This release appears in the Naxos label's American Classics series, but the main attraction, Songs for Lada (the composer's daughter, not the Soviet car), was composed between 1988 and 1991, before composer Alla Borzova came to the U.S., and mostly while her native Belarus was still part of the Soviet Union. No matter. It's an appealing piece, based on children's folklore from Belarus, that has been successfully performed in both the former Soviet Union and the U.S. The texts, written or adapted mostly by the composer ...
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This release appears in the Naxos label's American Classics series, but the main attraction, Songs for Lada (the composer's daughter, not the Soviet car), was composed between 1988 and 1991, before composer Alla Borzova came to the U.S., and mostly while her native Belarus was still part of the Soviet Union. No matter. It's an appealing piece, based on children's folklore from Belarus, that has been successfully performed in both the former Soviet Union and the U.S. The texts, written or adapted mostly by the composer herself, have a narrative quality; with spoken or sung adult female vocal solos (one performing in folk style) played off against a children's choir and an orchestra that includes Russian bagpipes and other ethnic instruments. The composer specifies conventional substitutes for these, but to their credit conductor Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra do not use these, instead unearthing players of the originals, presumably from Michigan's large Eastern European community....
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