American Dreams (Live) (Live) Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra & Louis Langrée

• Edward K. "Duke" Ellington (1899 - 1974): Night Creature:
• 1Ellington: Night Creature: Blind Bug (Live)04:42
• 2Ellington: Night Creature: Stalking Monster (Live)08:09
• 3Ellington: Night Creature: Dazzling Creature (Live)04:51
• George Gershwin (Ed. M Clague) (1898 - 1937): An American in Paris (Live):
• 4Clague): An American in Paris (Live)18:55
• Leonard Bernstein (1918 - 1990): Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront (Live):
• 5Bernstein: Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront (Live)20:23
• Total Runtime57:00

Info for American Dreams (Live) (Live)

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced the release of its newest recording, American Dreams, conducted by Music Director Louis Langrée. American Dreams features live performances from Langrée’s final two seasons and was specially curated and released to celebrate his finale season as the Orchestra’s Music Director. This digital-only release includes Night Creature by Edward K. “Duke” Ellington (trans. David Berger) featuring pianist Courtney Bryan, An American in Paris by George Gershwin (ed. Mark Clague) and Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront.

“Ellington, Gershwin and Bernstein are in my pantheon of great 20th century American composers,” reflects Langrée. “Each piece on the album is an American tone poem and each is emblematic of the quintessential American music identity. They marry, juxtapose, infuse and weave together different musical ideas, styles and cultures to create a new language. These three masterpieces written by Ellington, Bernstein and Gershwin are stunning examples of the heart of the American Dream”

American Dreams extends the Orchestra’s prolific recording legacy, which includes more than 200 commercial recordings that have sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Previously, Langrée has recorded three albums with the CSO, earning two Grammy nominations for Best Orchestral Performance. Langrée and the Orchestra released two singles in 2023: David Lang’s man made featuring Sō Percussion and Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 6, which the Orchestra commissioned for its 125th anniversary season. Transatlantic (released in 2019) featured the first recording of Mark Clague’s critical edition of George Gershwin’s An American in Paris, which stripped the score of Campbell-Watson’s distortion of Gershwin’s original work.

“For instance, Campbell-Watson rearranged Gershwin’s original clear orchestration and distorted his crisp texture by adding heavy percussion or slurs. Campbell-Watson also softened Gershwin’s intended dissonances,” remarks Langrée. “This critical edition also reinstates the Ragtime style, which was predominant in the 1920s.”

Courtney Bryan, piano
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Louis Langrée, conductor

Louis Langrée
has been Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 2013 and Music Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center since 2003. In November 2021, he was named Directeur of the Théâtre National de l’Opéra Comique by Emmanuel Macron, President of France.

A regular presence in New York since his 1998 debut, Langrée has conducted more than 250 performances and concerts at Lincoln Center, at the Metropolitan Opera, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the New York Philharmonic; he has also taught masterclasses at the Juilliard School. Langrée has raised the artistic profile of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, widening its repertoire from Lully to contemporary music, including Bernstein’s Mass, the world premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with Lisa Batiashvili, and New York premieres of Osvaldo Golijov’s Azul with Alisa Weilerstein and David Lang’s man made with Sō Percussion.

Louis has guest conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, and Leipzig Gewandhaus, as well as Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Freiburg Baroque, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. In addition to The Met, he frequently conducts at the leading opera houses including the Vienna Staatsoper; Teatro alla Scala; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Lyric Opera of Chicago; and Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich; and at festivals including Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence, BBC Proms, Edinburgh International, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Wiener Festwochen, and Salzburg Mozartwoche and Whitsun.

An advocate for the music of our time, Langrée has conducted world premieres by Julia Adolphe, Daníel Bjarnason, Anna Clyne, Jonathan Bailey Holland, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Nico Muhly, André Previn, Caroline Shaw, and Christopher Rouse.

Among his recent recordings, the DVD of Thomas’ Hamlet, filmed at the Opéra Comique in Paris with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées won “Best Recording of the Year” Award at the International Opera Awards, “Best Video Performance” at the International Classical Music Awards, the Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros, Caecilia Prize, and Diapason d’Or of the Year. His two most recent CDs with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra were both nominated for a Grammy Award for “Best Orchestral Performance.”

Louis Langrée is a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and Officier des Arts et des Lettres. A native of Alsace, he is an Honorary Member of the Confrérie Saint-Étienne d’Alsace, an Alsatian winemakers’ brotherhood dating back to the 14th century.

Booklet for American Dreams (Live) (Live)