“It’s hard to believe Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is turning 50 next year,” writes Clive Paget in Thursday’s (7/22) Musical America (subscription required). “There’s something eternally youthful about its limber sound, and something that still smacks of the teenage renegade about the famously ‘conductor-less’ ensemble. The half century, however, does indeed approach, and Deutsche Grammophon is pre-emptively celebrating the event with a lavish box set—a giant cube containing all 55 discs Orpheus has recorded with the ‘Yellow Label’ from 1985 up to today. The ensemble was the brainchild of cellist Julian Fifer…. Reviews were positive—often raves—and 15 years later they picked up a contract with DG…. Orpheus was fortunate to come of age in the digital era. Even its earliest discs were recorded in state-of-the-art sound…. Perhaps what makes the anniversary box special—nifty original cover art and all—[are] more off-the-beaten-track items…. Just listen to them unravel the knotty textures on Ives’s Three Places in New England in 1993…. Discs of Stravinsky’s ballet Orphée and smaller works for chamber orchestra are a prime example of what Orpheus does best: clarifying musical textures while investing sometimes cerebral music with personality and a real sense of panache.”
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