Music of James Yannatos

We've been proud over the past several years to offer the chamber and orchestral music of James Yannatos on Albany Records, and this newest release offers an excellent sampling of his talents. Born and educated in New York City, he studied with Philip Bezanson, Nadia Boulanger, Luigi Dallapiccola, Darius Milhaud and Paul Hindemith. He also studied conducting with William Steinberg and Leonard Bernstein, and has been music director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra since 1964. The Violin Concerto was commissioned by the Pierian Foundation in honor of his 40th year at Harvard. The Symphony, loosely based on a twelve-tone theme, was influenced, as Yannatos says, "by the ragged, edgy rhythms of jazz filtered through the ears of a classical composer." The Contrabass Concerto is described as "a cross between the classical solo concerto, with its typical virtuoso technique, and the alternating 'ritornello' style of the Baroque solo concerto." Yannatos' music is exciting and colorful with a particularly "transparent" sound to the orchestration. The other releases of his chamber, choral and orchestral works can be heard on TROY241, 278, 366, 400, 516 and 638.