Press Room

Nov 10, 2023

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, the San Francisco Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus’s recordings on the Orchestra’s in-house SFS Media label have been nominated for two 2024 Grammy® Awards. The live-concert recording of Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring conducted by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and featuring the San Francisco Symphony has been nominated in the category of Best Orchestral Performance. György Ligeti: Lux Aeterna, featuring the San Francisco Symphony Chorus with former Chorus Director Ragnar Bohlin, has been nominated in the category of Best Choral Performance. 

These are the 27th and 28th Grammy nominations for the San Francisco Symphony; the Orchestra has won 16 Grammy Awards, nine since launching the in-house SFS Media label in 2001. The 66th annual Grammy Awards show takes place at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 4, 2024. The show will air live on the CBS Television Network from 8–11:30pm ET/5-8:30pm PT and will stream on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs).

Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring was recorded live in concert with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony on March 10–12, 2022—a performance that Musical America called “high-octane Stravinsky.” The digital-only recording was released exclusively via Apple Music Classical on July 21, 2023. Evoking pagan Russia with roots in the region’s folk music, The Rite of Spring is an exhilarating and revolutionary work that has had a profound impact on modern music since its premiere in 1913. Stravinsky insisted that the work “is unified by a single idea: the mystery and great surge of creative power of spring.”

György Ligeti: Lux Aeterna was recorded in early COVID-restricted environments and features the voices of 16 San Francisco Symphony Chorus members, recorded in 32 separate vocal tracks. The a cappella choral work features a unique spatial audio Dolby Atmos binaural mix that gives listeners the opportunity to hear a surround-sound experience via standard stereo headphones. “The piece produces a powerful effect even in the concert hall; in a state-of-the-art recording, with the voice of each individual singer separated and painstakingly situated in an acoustic spatial map, the results are little short of thrilling,” said the San Francisco Chronicle. The digital-only recording was released on March 28, 2023, via Apple Music Classical and is now available widely on digital streaming platforms. Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony previously released Lux Aeterna in January 2022 as part of LIGETI: PARADIGMS, a digital-only audio-visual performance created in partnership with renowned media artist Refik Anadol and SF Symphony Collaborative Partner and Artificial Intelligence entrepreneur Carol Reiley. The release was one of Salonen and the Symphony’s key signature digital projects during the 2021–22 season aimed at expanding the possibilities of the orchestral experience through digital collaboration.

Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring was produced by Jason O'Connell. Recording engineers were Jon Johannsen, Denise Woodward, Nick Abreu, and Mary Alafetich, and the mastering engineer and mixing engineer was Mark Willsher.

György Ligeti: Lux Aeterna was produced by Jason O'Connell. Recording engineers were Jon Johannsen and Denise Woodward; mixing engineer was John Loose, and mastering engineer was Michael Romanoski.

About SFS Media
SFS Media is the San Francisco Symphony’s award-winning in-house media production company and label, launched in 2001. SFS Media captures, records, and releases audio and audio/visual material reflecting the Orchestra’s restless creativity and commitment to leading-edge production standards and showcasing the vibrant and inclusive musical communities it serves. From audio recordings released in Dolby ATMOS, Spatial audio 5.1 surround capable SACD, and DSD Studio Master digital formats to unique concert capture video programs, SFS Media has been at the forefront of production and distribution among the world’s leading orchestras for 20 years. SFS Media productions and recordings have garnered multiple Grammys, Emmys, and Peabody awards.

In 2023, the San Francisco Symphony began a new partnership with Apple Music Classical—a new app built for classical music, available in the App store—with the release of new spatial audio recordings from SFS Media of works by György Ligeti, Elizabeth Ogonek, and Igor Stravinsky. Recent releases include Anders Hillborg’s Kongsgaard Variations, recorded October 2021; Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome, recorded June 2022; and Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5, recorded June 2022.

Global distribution of all SFS Media products is managed by Warner Classics Label Services. SFS Media recordings and videos are available online at warnerclassics.com/san-francisco-symphony, and at major e-retailers and various outlets.  Recordings released exclusively via Apple Music Classical are added to Warner Classics six months after their release. Many San Francisco Symphony audio recordings can also be streamed and purchased as downloads from digital outlets including iTunes (itunes.com/sfsymphony), Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, IDAGIO, Qobuz, and HDTracks.

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