George Tsontakis's Sonnets was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to showcase its English Horn player Robert Sheena and to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.
Performer Biography
Robert Sheena has been the English Horn player of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops Orchestra since 1994 and teaches at several institutions, including the Tanglewood Music Center, where he is an alumnus.
Performer Biography
Andris Nelsons, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, also serves as Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, fostering a unique multi-dimensional alliance between the two orchestras.
Composer Biography
Three of the four composers featured on this album — Eric Nathan, Sean Shepherd, and Timo Andres — were composition fellows of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Music Center (TMC).
Recording & Production
The album's cover art features "Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles" (c. 1913) by Wassily Kandinsky, one of the artists who inspired Sean Shepherd's work on the album.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Sean Shepherd's Express Abstractionism was inspired by five artists: Alexander Calder, Gerhard Richter, Wassily Kandinsky, Lee Krasner, and Piet Mondrian.
Composition History
All four works on this album were commissioned and premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its conductor Andris Nelsons during the first years of his tenure.
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