CMS Releases New Album and Announces Partnership with Apple Music Classical

Today, the Chamber Music Society releases American Visions, a new album available to stream exclusively on Apple Music Classical. Listen to the album here. Along with the release, CMS and Apple are also offering a free two-month trial of AMC, redeemable at this link.

The release marks the beginning of a new partnership between CMS and the streaming service, which is known for offering exceptional classical recordings to audiences worldwide. In recent years, they have collaborated with numerous symphony orchestras to expand their catalog. CMS is the first chamber music organization to partner with Apple Music Classical in this same capacity, releasing a series of albums curated by CMS Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han and mastered in high-fidelity stereo and immersive spatial audio.  

Spanning over 40 years of American music history, American Visions includes late 19th- and early 20th-century masterworks by Henry T. Burleigh, Florence Price, and Antonín Dvořák. All three composers fused European musical styles with American folk and popular music motifs in an effort to solidify a distinctly American sound for classical music. Dvořák’s “American” Quintet—the Czech composer’s love letter to rural life in Iowa—endures as a beloved staple of the chamber music repertoire, while Burleigh’s and Price’s stunning, yet underexposed African American-influenced compositions offer a vibrant parallel to trends in European classical music during the early 20th century.

The second album—Fanny and Clara—will be released in early 2025, and creates a portrait of two pioneering women composers of the 19th century. Immersed in musical tradition, yet discouraged from pursuing their passions, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel and Clara Schumann persevered against societal norms to compose works which elevated early Romantic style and embraced emotionally rich and lyrical writing. 

CMS is thrilled to collaborate with Apple Music Classical on this project. The organization is excited to share new releases throughout the coming year and expose a broader audience to the exceptional talent and musicianship of our CMS Artists.