Known as the nation's foremost label launched by an orchestra and devoted exclusively to new and 20th Century music, BMOP/sound today announced its 53rd and latest album release, Wayne Peterson: Transformations: the first-ever commercial recording of Peterson's orchestral work The Face of the Night, The Heart of the Dark, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. Under conductor Gil Rose, the musicians of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) continue to bring seminal contemporary American masterworks out of the shadows.
Despite winning the Pulitzer, Peterson's symphony never received another performance after its 1991 premiere by the San Francisco Symphony. "I am shocked that no one has performed and/or recorded this piece in over two decades," says Gil Rose, Artistic Director and Conductor of BMOP. "We are thrilled to be presenting a landmark in the discography of American modernism." Peterson's Pulitzer win touched off a debate about the procedures by which the winner is selected. The Pulitzer Prize board overruled the recommendation of its music jury and awarded the prize to Peterson. Peterson told The New York Times: "I had sent the work in as a lark, and I didn't think I had even a remote chance of winning. I have won other awards, but the prestige of the Pulitzer is greater than that of the others. The controversy has made it a little different. I just hope the pall that it has cast will not jeopardize what the Pulitzer could mean in helping circulate my music."Videos