Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Baird Dodge, violin
Color Field Quartet (members of CSO and Chicago Lyric Opera orchestra)
soprano Laura Strickling & pianist Thomas Sauer
Executive Producers: J and Helen Schlichting

Music Samples
Video
Album booklet

James Matheson | Esa-Pekka Solonen | Chicago Symphony Orchestra | Baird Dodge | Laura Strickling | Yarlung | Music Publisher

NativeDSD | HDtracks | CD

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Matheson’s concerto is a supercharged showpiece for virtuoso violinist and orchestra that connects with the listener on a visceral as well as intellectual level. It keeps the soloist extremely busy as he negotiates a maze of vivid, colorful orchestral …. While neo-romantic in overall flavor, Matheson is original enough to shun the feel-good bromides that constitute so much of today’s “new” classical music. –John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune

Unlike many younger composers who have a basic idea and then try to orchestrate it, Matheson writes in full orchestral 3-D.  Waves of tonal sounds moved across the stage, and sections had individual voices and even voices within the sections. –Andrew Patner, Chicago Sun-Times

Matheson’s String Quartet is an impressive piece of work. Thirty-two minutes long, it is brimming with ideas…. The String Quartet is… beautifully orchestrated, the combination of instruments used to create one wondrous color after another. Motor rhythms and repeated patterns juice forward progress… meditative, starry-skied, rapt. The quick finale is a syncopated romp. — Timothy Mangan, Orange County Register

About the poetry he set to music in Times Alone, Jim Matheson writes, “Antonio Machado’s early poems are imaginative, deeply personal observations on Being and Spirituality in early 20th century Spain. They are urgent, modern, and sometimes devastating in the sheer loneliness of their perspective.”  Jim’s music rises to the occasion.

James Matheson’s Violin Concerto, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Muti, Music Director and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director

Premiere performance: December 15th, 2011

James Matheson’s String Quartet, commissioned by J. and Helen Schlichting for Segerstrom Center for the Arts Chamber Music Series Premiere performance: February 19th, 2014 in Samueli Theater at Segerstrom Center for the Arts

James Matheson’s song cycle Times Alone, commissioned by Kiera Duffy

Premiere: February 26th, 2013 at Rockefeller University, Kiera Duffy and Roger Vignoles

Recording Engineering Team:

Bob Attiyeh, stereo analog tape and DSD
Tom Caulfield, 5 Channel Surround Sound
Arian Jansen, SonoruS Holographic Imaging
Christopher Willis, Violin Concerto
Mastering Engineers: Steve Hoffman & Bob Attiyeh
Mixing Engineer (Violin Concerto): Arian Jansen