Reference Recordings is proud to present a very special new release! Entitled Le Dolce Sirene to represent the all-women force of Bach Aria Soloists, this exciting new album includes works by Monteverdi, Handel, Mendelssohn and Bach, alongside a new transcription by BAS of Cecilia McDowall’s song cycle Four Shakespeare Songs. Hailed for producing 'surprising and brilliantly innovative collaborations,' Bach Aria Soloists delivers each year their acclaimed concert series presenting the genius and relevance of Johann Sebastian Bach, his contemporaries, and those he inspired. BAS consists of Founder/Artistic Director and violinist Elizabeth Suh Lane, GRAMMY-winning soprano Sarah Tannehill Anderson, Elisa Williams Bickers who plays Harpsichord, Organ and Piano, and cellist Hannah Collins.

The University of Texas Wind Ensemble has firmly established itself as one of America’s elite wind bands. Active in the area of commissioning new music since 1988, the group has offered world premiere performances of works by many composers including John Corigliano, Michael Daugherty, Donald Grantham, David Maslanka, John Mackey and Dan Welcher. One of the guiding principles of the ensemble is contact with the leading musical minds of the twentieth and twenty-­first centuries.

Reference Recordings proudly presents the Symphony No. 6 of Ludwig van Beethoven, with Steven Stucky’s Silent Spring, in exceptional performances from Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Honeck honors us again with his meticulous music notes. He gives rare insight into his conducting and interpretation, as well as the history and musical structure of Beethoven’s beloved Pastoral Symphony.Steven Stucky’s Silent Spring was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of the book Silent Spring, the seminal work by Pittsburgh native Rachel Carson. It had its world premiere performance in February 2012. The composer generously includes his own album notes about this work, which like the book can be heard as a call to action to love and save nature and the earth before it is too late.