York, and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. He has served as a clinician and instructor for the Cleveland Institute of Music, Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, New World Symphony, Oberlin Percussion Institute and Percussive Arts Society. He also serves as an artist and clinician for Pearl Percussion, Zildjian cymbals and Freer Percussion.
SEATTLE SYMPHONY MEDIA
Launched in 2014, Seattle Symphony Media is the Seattle Symphony’s independent Grammy Award-winning in-house record label. The Symphony has an extensive catalogue of nearly 150 recordings, which have brought forth five Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards throughout its history. The Seattle Symphony was named Gramophone’s 2018 Orchestra of the Year. The Symphony's in-house record label features both “core repertoire” and some of the eclectic and contemporary programming for which the Seattle Symphony has become recognized. The label includes both studio recordings and performances captured live in concert, allowing the organization an unprecedented breadth of repertoire choices.
All recordings are made in the acoustically superb Benaroya Hall and engineered by the Grammy Award-winning recording engineer Dmitriy Lipay. Using the Symphony’s own state-of-the-art in-house recording studio, recordings have been engineered to audiophile standards and aim to capture as realistically as possible the sound of the orchestra performing on stage with naturalistic imaging, depth of field and dynamic range. Distributed by Naxos of America, the recordings are available in both physical and digital formats from a variety of retailers. Digital content is available in stereo, “Mastered for iTunes,” 96k 24-bit high resolution and 5.1 surround sound.
SEATTLE SYMPHONY
The Seattle Symphony unleashes the power of music, brings people together and lifts the human spirit. Recognized as one of the “most vital American orchestras” (NPR), the Seattle Symphony is internationally acclaimed for its inventive programming, community-minded initiatives and superb recordings on the Seattle Symphony Media label. With a strong commitment to new music and a legacy of over 150 recordings, the orchestra has garnered five Grammy Awards, 27 Grammy nominations, two Emmy Awards and was named Gramophone’s 2018 Orchestra of the Year. The Symphony performs in Benaroya Hall in the heart of downtown Seattle from September through July, reaching over 750,000 people annually through live performances and radio broadcasts, and through the Seattle Symphony+ streaming service, the orchestra’s concerts reach audiences at home and around the world.
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Ludovic Morlot’s position is generously underwritten as the Judith Fong Conductor Emeritus.
Jeffrey Fair’s position is generously underwritten as the Charles Simonyi Principal Horn.
The Seattle Symphony’s concerts and Ludovic Morlot’s performances were generously sponsored by Susan Detweiler, MD, in memory of Alexander W. Clowes, MD.
Olivier Messiaen’s Des canyons aux étoiles... was presented as part of the Seattle Symphony’s New Music WORKS initiative, which is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.