The Grammy Award-winning Boston Modern Orchestra Project Releases 'John Harbison: Concertos for String Instruments'

John Harbison: Concertos for String Instruments 

Composer: John Harbison (b.1938)

Release Date: October 20, 2020

TRT: 63:55

Works: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (1988), Double Concerto for Violin, Violincello, and Orchestra (2009), Concerto for Bass Viol and Orchestra (2005)

Performers: Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), Edwin Barker (bass), Emily Bruskin (violin), Julia Bruskin (cello), Marcus Thompson (viola), led by Gil Rose (conductor)

Boston, MA (For Release 10.20.20) — Known as the nation’s foremost label launched by an orchestra and devoted exclusively to new music, Grammy Award-winning BMOP/sound today announced the release of John Harbison: Concertos for String Instruments. Performed by the intrepid Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and led by longtime Harbison aficionado and expert Gil Rose, the album features three string concertos composed between 1988 and 2009 that are polished, attractive additions to Harbison’s robust catalog. 

“I think of these three pieces as my outlier concertos, sort of a concerto underground,” said Harbison. The album begins with Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (1988). As a very young concertgoer, Harbison selected the viola as his instrument of choice. When it came to writing a concerto for viola I wrote for the violist I never was, the true soloist, and for the instrumental timbres I felt to be most typical of the instrument, its tenor and alto voice, rather than its rather unnatural treble. “ 

Concerto for Bass Viol and Orchestra (2005) showcases the bass and its capacity for virtuosic display. Influenced by Bach and jazz, this imaginatively crafted composition provides a prominent role for an underappreciated instrument. Harbison’s three-movement Double Concerto for Violin, Violincello, and Orchestra (2009) was designed to unite vis a vis pitting the soloists against each other. It gives a strong sense of cohesion, in the composer's customary extended-tonality, approachable idiom. 

As part of BMOP's ongoing effort to perform, record, and disseminate Harbison's significant, early works, this recording marks the label’s fourth Harbison album. Ulysses (#1001) was BMOP/sound's 2008 inaugural release and received numerous accolades including "Best CDs of 2008" (Time Out New York). The opera Full Moon in March (#1010) was released in 2009 followed by the double CD opera Winter’s Tale (#1023) which was rated “Best of 2012” by Sequenza21. 

Harbison is one of America's most prominent artistic figures. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, among them a MacArthur Fellowship and a Pulitzer Prize. Harbison has been composer-in-residence with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the American Academy in Rome, and numerous festivals. He received degrees from Harvard and Princeton before joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is currently Institute Professor. An accomplished jazz pianist, Harbison founded MIT's Vocal Jazz Ensemble in 2010, for which he served as coach and arranger, and he is pianist with the faculty jazz group Strength in Numbers (SIN). For many summers since 1984 he taught composition at Tanglewood, serving as head of the composition program there from 2005-2015, often also directing its Festival of Contemporary Music. He has been co-Artistic Director of the annual Token Creek Chamber Music Festival since its founding in 1989. He continues as principal guest conductor at Emmanuel Music (where for three years he served as Acting Artistic Director). Harbison was President of the Copland Fund for 15 years, and a trustee of the American Academy in Rome.

About BMOP/sound          
BMOP/sound, BMOP’s independent record label, was created in 2008 to provide a platform for BMOP’s extensive archive of music, as well as to provide widespread, top-quality, permanent access to both classics of the 20th century and the music of today’s most innovative composers. BMOP/sound has garnered praise from the national and international press. It is the recipient of a 2020 Grammy Award for Tobias Picker: Fantastic Mr. Fox as well as eight Grammy Award nominations, and its releases have appeared on the year-end “Best of” lists of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, National Public Radio, Time Out New York, American Record Guide, DownBeat, WBUR, NewMusicBox, and others. Admired, praised, and sought after by artists, presenters, critics, and audiophiles, BMOP and BMOP/sound are uniquely positioned to redefine the new music concert and recording experience. Launched in 2019, BMOP's digital radio station, BMOP/radio, streams BMOP/sound's entire catalog and airs special programming. BMOPsound.org

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