Marin Alsop - Philadelphia Stories / UFO - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Philadelphia Stories (2001) for orchestra was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra. The world première was given by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of David Zinman at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia on 15th November 2001. A musical travelogue of the sounds and rhythms of Philadelphia, my third symphony is divided into three movements the first movement begins at sundown, the second movement after midnight, and the third movement at sunrise. In Sundown On South Street, I recreate the groove of people cruising down one of the most popular streets of Philadelphia, where one finds nightclubs and musicians from all walks of life. The many generations of musicians who lived in Philadelphia and walked down this musical street include Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Fabian, Mario Lanza, and Patti LaBelle. In the 1980s I too was a frequent visitor to South Street, playing jazz piano and performing experimental electronic music in various nightclubs. Not only is Philadelphia said to be one of America's most haunted cities but it is also where Edgar Allan Poe penned The Tell-Tale Heart, one of his most famous tales of horror. In his lyric poetry Poe also often invoked the lute and the lyre. Tell- Tale Harp is an arabesque for two solo harps and orchestra. Arranged stereophonically on the stage, the solo harpists play obsessive rhythms, rolling chords, and ghostly echoes in a periodic heart-like pulse. To quote Poe himself, we hear Inchspirits moving musically, to a lute's well-tuned lawInch. In Bells for Stokowski I imagine Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977), one of the most influential and controversial conductors/arrangers of the twentieth century, visiting the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia at sunrise and listening to all the bells of the city resonate. As maestro of the Philadelphia Orchestra (1912-36) he created a sensation by conducting world premières of orches