Fort Wayne Philharmonic announces first commercial recording: Toccata Classics release of Walter Bricht: Orchestral Music, Volume One
(August 22, 2018) – The Fort Wayne Philharmonic today announced that its first-ever commercial audio recording will be released on September 7, 2018 by the British label Toccata Classics, a company dedicated to the vast amount of fine classic music rarely performed or recorded anywhere else. Walter Bricht, Fort Wayne Philharmonic recording, front cover.
Walter Bricht: Orchestral Music, Volume One was recorded during a live concert and short patch session following on Sunday, March 18, 2018 at the Auer Performance Hall, Rhinehart Music Center at IPFW (now Purdue University Fort Wayne). This occasion marks the Fort Wayne Philharmonic’s debut on a commercial label. Music Director Andrew Constantine led the Philharmonic in three works composed in the 1930s by noted Austrian American composer Walter Bricht (1904-1970): Symphonic Suite in A minor, Op. 25 (1931); Verwehte Blatter (‘Scattered Leaves’): Eight small pieces for Orchestra, Op. 18b (1932); and Symphony in A minor, Op. 33 (1934). Walter Bricht, Fort Wayne Philharmonic recording, back cover.
Walter Bricht: Orchestral Music, Volume One was recorded, engineered, and produced by GRAMMY Award®-winning producer Tim Handley, who won the 2018 GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for “Viola Concerto” by composer Jennifer Higdon, with artists Roberto DÃaz, Giancarlo Guerrero, and the Nashville Symphony.
To preorder, visit Amazon.com or iTunes.
Said Martin Anderson, founder of Toccata Classics, “It’s astonishing that music of such quality can remain unknown for so long. Walter Bricht has that absolute command of classical form and Wagnerian chromatic harmony – and the sound is archetypically Viennese. Hats off to the Fort Wayne Philharmonic for achieving what Vienna has so far failed to do – restore Walter Bricht to his rightful place in the pantheon. This is superb music!”
“It is significant that we are celebrating a composer important to the State of Indiana, whose music is excellent yet virtually unknown to today’s audiences,” said Music Director Andrew Constantine. “We are grateful to have worked with Toccata Classics to create a permanent document of Bricth’s work. I think international audiences will be delighted with this album featuring our fine orchestra.”
Born in Vienna in 1904, Walter Bricht was a child prodigy who began composing at the age of 12. In 1938, he was forced to leave Austria because Nazi Germany had discovered that he had Jewish-born grandparents. Bricht was offered “honorary Aryan status” by Adolf Hitler if he were to swear allegiance to the Nazi party, but chose instead to leave for the United States.
In the United States, Bricht worked and taught in New York City and at Mason College of Music in Charleston, West Virginia before joining the famed Indiana University School of Music faculty in 1963.
Toccata Classics plans to record more Bricht, including a second volume of orchestral music, as well as the composer’s organ music, piano music, chamber music and songs.
For more information about the recording, go to toccataclassics.com. To learn more about the composer, visit walterbricht.com.
About the Fort Wayne Philharmonic
Now entering its 2018-19 75th Anniversary Season, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic’s mission is to inspire and foster a lifelong love of symphonic music through performance and education. Music Director Andrew Constantine leads the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. All programming is made possible by the support of community individuals, businesses, corporations and foundations. The Philharmonic is a member of the League of American Orchestras and a funded member of Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne, the Indiana Arts Commission, and National Endowment for the Arts. For additional information, call (260) 481-0777 or log on to the website at fwphil.org.
