Catalogue

Summary:

“Epic … with thrilling orchestral textures … Riveting”  ★★★★ (BBC Music magazine)

Vast, deep and emotional are apt descriptions of the single-movement, 53-minute-long Symphony No. 2 by Christopher Tyler Nickel. The award-winning Canadian composer elaborates, “One can think of this music as consisting of mirrors between ideas that equally disturb yet entice. Each side of the reflection is in itself conceivably valid, but when facing each other friction and dissonance are created. The exquisitely alluring and the grotesque exist simultaneously. Perhaps another way to understand the symphony is as a meditation on the state of cognitive dissonance.” The entrepreneurial Clyde Mitchell conducts the Seattle-based Northwest Sinfonia on this world-premiere recording.

critical acclaim for Christopher Tyler Nickel

“Nickel’s music is full of life: imagination, invention, variation … This is composition at its best – arresting and masterful.” (The Whole Note)

“the athleticism of both Nickel’s music and the performers is exhilarating … The orchestral writing is strikingly beautiful” (MusicWeb International on Christopher Tyler Nickel’s Concertos for Oboe)

“An enjoyable and skillful set of neoclassic concertos for anyone” (AllMusic on Christopher Tyler Nickel’s Concertos for Oboe)

Also available: two single excerpts (click to listen):

Tracklist:

CHRISTOPHER TYLER NICKEL (b. 1978)

Symphony No. 2 (2016, rev. 2018)
1. I. Grave – Andante – Grave – Mysterioso – Fatalistically – Grave (53.00)

Total time: 53.00

Recorded 5 November 2019
St. Thomas Chapel at Bastyr University, Kenmore, Washington, USA
Producer: Christopher Tyler Nickel
Balance Engineer: David Sabee
Second Engineer: Brooke Vlahos
Mixing and Mastering: Vince Renaud