Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Released on 22/04/2022 by Sony Classical
Main artists: Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)
Genre: Classical

Digital booklet

Available in

24-Bit/48 kHz Stereo

Unlimited Streaming

Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps

Start my trial period and start listening to this album

Enjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription

Digital Download

Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.

Mason Bates' Philharmonia Fantastique - The Making of the Orchestra, in this, its 23-minute audio form, might be seen as a modern-day counterpart to Benjamin Britten's A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, but its primary function is as a teaser for a multimedia work of the same title, fusing animation and music; its real ancestor is the 1940 Walt Disney film Fantasia. The multimedia presentation comes with sterling credentials in the form of this endorsement from John Williams: "In the art of marrying music with animation, Philharmonia Fantastique is the biggest step forward since Fantasia itself." Fantasia featured one of the top American orchestras of its day, the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Leopold Stokowski, and Bates' new work is here rendered by one equally good, the Chicago Symphony. If conductor Edwin Outwater is not a marquee name like Stokowski, he gets wonderful results from the orchestra in this colorful score. Sample the beginning of the fifth movement, "The Brass," where the powers of the famous Chicago Symphony brass section seem fully undiminished. This passage also points to another source of publicity for Philharmonia Fantastique: the sound, which earned a Best Engineered Album Grammy award in 2023. The brass seem to purr but not to lose their resonance, and there are wonderful sonic moments throughout. Philharmonia Fantastique has a busy performance schedule lined up with various orchestras, but for the music itself, it would seem difficult to top this premiere release.

© James Manheim /TiVo

More info

Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra

Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)

You are currently listening to samples.

Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.

Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.

From kr124,99/month

Philharmonia Fantastique - The Making of the Orchestra (Mason Bates)

Primordial Orchestra