DANSE MACABRE: THE 2ND RECORDING ON DECCA FOR THE OSM AND KENT NAGANO

Kent Nagano

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano are pleased to announce the release of Danse macabre, the second album produced in collaboration with Decca, the prestigious record label. Danse macabre follows on the heels of L’Aiglon, the lyric drama by Honegger and Ibert recorded by the OSM and Kent Nagano as a world premiere.

L’Aiglon has earned numerous honors since its release in March 2016, including an ECHO Klassik award.

Danse macabre, a new recording conducted by Kent Nagano, will win over new enthusiasts, seasoned music lovers and the entire family. Six major works from the repertoire share a common theme: Halloween. And although they were not all composed specifically for the occasion, the works evoke aspects that are characteristic of the dark holiday, including death, sorcery, skeletons and demons.

“The late 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed great advances in technology, and a simultaneous rise in concern for matters of secular spiritualisma trend also observed in our current technological age,” points out the OSM’s music director, Kent Nagano. “This cyclical enthusiasm for the supernatural and the occult tends to pervade popular consciousness and artistic production, no matter how advanced and rational the society. As such, it is a theme that transcends nationality, culture and time.

The great variety of works in this recording, from the swirling magic of Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice to the uniquely American humour in Ives’s Hallowe’en, represents the OSM’s effort to offer a unique perspective on a compelling historical period in classical music, but also a point of commonality with the world we inhabit today.”

The album was recorded over the course of three concerts presented on October 29 and 30, 2015, at the Maison symphonique de Montréal. It features the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano performing works by Dukas, Dvořák, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Saint-Saëns and Ives.

Danse macabre
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Kent Nagano, Music Director and Conductor
Paul Dukas, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Antonín Dvořák, Noon Witch, B. 196
Modest Mussorgsky, Night on Bald Mountain (orch. Rimsky-Korsakov)
Mily Balakirev, Tamara
Camille Saint-Saëns, Danse macabre (soloist: Andrew Wan, violin)
Charles Ives, Hallowe’en (from Three Outdoor Scenes for string ensemble), in a chamber-music version featuring six musicians from the OSM (Andrew Wan and Alexander Read, violin; Neal Gripp, viola; Brian Manker, cello; Hugues Tremblay, percussion; Olga Gross, piano)