It is being made in conjunction with the world premiere performance of Mathieu’s Concerto No. 4 for Piano and Orchestra featuring soloist Alain Lefèvre, the internationally acclaimed pianist.

In addition to the Piano Concerto No. 4, the TSO recording will include Mathieu’s Scenes de Ballet (Ballet Scenes) and Four Songs for Choir and Orchestra featuring the TSO Chorus. Due to the recording, a special third performance has been added on Sunday, May 11 at 2:00 pm. All three performances will be recorded for use in the final disc. The release is expected during the TSO’s 80th season, prior to the 2009 publication of a biography of French Canadian composer André Mathieu and the release of a film about his life. The film is being produced by Denise Robert, the Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign film (Les Invasions Barbares). TSO subscribers will be given first chance to purchase tickets to the Sunday matinee before they go on sale to the general public. This inaugural TSO recording is made possible in part by special support from the Stonewall Foundation.

The TSO recording of Mathieu’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with Mr. Lefèvre will be his fourth release of the composer’s works. Alain Lefèvre has won 2 Felix Awards, given by l’ADISQ, for Best Classical Album of the Year with the works of Mathieu, for the CD Concertos and for the CD Rhapsodies, which received five stars from the BBC Music Magazine. He also won a Classical Internet Award for the CD Concertos awarded by ClassicsToday.com in the Outstanding New Discoveries Category for Mathieu’s Concerto de Québec, which he recorded in 2003, with the Québec Symphony Orchestra. He followed it in 2005 with a program of short piano pieces, Hommage à André Mathieu. In 2006, Mr. Lefèvre released the “Rhapsodie romantique,” with the Montréal Symphony Orchestra. The recordings have sold more than 80,000 copies. Juno Award-winning engineer Carl Talbot, who won the Felix for Best Sound Recording for Rhapsodies, will also engineer the TSO recording.

“André Mathieu’s music cannot remain the property of Canada,” states Mr.Lefèvre, who has worked for nearly two decades to piece together the career of the man he calls “the piano genius of our century.” “This is a major work by Mathieu, inspired when he was in Paris studying with Arthur Honegger. It was a new era starting in his life but he didn’t have time to record it before he died.”

The TSO became the first American orchestra to perform Mathieu’s Quebec Concerto when Mr. Lefèvre performed it with them in November, 2004. He returned to perform Mathieu’s “Rhapsodie romantique” at the opening night concerts of the TSO’s 2006/07 season, a performance the Arizona Daily Star described as “taut, fiery and emotive” and claimed, “established the standard by which all other orchestras will follow.” Mr. Lefèvre recalls: “The commitment of George Hanson to honor these works was the beginning of my thought to have the TSO record the Concerto No. 4. It was a shock when I played with them the first time. The way the musicians committed themselves astonished me. They played with their hearts. Any orchestra could do it, but the way the TSO played persuaded me to commit myself.”

Mr. Hanson, who in 2003, received the Echo Klassik award for his recording of music of Anton Rubinstein, recalls seeing tears in Mr. Lefèvre’s eyes after their first rehearsal. “He walked away feeling so extraordinarily impressed he told the producer at Analekta, ‘I want to do the next one with Tucson.’ What this could and should do for the TSO and Tucson is to give us instant credibility in terms of recognizing the accomplishments of this orchestra. A project like this is unheard of for a regional orchestra.”

“In partnership with the TSO, Analekta will proudly produce this recording, a tribute to Montreal composer André Mathieu, the incarnation of pure genius for Quebec and Canada,” stated Julie Fournier, Analekta Director of Production. “This composer and pianist, a child prodigy, has been largely forgotten, but Mr. Lefèvre’s ambition is to revive public interest in Mathieu. This new album, featuring orchestral and choral works, is the continuation of Mr. Lefèvre ’s remarkable endeavor.”

Forgotten Genius and Murdered Genius are two of the titles proposed for the film about André Mathieu’s life, an indication of the troubled life he led. He has also been called “the Quebec Mozart” and Sergei Rachmaninoff proclaimed him, “a genius, more so than I am.” Born in 1929 in Montreal, André Mathieu, like Mozart, received his first lessons from his father, and was already composing little pieces at the age of four. Also like Mozart, he astonished audiences far and wide with his pianistic prowess from a very young age. When he was 12 years old, his composition, Concertino Op.13 No. 2, won First Prize at the Philharmonic-Symphony Centennial Young Composer’s Contest in New York (over Leonard Bernstein’s composition), organized by the Philharmonic Society of New York. He performed it at a Gala concert at Carnegie Hall on February 21, 1942, three days after his 13th birthday.

His fame peaked around 1950. Thereafter he continued to compose, but the world took little notice. He indulged in day-long “pianothons,” suffered a disastrous love affair, turned to alcohol, and died in poverty. Much about his life remains unknown, including the exact cause of his early death in 1969 and his compositions have yet to be properly catalogued. There are reportedly more than 200 of them.

Due to the recording, the program for this Classic Series concert, GERSHWIN AND MATHIEU, has been changed. The additional works by Mathieu to be recorded, Scenes de Ballet (Ballet Scenes) and Four Songs for Choir have replaced Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to Candide and Maurice Ravel’s Suite from Mother Goose. Gershwin’s An American in Paris remains to close the program. -- www.tucsonsymphony.org