Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to Release Historic Robert Shaw Recording

In celebration of the Robert Shaw centenary, the GRAMMY Award-winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is issuing its historic live recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, recorded in a single concert with Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

The newly released recording - featuring Shaw's final performance in Atlanta as Music Director - will be sold in advance and exclusively at the Symphony Store in the Woodruff Arts Center, beginning April 14-16, 2016, during the Robert Shaw tribute concerts. The CD will be available nationwide April 29, 2016, with the digital release available for download on iTunes. The physical release may be ordered in advance and online via www.aso.org/asomedia or Amazon. The CD will also be available when the Orchestra performs at Carnegie Hall on April 30, 2016, which would have been Robert Shaw's 100th birthday.

The treasured May 21, 1988, recording sets to right a major gap in the recorded legacy of Mr. Shaw. Now fans of both the composer and the conductor may enjoy one of the world's most beautiful and acclaimed works in one recording.

The live broadcast recording features the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with Benita Valente, soprano, Janice Taylor, mezzo-soprano, Richard Leech, tenor and William Stone, baritone. The complete CD Playlist includes:

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 - "Choral"

I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
II. Molto vivace; Presto; Molto vivace
III. Adagio molto e cantabile
IV. Presto

"Every corner of this recording bears the unique artistic stamp of Robert Shaw's genius. It is his mature interpretation of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, the pinnacle of the choral orchestral repertoire, performed by the orchestra he shaped, the chorus he formed, and a superb cast of vocal soloists. The electricity in the room was palpable: the audience responded with an enthusiastic ovation of nearly nine minutes. We believe audiences everywhere will relish the opportunity to be part of this extraordinary artistic moment and to experience Shaw's voice anew, for the first time in nearly 30 years," said Jennifer Barlament, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Executive Director.

As a young man, Shaw prepared the chorus for the legendary 1952 Arturo Toscanini NBC Symphony recording. Though he performed Symphony No. 9 countless times in his own career, Shaw recorded the Ninth Symphony for Pro Arte in 1985, but it was neither satisfactory as a performance nor as a recording.

Later in the 1980s when it would have been possible to re-record the Symphony through the ASO's ongoing relationship with Telarc, Symphony No. 9 was unavailable because Telarc had committed to a complete Beethoven cycle with The Cleveland Orchestra and its then Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi.

By 1999, enough time had passed since the release of the Cleveland cycle. Telarc's founding producer Robert Woods began planning a Beethoven Symphony No. 9 for Mr. Shaw, which ultimately did not come to pass, owing to Shaw's death just months before the scheduled recording dates.

In recent years, Woods has been digitizing all the historic Atlanta Symphony live broadcast tapes. When it came time to preserve the May 21, 1988, recording of the Ninth Symphony, Woods wrote to longtime Atlanta Symphony Orchestra board member John White, whose generosity funds the preservation of the tapes and this release.

"This performance is one of those in which all of the participants were playing for the sake of the music and were caught up in a vortex of musical union and humanity, the likes of which you just don't encounter very often, if ever, in a lifetime," wrote Woods.

This correspondence led to the current release available in April on ASO Media. To date, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and its recordings have won 27 GRAMMY Awards.

To post a comment, you must register and login.