Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will release a hybrid SACD (Surround Sound) recording of works by John Adams on 19 March 2012. Self-produced on the Orchestra's SFS Media label, with marketing and distribution in the UK overseen by AVIE Records, the recording features the SFS commission Harmonielehre and Short Ride in a Fast Machine, a work commissioned by MTT. The recording has been available as a pre-release download exclusively from Apple's iTunes Music Store from 14 February, the day before the composer's birthday. The CD release comes hard on the heels of the UK premiere of Adams' opera The Death of Klinghoffer at English National Opera.

The SFS commissioned, premiered and recorded Harmonielehre in March 1985 under Edo De Waart during Adams' tenure as SFS composer in residence. Adams recalled, "I was a young composer when I wrote Harmonielehre and I had really only written two other orchestra pieces at that point and one of them was Harmonium, which was premiered by the San Francisco Symphony only a few years before that. Harmonielehre was tough coming out... I was searching for what I wanted to say. I knew that part of what I wanted to write for the orchestra was a music that would kind of strum the strings of its repertoire that would play to its strengths... [with Harmonielehre] I really confronted who I was, who I am, John Adams as a composer - somebody who grew up listening to classical music, classical orchestral music, who played in orchestras when I was younger, who conducted, who loved that repertoire, but at the same time was somebody who also grew up listening to jazz and rock and who was very influenced by minimalism. So it's this rather strange marriage of the driving pulse of American minimalism and the sensuous and emotional and expressive world of the great European masterpieces".

Michael Tilson Thomas, who conducted Harmonielehre during his first season as SFS Music Director in 1995 and multiple times since, said of the work, "When a new piece is premiered, it can make a stunning impression. But the real story of that piece is what emerges over time. When the SFS first performed Harmonielehre in the mid-80s it was a life changing moment for everybody who heard it. I heard it first on the recording and I was drawn into the piece in so many ways, its enormous power, but also its tenderness and depth of expression. And now, decades later, the piece still stands up".

MTT commissioned Short Ride in a Fast Machine from John Adams in 1986 for a Pittsburgh Symphony performance in Massachusetts. Adams shared, "Michael called me back in 1986 when he was opening a new music festival in Massachusetts with the Pittsburgh Symphony and he asked me to do a fanfare. The sort of traditional fanfare with blaring trumpets didn't really appeal to me, and how do you write a fanfare when Copland has already done it so well? I thought about it and for some reason the connection with Cape Cod came to mind. Years before that I had been there with a former brother-in-law and he had asked me at about 1 in the morning if I would like to take a ride with him in his Lamborghini. I did and once he started up I wished I hadn't because he drove very, very fast. The idea of a piece that had that combination of excitement and thrill and was just on the edge of anxiety or terror was the motivating force for [Short Ride in a Fast Machine.] The piece starts with the click of the wood block and that wood block never changes, it just keeps driving and it's sort of like a gauntlet through which a 100-piece orchestra has to pass".

In September 2011 MTT and the San Francisco Symphony capped their Centenary Season Opening Gala programme with an orchestral and multimedia performance of Short Ride in a Fast Machine. In the US, this performance will be televised on PBS's Great Performances on 30 March.
One of America's most admired and respected composers, John Adams has enjoyed a strong relationship with the San Francisco Symphony for more than 30 years. Adams was appointed contemporary music adviser to the San Francisco Symphony in 1979 and composer-in-residence between 1982 and 1985, a tenure which helped set the precedent for composer residencies at orchestras around the world. The creative relationship between the SFS and John Adams has been extraordinarily productive: since 1981 the SFS has performed 22 of his works, six of which were SFS commissions. The Orchestra has performed six world premieres of Adams' music and four U.S. premieres, most recently the March 2007 U.S. premiere of his opera A Flowering Tree, a San Francisco Symphony co-commission. On 15 March at Davies Symphony Hall the Orchestra will perform the world premiere of Absolute Jest, a new work by Adams it commissioned for its centenary season. The work is based on fragments of Beethoven scherzos, and features the St. Lawrence String Quartet. MTT and SFS will further perform the work on tour in Chicago, Ann Arbor and New York's Carnegie Hall. John Adams' writings and more about his work can be enjoyed on his website, earbox.com.

In the US, the release of Harmonielehre coincides with the Orchestra's annual American Mavericks Festival, during which three more works will be recorded for future release on SFS Media: Lou Harrison's Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra featuring Paul Jacobs (8 and 9 March), Carl Ruggles' Sun-treader, and Henry Cowell's Piano Concerto with Jeremy Denk (10 and 14 March).

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For further information, image or interview requests please contact Melanne Mueller, melanne@avierecords.com, 020 8542 4866

Title: Adams: Harmonielehre, Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Composer: John Adams (b. 1947)
Artists: Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony
Recorded: Harmonielehre recorded live at Davies Symphony Hall 8-11 December 2010.
Short Ride in a Fast Machine recorded at the San Francisco Symphony's Centenary Season Opening Gala on 7 September 2011.
Label: SFS Media
Catalogue Number: SFS0053
Release Date: 19 March 2012
Available for pre-release by download exclusively from Apple's iTunes Music Store from 14 February 2012