Philadelphia's Piffaro is a Renaissance wind band, but that doesn't mean it wants to be limited only to Renaissance music. In January 2008, Piffaro rolled out a new work by Philadelphia-based composer Kile Smith entitled Vespers, where it is joined by the chorus the Crossing, which hails from Chicago. The Crossing makes it a mandate not to perform any music that is more than 15 years old, and it needs not worry with Navona Records' Piffaro -- Vespers as it makes its bow only a little after a year after the work's debut, ...
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Philadelphia's Piffaro is a Renaissance wind band, but that doesn't mean it wants to be limited only to Renaissance music. In January 2008, Piffaro rolled out a new work by Philadelphia-based composer Kile Smith entitled Vespers, where it is joined by the chorus the Crossing, which hails from Chicago. The Crossing makes it a mandate not to perform any music that is more than 15 years old, and it needs not worry with Navona Records' Piffaro -- Vespers as it makes its bow only a little after a year after the work's debut, about as new as a large-scale classical work can be on first release. The disc, nevertheless, does not show any signs of hasty preparation, and it is beautifully, if a little distantly recorded; one may want to turn it up, or not, depending on the mood. The gentle, diatonic sound of Smith's Vespers well suits it for listening at ambient levels. If one had to pull a comparison out of the hat to describe the style of Smith's music the basic flavor of it will appeal to anyone who enjoys...
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