CSO Resound releases "Daphnis et Chloé"

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The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's own record label, announces its newest release with works by Ravel and Poulenc featuring Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Chorus and Jessica Rivera, conducted by Bernard Haitink

CSO Resound, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s own record label, announces its newest release, “Daphnis et Chloé.”

The Orchestra is joined by the legendary Chicago Symphony Chorus and led by Principal Conductor Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink in complementary 20th-century French masterpieces: Ravel’s complete ballet score “Daphnis et Chloé.” and Poulenc’s Gloria, featuring soprano Jessica Rivera as soloist.

“Daphnis et Chloé” is available on standard CD, hybrid SACD and digital download.

The “Daphnis et Chloé” CD will be available in U.S. retail outlets on May 12; CDs and hybrid SACDs will be available internationally beginning May 25. (SACDs will be available in the U.S. only through The Symphony Store of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and at cso.org.)

The download will go on sale exclusively at iTunes beginning May 5, and then it will be available from additional digital music outlets, as well as in high-definition lossless format at HDtracks.com, beginning July 14.

“Daphnis et Chloé” marks the sixth recording collaboration between the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Bernard Haitink since the launch of CSO Resound in May 2007. The album was recorded during concerts in November 2007, as part of the 50th anniversary celebratory season of the world-renowned Chicago Symphony Chorus.

Poulenc’s Gloria, for orchestra and chorus with ethereal soprano solo, is an uncharacteristic sacred work showing the full range of his compositional style, from introspective and touching to breezy and jaunty. Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloé,” translating the famous Greek love story for the stage, was completed in 1912 for the Ballets Russes. It is his largest orchestral work (a “choreographic symphony,” he called it) and arguably the greatest example of his mastery of musical color, making subtle use of a wordless chorus to create the extraordinary sonorities for which he is known.

Founded in 1957, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, currently under the leadership of Director and Conductor Duain Wolfe, has earned admiration and acclaim as one of the world’s superior symphonic choruses. The Chicago Symphony Chorus has performed and recorded virtually all the major works in the choral symphonic repertoire, including important world premieres, and has been a key part of the CSO’s history.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra recordings featuring the Chorus have won nine Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance, including Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s “Missa solemnis,” Bach’s B minor Mass and two recordings of Brahms’ “A German Requiem.” Hailed for her luminous and clear singing, soprano Jessica Rivera made her debut with the Chicago Symphony in Poulenc’s Gloria at the November 2007 concerts from which this recording was made. She has forged significant artistic collaborations with many of today’s celebrated composers, including John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov and Nico Muhly.

Rivera sang the role of Nuria in the world premiere of Golijov’s “Ainadamar” at the Santa Fe Opera, followed by performances with the Atlanta Symphony and at Lincoln Center, the Barbican and the Ojai and Ravinia festivals as well as with the Chicago Symphony in 2008; she is featured on the Grammy-winning recording of the opera. In addition, she has given the world premiere of John Adams’ opera “A Flowering Tree” in a production directed by Peter Sellars, and she made her European operatic debut as Kitty Oppenheimer in Sellars’ production of Adams’ “Doctor Atomic” with the Netherlands Opera, a role she reprised for her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as well as at the Metropolitan Opera.

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