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.

George Walker, the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, was deeply affected by the massacre of nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015. His response was this EP, Sinfonia No. 5 “Visions”, a short, powerful work for orchestra and spoken voices. This recording is of the first public performance, in Seattle—sadly a posthumous premiere. Danish conductor Thomas Dausgaard and his fine orchestra convey the work’s shock, anger, and pain with unerring skill, the quotations of well-known melodies cleverly woven into an impressive sound collage. Superbly and atmospherically recorded.

"When asked about three of his signature orchestral works — the Grammy-winning Become Ocean, its sequel Become Desert, and the original source Become River (previously unreleased as an official recording until now) — composer John Luther Adams refers to them collectively as “a trilogy that I never set out to write.” Collected here for the first time, with newly remastered versions of Become Ocean and Become Desert by acclaimed engineer Nathaniel Reichman, The Become Trilogy pays tribute to a magical partnership between Adams, conductor Ludovic Morlot and the renowned Seattle Symphony. As a whole, the music speaks both to the meditative solace of solitude, and the universally shared experience of living, giving and interacting as a citizen of the world."

Thomas Dausgaard and the Seattle Symphony bring you electric and superbly played performances of Nielsen’s early symphonies. Dausgaard has championed the music of his countryman throughout his career, and this album features the Danish composer’s ecstatic First Symphony and the strong-willed Second Symphony. The live concert recordings capture the vitality and energy shared by the orchestra and their new Music Director, all in the spectacular acoustics of Benaroya Hall.