Available Exclusively on iTunes December 11

Los Angeles, CA (December 2, 2015) - Grammy-winners Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, along with pianists Katia and Marielle Labéque, will release the world-premiere recording of Philip Glass’ newest concert work, his Double Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra on Orange Mountain Music on December 11 exclusively on iTunes. The digital-only recording is also available for pre-order now.

Recorded during its world premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in May 2015, Glass’ Double Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra was composed for soloists Katia and Marielle Labéque in the fall and winter of 2014-15 and commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, Göteborgs Symfoniker and Orquesta Nacional de España. This performance provided the first opportunity for Glass to collaborate with Gustavo Dudamel and the Labéque sisters.

In a series of works that began in 1987, Philip Glass has gone on to compose twelve concertos, nine of them since the year 2000. The form really caught the composer’s attention when he embraced the inherent narrative concept of the concerto as typified by the soloist positioned as a hero who fights against, and almost without fail, triumphs over the orchestra. Only in his recent concertos, including his Double Concerto for Violin & Cello, has he diverged from the classic heroic model of the concerto. Instead, Glass has developed a new compositional approach in which the orchestra functions as an organic extension of the soloists. From the very first bar of Double Concerto for Two Pianos & Orchestra, we hear that the pianos and the orchestra are part of one tapestry of sound. All throughout the work one hears the pianists playing figures which are doubled by sections of the orchestra, or where the range of certain instruments end, other instruments pick up the thread and continue the melodic or rhythmic line.

Gustavo Dudamel appears courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon and Fidelio Arts Ltd. Katia and Marielle Labéque appear courtesy of KML Records.    

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under the vibrant leadership of Music Director & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, presents an inspiring array of music from all genres - orchestral, chamber and Baroque music, organ and celebrity recitals, new music, jazz, world music and pop - at two of L.A.'s iconic venues, Walt Disney Concert Hall (www.laphil.com) and the Hollywood Bowl (http://www.HollywoodBowl.com). The LA Phil's season extends from September through May at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and throughout the summer at the Hollywood Bowl. With the preeminent Los Angeles Philharmonic at the foundation of its offerings, the LA Phil aims to enrich and transform lives through music, with a robust mix of artistic, education and community programs.

Orange Mountain Music is a record company created to serve the fans, aficionados and academics studying the music of Philip Glass. Founded in 2001, the foundational idea for this label developed out of a project undertaken by Kurt Munkacsi and Don Christensen to archive all the master recordings that Philip Glass has made. Over some 40 years Glass had produced hundreds of hours of recordings in the process of creating operas, concert works, film scores, musical theatre pieces and studio albums. This became the foundation of the label; the company began to release these recordings in the early 2000s, eventually leading to the production of new recordings, not just archival material.

Under the leadership of director Don Christensen, fifteen years into the project, OMM's catalogue contains over 100 titles including the majority of Glass' creative output: ten symphonies, seven string quartets, dozens of film scores, chamber music, world music and numerous operas. OMM has released a wide variety of Glass's music featuring a roster of prominent international ensembles that include the Bruckner Orchester Linz, New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Pacific Symphony; theaters including the Landestheater Linz, Teatro Real Madrid, Music Theatre Wales, Portland Opera, and Brooklyn Academy of Music; soloists including Robert McDuffie, Matt Haimovitz, Julian Lloyd Webber, Maki Namekawa, and Tim Fain; new music groups including the Philip Glass Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, Dublin Guitar Quartet, Alter Ego, Signal Ensemble, Icebreaker, and Cluster Ensemble; and conductors Dennis Russell Davies, Dante Anzolini, Michael Riesman, Gerard Schwarz, Anne Manson, Jurjen Hempel, and Marin Alsop.

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