| NAXOS TO RELEASE WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING OF
NED ROREM’S FLUTE CONCERTO
New CD Features Philadelphia Orchestra Flutist Jeffrey
Khaner and Includes
Violin Concerto with Philippe Quint
On May 16th, Naxos of America is proud to release the world
premiere recording of Ned Rorem’s Flute Concerto performed by Philadelphia
Orchestra Principal Flutist Jeffrey Khaner with the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra under José Serebrier. Also on the CD is Rorem’s
Violin Concerto, performed by Philippe Quint, and the orchestral work
Pilgrims.
The Flute Concerto, composed between August 2001 and May 2002,
was the first in a series of Philadelphia Orchestra commissions for its
principal players and consists of six movements, each with evocative subtitles.
Although Rorem does not believe that “non-vocal music can be proved to
‘mean’ anything precise,” he does feel that “sometimes it’s helpful and
fun to ascribe (usually after the fact) names to separate movements.”
The six subtitles are: “The Stone Tower,” referring to a studio in Yaddo,
the artists’ community where the first movement was written; “Leaving-Traveling-Hoping,”
“Sirens,” “Hymn,” and “False Waltz,” which the composer describes as “rollicking,”
and “Résumé and Prayer.”
Jeffrey Khaner premiered the Flute Concerto on December 4th,
2003 with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Roberto Abbado; his
performance on this recording is his first appearance on Naxos.
Prior to his Philadelphia Orchestra appointment in 1990, Khaner served
as principal of the Cleveland Orchestra. Mr. Khaner is on the faculty
of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and is a founding member
of the Syrinx Trio (with fellow Philadelphia Orchestra
principals Roberto Diaz, viola and Elizabeth Hainen, harp).
Rorem’s Violin Concerto, completed in 1985, is performed on
the new Naxos disc by Philippe Quint, whose 2001 Naxos recording of William
Schuman’s Violin Concerto (8559083) was nominated for a GRAMMY.
Quint has also recorded Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade for Solo Violin
(8559245) in a performance that Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun praised
as “sterling.”
Rorem (b. 1923), who gained fame for his art songs and his autobiographical
writings, is regarded as one of America’s top composers. The
2003 GRAMMY-nominated Naxos recording of his three symphonies (1950-1958;
catalog number 8559149) with José Serebrier and the Bournemouth Symphony
Orchestra received near universal praise as one of the top CDs of the
year. In 2001, Rorem accompanied soprano Carole Farley on a disc
of his songs (8559084) for Naxos that Lawrence Johnson of the Florida
Sun-Sentinel described as “essential Rorem.” Earlier this year,
the Indiana University Opera Theater premiered the composer’s opera Our
Town, based on the play by Thornton Wilder.
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Ned ROREM: Flute Concerto, Violin Concerto, Pilgrims
Jeffrey Khaner (flute), Philippe Quint (violin)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, José Serebrier
8.559278
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