Presto Recordings of the Year
Finalist 2022

Presto Editor's Choice
November 2022

Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst

Walker, George: Antifonys for String Orchestra
Walker, George: Sinfonia No. 4 'Strands'
Walker, George: Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra
Walker, George: Sinfonia No. 5 'Visions'

Led by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, The Cleveland Orchestra release a new audio recording featuring music by George Walker.

The album offers an exploration of the composer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Lilacs for voice and orchestra with soprano Latonia Moore, as well as Antifonys for string orchestra, and Sinfonias no.4 and no.5.

“George Walker’s music is so dense that ten minutes are as emotionally exhausting as other music which is three times as long. It’s tricky, it’s difficult, it’s demanding, it’s challenging, and there is an intensity and a real voice which I enjoy enormously.” – Franz Welser-Möst

This recording further expands on The Cleveland Orchestra’s perpetual drive to learn and promote new works.

The Walker album features four works spanning fifty years by a pioneering American composer, showcasing his singular vision and meticulously crafted sound world.