M. Kurek: Symphony No. 2 "Tales from the Realm of Faerie" & Other Works Vanderbilt Chorale, European Recording Orchestra, Robin Fountain, Tucker Biddlecombe

• Michael Kurek (b. 1955): Symphony No. 2 "Tales from the Realm of Faerie":
• 1 Kurek: Symphony No. 2 "Tales from the Realm of Faerie": I. — 11:48
• 2 Kurek: Symphony No. 2 "Tales from the Realm of Faerie": II. — 08:50
• 3 Kurek: Symphony No. 2 "Tales from the Realm of Faerie": III. — 09:56
• 4 Kurek: Symphony No. 2 "Tales from the Realm of Faerie": IV. — 12:54
• Missa brevis:
• 5 Kurek: Missa brevis: I. Kyrie 01:56
• 6 Kurek: Missa brevis: II. Gloria 03:25
• 7 Kurek: Missa brevis: III. Sanctus 02:06
• 8 Kurek: Missa brevis: IV. Agnus Dei 01:54
• Ave Maria:
• 9 Kurek: Ave Maria 05:48
• Total Runtime 58:37

Info for M. Kurek: Symphony No. 2 "Tales from the Realm of Faerie" & Other Works

Michael Kurek’s "Symphony No. 2: Tales from the Realm of Faerie", a rich musical tapestry intertwining the colors and characteristics of many fantastical worlds the composer has entered and loved. Performed by the European Recording Orchestra, a certain spirit of unspoiled beauty, innocence, nobility, hope, and heroic goodness stretches across four movements, each giving the listener creative control of the worlds they conjure. With a well-balanced lineage of traditional compositional techniques running throughout his symphony and other works for choir to follow, Kurek presents a dynamic assortment of work that keeps the spirit and heritage of classical music alive.

This symphony’s subtitle, “Tales from the Realm of Faerie,” (“Faerie” being the archaic term for Fairyland) calls forth in my own imagination a kind of rich musical tapestry intertwining all the colors and scenes of many fairytale worlds I have loved. I conceived the work as a fantasia of fairytale impressions in sound, spinning out like golden threads from a magical, musical spinning wheel. I have no particular fairy story in mind but rather hope that childlike ears might simply lose themselves in this world, as would a child hearing fairytales being read aloud – in swashbuckling fanfares, love themes, pointillist fairy dust, the surprising appearance of an evil sorcerer, music for a grand ball at a castle, or anything else one might wish to imagine from one’s own storehouse of fantastical dreams, whether concrete or completely abstract.

However cinematic such images might sound, this symphony remains classical in its technique, with large-scale traditional forms, various contrapuntal textures, classic voice leading, developmental sections, and modulating key schemes reminiscent of the late Romantic and especially early twentieth-century symphonists. Beyond fairytale imagery on the surface, I hoped to capture the deeper spirit or tone of unspoiled beauty, innocence, nobility, heroic goodness, and hopefulness associated with that literary genre.

The first movement is in sonata form. The main themes of the second movement are in an ABA ternary design, but with each part preceded by the same (though varied) introductory music. Movement three is also in an ABA design, with a quicksilver scherzo in the outer parts framing a two-themed grand ballroom waltz part in the center. Movement four has a unique form that is like a large rondo but with an altered design, ABACBAC instead of the standard ABACABA, with four transitional sections connecting five of the parts.

Polly Brecht, organ
Malcolm Matthews, organ
Claire Davis, harp
European Recording Orchestra
Vanderbilt Chorale
Robin Fountain, conductor
Tucker Biddlecombe, conductor

Michael Kurek
American composer Michael Kurek’s music is receiving increasing acclaim for its lush, neo-traditional, melodic, and narrative style, reminiscent of the early 20th century symphonists. It has garnered performances by numerous symphony orchestras and chamber groups throughout the United States and in 15 countries on five continents, in addition to online streams in over 100 countries on six continents. His works have been heard nationwide on NPR and other countries’ national radio broadcasts, and have also been profiled in national print media and music journals.

Kurek has received several important awards for his music, including the prestigious Academy Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (the Academy’s top lifetime achievement award, now called the Arts and Letters Award), the Academy’s Charles Ives Award and national awards or fellowships from the League of American Orchestras, BMI, NEA, Meet the Composer, MTNA, the Tanglewood Music Center, and others.

His 2017 album, THE SEA KNOWS, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Music chart, and he has served on the Classical Nominations Committee for the GRAMMY Awards. In 2022, The Tennessee State Legislature and Governor named Kurek “Composer Laureate of the State of Tennessee.” He has been a popular guest composer at universities and an adjudicator of the national composition contests of ASCAP and others. His teachers included the German composer Hans Werner Henze, French composer Eugene Kurtz, and Pulitzer-prize winning American composers William Bolcom and Leslie Bassett. His book on spirituality in music, The Sound of Beauty, was released by Ignatius Press to strong reviews in September 2019. He holds a doctorate in music composition from the University of Michigan and is a Professor Emeritus of Composition at Vanderbilt University, where he chaired the department of composition for 14 years. The Panhellenic Council of the university presented him with the “Best Music Educator at Vanderbilt” award.

Tucker Biddlecombe
(Ph.D.) is Director of Choral Activities at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. There he conducts the Vanderbilt Chorale, and Symphonic Choir, and teaches courses in Choral Conducting and Music Education. He also serves as Director of the Nashville Symphony Chorus, the offcial vocal arm of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Biddlecombe is a veteran teacher and a passionate advocate for music education. Ensembles under his direction have performed to acclaim at state and division conventions of ACDA, and he is active as a guest conductor. A native of Buffalo New York, Biddlecombe is a graduate of SUNY Pots dam and Florida State University, where he completed doctoral studies in choral conducting and music education with André Thomas. He resides in Nashville, TN with his wife Mary Biddlecombe, Artistic Director of the Blair Children’s Chorus.

Robin Fountain
is Professor of Conducting at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. He is also in demand as a guest conductor, with recent engagements including concerts with the Singapore Symphony, the Louisiana Philharmonic, and Traverse City Symphony.

Two tours of China, recordings, performances of important but rarely heard works (for example Benstein’s Mass), and the commissioning of new music (for example Tracy Silverman’s Love Song to the Sun) have distinguished his leadership of the orchestra program at the Blair School of Music. He has won both the university-wide Madison Sarratt Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Blair School of Music’s Faculty Excellence Award.

Fountain recently stepped down as Music Director of Southwest Michigan Symphony. Over 14 seasons, he had led a transformation of the orchestra’s performance level, repertoire, and scope, with the ensemble now boasting a summer series (the Water’s Edge), a choral partnership (the SMSO Symphony Chorus), and a teaching program for underserved youngsters (Music Makers).

Educated at Oxford University, The Royal College of Music in London (where he studied with Norman Del Mar and Christopher Adey), and at Carnegie Mellon University, Fountain was an Aspen Conducting Fellow in 1984. In 2012 he was privileged to have the opportunity to train with members of the famed Berlin Philharmonic at The Conductors Lab in Aix-en-Provence.

This album contains no booklet.