Horizon, Vol. 1 (2008)

As the big-budget classical marketing and manufacturing apparatus necessary to support the release of albums by the major symphony orchestras of Europe and the United States has shriveled, several of those orchestras have taken the natural step of issuing recordings of their own live performances. The idea is a good one, inasmuch as it promotes an immediacy of experience sometimes lacking in the music-making of venerable institutions like the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. That ensemble takes a new direction ... Read More

As the big-budget classical marketing and manufacturing apparatus necessary to support the release of albums by the major symphony orchestras of Europe and the United States has shriveled, several of those orchestras have taken the natural step of issuing recordings of their own live performances. The idea is a good one, inasmuch as it promotes an immediacy of experience sometimes lacking in the music-making of venerable institutions like the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. That ensemble takes a new direction with its private-label releases in this first disc of what is apparently a new Horizon series: using the medium to promote new music. Three of the four pieces on this album were expressly written for the orchestra (although the reader does not learn whether it was specifically for this project). The idea is a good one and is worth exploration for other ensembles; it makes it possible for an orchestra to quickly respond to new trends and new composers. That doesn't consistently happen... Read Less