When the 59th annual Grammy nominations were announced yesterday, the San Francisco Symphony was among them again — for the 20th time. If SFS wins in the Best Orchestral Performance category, it will be the San Franciscans’ 16th trophy. The Recording Academy makes the award announcements at the Feb. 17 awards ceremony in Staples Center.
The nomination is for the SFS Media recording by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony of Mason Bates’ three largest electro-acoustic orchestral works: The B-Sides and Liquid Interface, both commissioned by SFS, and Alternative Energy. The SFS announcement speaks of Bates’ “exuberantly inventive music that expands the symphonic palette with sounds of the digital age: techno, drum ’n’ bass, field recordings, and more, with the composer performing on electronica.” The partnership between MTT/SFS and Bates goes back about a decade, built on multiyear commissioning, performing, recording, and touring projects.
Next month, SoundBox presents two performances co-curated by Bates and Edwin Outwater, exploring music written in response to natural settings. The program includes the SFS premiere of Bates’ The Rise of Exotic Computing for sinfonietta and laptop.
Bates commented on the nomination by saying that “I never cease to be astonished by the San Francisco Symphony’s impact on American music. Their performances of living legends, from Lou Harrison to John Adams, have continually thrilled and educated me. It’s an honor to be part of their recorded legacy and receive this Grammy nomination.”
SFS’ Grammy Awards history goes back a quarter century, when, under the direction of Herbert Blomstedt, it recorded Mahler's Symphony No. 2, which was nominated for a Grammy (and won Best Symphonic Recording in Germany, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik). The first win came in 1993, as a performance of Orff's Carmina burana was named Best Choral Recording.
Awards to MTT/SFS began in 1996, with Best Orchestral Performance going to their live RCA Red Seal recording of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. In 2000, they had a trifecta: Best Classical Album, Best Orchestral Performance, and Best Engineered Classical Album for their RCA Red Seal all-Stravinsky recording of Le Sacre du Printemps, The Firebird, and Perséphone.
The Recording Academy also announced that C.F. Kip Winger’s CD Conversations with Nijinsky — recorded by the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and conducted by Music Director Martin West— has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition category. The title track, Conversations with Nijinsky, premiered at the Orchestra’s 40th Anniversary Concert in March 2016. The album also features the score to Christopher Wheeldon’s Ghosts from S.F. Ballet’s 2010 Repertory Season.