Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will release a live recording of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 and Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy-Overture, on the Orchestra's own Grammy Award-winning SFS Media Label on 11 May 2015. The release coincides with the celebration of the 175th anniversary of Tchaikovsky's birth. The recording will be available on hybrid SACD, compatible with conventional CD players, and as a digital download, including high-resolution downloads. The recording is the first SFS Media album recorded entirely in 192kHz / 24-bit. The SFS Media Label is marketed and distributed in the UK by AVIE Records.

"Tchaikovsky has always been important to me," says MTT. "My work as a student and young musician with Piatigorsky, Heifetz and Rubinstein imparted to me a sense of elegance about his music. It is this quality that has shaped this performance."

MTT and the SFS perform Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in concerts on their upcoming European Festivals Tour at the Edinburgh International Festival on 28 August; in Wiesbaden, Germany at the Rheingau Festival on 3 September; and in Luxembourg on 12 September. Prior to the tour they perform Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 at Davies Symphony Hall on 21 August.

A champion of Russian composers, MTT's recordings with the SFS include Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Grammy winner for Best Orchestral Performance, and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Firebird and Perséphone which garnered three Grammy Awards. Two episodes of MTT and the SFS's PBS television series, Keeping Score, were dedicated to the making of a performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 and an exploration of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 was recorded 18 - 21 September 2014 and the Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy-Overture was recorded 3 - 6 September 2014, both in Davies Symphony Hall at the start of MTT's 20th season with the San Francisco Symphony.

ABOUT THE SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
The San Francisco Symphony is widely considered to be among the most artistically adventurous and innovative arts institutions in the United States. Led by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, the SFS presents more than 220 concerts annually, and reaches an audience of nearly 600,000 in its home of Davies Symphony Hall, through its multifaceted education and community programs, and a global audience through its media initiatives, national, and international tours.

ABOUT SFS MEDIA
SFS Media is the San Francisco Symphony's in-house label, launched in 2001. SFS Media records and releases audio and visual material reflecting the Orchestra and Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas's commitment to showcasing music by maverick composers as well as core classical masterworks. The recordings reflect the broad range of programming that has been a hallmark of the MTT/SFS partnership. Recorded live in concert and engineered at Davies Symphony Hall, the audio recordings are released on hybrid SACD and in high-resolution digital formats. SFS Media has garnered eight Grammy awards. SFS Media also produces and releases documentary and live performance videos, including the SFS's national public television series and multimedia project Keeping Score, which included three seasons of television episodes, eight documentaries, and eight concert films designed to make classical music more accessible to people of all ages and musical backgrounds, available on DVD and Blu-ray. Other videos of the San Francisco Symphony available from SFS Media include A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein: Opening Night at Carnegie Hall 2008 and San Francisco Symphony at 100, a documentary about the Symphony's history, which won a Northern California Emmy Award.

SFS Media recordings are distributed by harmonia mundi in the U.S., Canada, and France, through Avie Records internationally, and by The Orchard to digital retailers.

Title: Symphony No. 5, Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy-Overture

Composer: Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Artists:
San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas Music Director

Recorded: Recorded live at Davies Symphony Hall 18 - 21 September 2014, and 3 - 6 September 2014, in PCM 192hKz/24-bit audio

Label: SFS Media

Catalogue Number: SFS 0062

Release Date: 11 May 2015

Distribution:
harmonia mundi (U.S., Canada, and France)
Avie (International)
The Orchard (Digital)