Discovering a masterpiece that is still largely unknown to the music world creates a very special excitement – and is a real rarity. To find three such gems and to capture them in a premiere recording with outstanding artists is a stroke of luck! Even though the first recording of Amy Beach’s “Gaelic Symphony” with the Munich Symphony Orchestra under its new chief conductor Joseph Bastian can now be found time and again in the concert repertoire, Beach’s fascinating musical language remains undiscovered territory for many musicians. And that is precisely what makes working with it as an interpreter so beautiful and exciting: getting completely involved in a new world of sound, harmonising the details with the broad lines and learning to understand the subtleties and sophistication of her magnificent art of orchestration is an enriching experience that opens the ears and soul. This music is so rich, so multi-layered and so colourful that you can only love it. The “Gaelic Symphony” is the very first symphony by an American female composer. Its existence is due on the one hand to the creative power and defiant self-confidence of Amy Beach, who did not let go of music even under the thumb of her husband. On the other hand, the influence of Antonín Dvořák, who was living in the USA at the time, as the midwife of a genuinely American music.

The three vocal works on this album (all première recordings) are imbued with poetry and drama. It was particularly moving for the Munich Symphony Orchestra, Joseph Bastian and the singers Angela Brower and Camille Schnoor to bring these sounds back to life for the first time in over a century, as far as is known.