Gloria Coates: Symphony No. 15; Cantata da Requiem; Transitions

Gloria Coates is one of the most startlingly individual figures on the contemporary music scene, and the most prolific female symphonist in history. Her Symphony No. 15, the newest and most ambitious work on this recording, is subtitled Homage to Mozart, and is full of the otherworldly sounds and textures that have become Coates’s trademark. Transitions for chamber orchestra makes an interesting comparison with the Symphony. One can hear here the same overlay of glissandos and tonal chorales, but in a more stripped-down chamber context. Coates’s vocal music, such as her early work Cantata da Requiem, tends to be somewhat different, more lyrical and less concerned with masses of texture.