JOHN HARBISON: DIOTIMA BMOP/sound 1083 JOHN HARBISON (b. 1938) : DIOTIMA (WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING); MILOSZ SONGS FOR SOPRANO AND ORCHESTRA (WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING); SYMPHONY NO. 6 (DAWN UPSHAW soprano, BOSTON MODERN ORCHESTRA PROJECT, Gil Rose, conductor).

Description: By John Harbison: On this CD, Gil Rose and BMOP include my first and likely last music for orchestra, written over forty years apart. In the insightful and expansive note that accompanies this CD, Clifton Ingram notices the defining relationship, in both pieces, to texts. He also hears in this music a perhaps paradoxical devotion to both clarity and ambiguity. I am grateful to Mr. Ingram for his consistently accurate hints for the listener. My orchestral pieces, as is true with all composers fortunate enough to return with some frequency to the orchestra, have benefitted from conductors who have returned often to my music, exemplified by the music director on this CD, Gil Rose. I also remember, at the conclusion of my writing for orchestra, collaborations with Blomstadt, Hoose, Levine, Miller, Previn, Ozawa, Rose, Pitman, Schuller. Silverstein, Smith, Turner, and Zinman. In the world of orchestra music composer, players and conductor journey together toward something none of them can fully imagine until it happens.