Iestyn Davies is the British countertenor of the moment as of 2019, and part of the reason is his adventurous program. He has outdone himself with If, named for one of the excerpts from The Diary of Anne Frank, Michael Nyman's score for a Japanese anime treatment of that famous tragic story. It's not so much that the program here mixes the Baroque music of Henry Purcell with the contemporary semi-minimalism of Nyman; the Baroque-minimalism equation has been proposed before and explored in various ways. More interesting is ...
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Iestyn Davies is the British countertenor of the moment as of 2019, and part of the reason is his adventurous program. He has outdone himself with If, named for one of the excerpts from The Diary of Anne Frank, Michael Nyman's score for a Japanese anime treatment of that famous tragic story. It's not so much that the program here mixes the Baroque music of Henry Purcell with the contemporary semi-minimalism of Nyman; the Baroque-minimalism equation has been proposed before and explored in various ways. More interesting is that Davies has a partner in programming adventure: the viol consort Fretwork, who have been unusually active in their involvement with contemporary composers. They are a virtuoso collective, capable of many sounds beyond the homogenous, rather neurasthenic plain viol consort texture. And this is what's most interesting of all: If mixes music written for voice and viol consort -- by Nyman, not Purcell, who never wrote for this combination -- with music arranged for this configuration...
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Add this copy of If to cart. $32.47, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Signum Classics.