March 6, 2017- Conductor, composer, and pianist Robert Spano releases a new recording on the ASO Media label of two of his own compositions on April 28, 2017. The album, rooted in the philosophical and divine nature of creativity, consists of of the Hölderlin-Lieder Song Cycle (2013), based on the poetry of 18th century German poet Friedrich Hölderlin, which Mr. Spano wrote for longtime colleague and collaborator, soprano Jessica Rivera, who performs the cycle on this recording. Mr. Spano writes, “The imagery of the poems sparked in me musical correspondences that I attempted to express through a late-nineteenth-century musical vocabulary, in homage to the masters of the intimate and exquisite form of lieder. I wrote them for soprano Jessica Rivera, whose beautiful voice and rich artistry were my muse in the process.”

Following the song cycle is a piano sonata which Mr. Spano himself performs. Composed in 2016, Sonata: Four Elements, is a play on the typical four movements found in sonata form with each movement’s referring to one of the elements of nature: earth songs, air born, under water, and on fire. “These classical elements of earth, air, water, and fire have a rich history of associative meaning. Thinkers as ancient as Thales and Heraclitus, and as recent as Carl Jung, have been fascinated by the multi-layered symbolism inherent in these seed ideas. They are also key concepts in the western esoteric traditions, appearing in astrology, tarot cards, the qabalistic tree of life, and any variety of magical arts,” states Mr. Spano. “I was inspired to capture something of the unique and complex qualities of each element, yet also to connect them, as they are dynamically related to each other.”