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Premiere Recording of Bernard Rands's Vincent Released on Naxos

Mar. 01, 2017

Premiere Recording of Bernard Rands's <em>Vincent</em> Released on Naxos

On March 3, Naxos Records releases the first commercial recording of Bernard Rands’s 2011 opera Vincent. The recording features the world premiere cast, including baritone Christopher Burchett, tenor Will Perkins and bass-baritone Jason Eck, with Arthur Fagen leading the Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra.

Inspired in the 1970’s by the then new Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, Rands researched and sketched Vincent for the next 40 years. Vincent represents much of the great painter’s life, focusing on the dramatic setbacks of his later years. The libretto by J.D. McClatchy contrasts the affection of his brother Theo with Vincent's intense inner struggles, his vicious conflict with Gauguin, and his tragic and untimely death. Following its premiere in 2011 at the Indiana University School of Music, the work was hailed as “powerfully affecting” (The Huffington Post) and “aural magic … an opera that should be taken up by the operatic establishment” (The American Record Guide). 

Watch a short introduction to Vincent by Rands and librettist J.D. McClatchy: 

From March 25 to April 3, Rands is in residence at the Oberlin College and Conservatory in Ohio, where Raphael Jiménez leads the Oberlin Orchestra in a performance of his recent Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra on March 31, with soloist Robert Walters, who gave the work’s premiere with The Cleveland Orchestra in 2015.

Also this month, the Chicago Composers Orchestra performs Rands’s London Serenade at Roosevelt University (March 9), Reed Chamberlin leads the Nevada Wind Ensemble in a performance of Ceremonial in Reno (March 13), and the PRISM Saxophone Quartet celebrates the release of their album “Paradigm Lost”, featuring PRISM (Memo 6b), with performances of the work in New York (April 1) and Philadelphia (April 2).

For more information on Bernard Rands, visit schott-music.com.

Bernard Rands
Vincent (2010)
opera in two acts
libretto (En) by J.D. McClatchy
for 2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano, tenor, countertenor, 2 baritones, 3 basses and SATB chorus
3(3.pic.afl).2.3(3.bcl).2-4.3.2.btbn.1-timp.2perc-hp.cel.acc.pno-str
110' 

London Serenade (1988)
for orchestra
2.2.2.2-1.1.1.0-perc-hp-str
15’

Ceremonial (1993)
for symphonic wind ensemble
pic.2.1.ca.3.bcl.2asax.tsax.barsax.1.cbsn-4.3.3.euph.1-timp.5perc

13'

Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra (2015)
3(3.afl).2.3(3.bcl).2-4.3.2.btbn.1-hp-timp.3perc-str
25’

PRISM (Memo 6b) (2008)
for saxophone quartet
12’

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