Two Symphonies

TWO SYMPHONIES features music from Stanley Grill’s Music for the Earth and Music for Peace projects.

SUMMER (a symphony) was composed while out walking during a very hot August. From out of the hot blue sky came the sound of brass choirs, and from the green trees, choruses of strings and woodwinds. Cicadas were calling.

Work on SYMPHONY FOR PEACE started late in 2023 as wars raged in both Ukraine and the Middle East. Unlike other wars that have been fought since the last century, these are wars that pose a threat of escalating on a world-wide scale.

Not that music ever brought peace. But, as Lenny Bernstein famously said, “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly, than ever before.”

Scattered throughout the score, in somewhat altered form, are melodies by various composers ranging from the Renaissance through the 20th century that were settings of the words “dona nobis pacem.”

THE ARTISTS

Stanley Grill is a classical composer whose passion for medieval and Renaissance music has greatly influenced his writing. Two main themes permeate many of his works: music composed in an attempt to translate something about the nature of the physical world and our human relationship to it and music composed to inspire and promote world peace.

Marek Štilec is one of the most prominent representatives of the young generation of Czech conductors. Collaborating with a wide range of international orchestras, he is a highly sought after label conductor. He has recorded over 30 CDs for companies such as ArcoDiva, Naxos, CPO, Radioservis, Supraphon, and others.

The West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra, in the beautiful Mariánské Lázně in the very heart of Europe, is the oldest symphony orchestra in the Czech lands. Its history is connected with the opening of the local spa, with 1821 being the year that a permanent ensemble was founded.

Marek Štilec, conductor | Jiří Štilec, producer | Václav Roubel, recording engineer
Recorded April 2026, Mariánské Lázně, Czech Republic