Mason Bates - Works for Orchestra - San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas - SFS Media 0065 (2016)
DSF 2ch DSD128 (5.64MHz) | Source: bluecoastmusic.com | Classical, Modern Composition, Avant-Garde, Electronic

Fifteen years ago, I had been on California soil scarcely a month when I stumbled into Davies Symphony Hall. Immediately, Michael Tilson Thomas & the San Francisco Symphony blew my musical mind. The inaugural SFS American Mavericks festival featured some of the most demanding & audacious symphonic programs I had ever encountered—from John Cage to David Del Tredici—& through ingenious programming & presentation, the experience was thoroughly engaging & fun. That spirit of joyful adventure is what I so cherish about Michael & the SFS, & why this release is such a milestone for me.
The 3 pieces on this album are my largest electro-acoustic works, my wildest explorations into the power of an expanded symphonic palette & its implications for imaginative new forms. The electronic sounds range from glaciers to industrial techno to a NASA spacewalk, which raises the creative challenge of integrating them into the orchestra & thereby taking the medium to new places. New sounds have often provoked new forms throughout music history—think of the Technicolor textures of Berlioz & Wagner bringing to life ingenious programmatic forms— & I look to the digital world as an important 21st century expansion of the orchestral sound world.
Michael has been a tremendous mentor over the years, always challenging me with obscure listening assignments &, often, actual composition assignments (The B-Sides began as a response to Schoenberg’s 5 Pieces for Orchestra). During my years in the Bay Area, it has been quite a trip to migrate from SFS audience member to contributing composer, & the San Francisco Symphony continues to be my window into the limitless possibilities of an orchestra. 
~ Mason Bates

Mason Bates (b.1977)

      Tracks:

The B-Sides
01. Broom of the System 4:12
02. Aerosol Melody (Hanalei) 4:00
03. Gemini in the Solar Wind 5:32
04. Temescal Noir 3:14
05. Warehouse Medicine 4:45

Liquid Interface
06. Glaciers Calving 6:47
07. Scherzo Liquido 3:54
08. Crescent City 8:24
09. On the Wannsee 4:29

Alternative Energy
10. Ford’s Farm, 1896 7:07
11. Chicago, 2012 5:53
12. Xinjiang Province, 2112 8:05
13. Reykjavik, 2222 4:52

      Time: 01:11:19

      Musicians:

San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, music director and conductor
Mason Bates, electronica

      Recorded: 
Live at Davies Symphony Hall, a venue of the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center, City & County of San Francisco. 
Recorded live in PCM 192 kHz/24-bit audio. The B-Sides (January 8-11, 2014), Liquid Interface (January 15-18, 2014, Alternative Energy (September 10-13, 2014).
The DSD made from conversions using our Blue Coast conversion methods.