Historically oriented ensembles have long had an affinity for contemporary music, rooted in an anti-Romantic aesthetic common to the two musical scenes. Many groups have premiered new works of a more or less modernist bent, but the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra takes a new approach in this pair of works from composer Caroline Shaw: the group asked for music that specifically used the resources offered by historical instruments, genres, and performance techniques. The result is a highly accessible pair of works that don't ...
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Historically oriented ensembles have long had an affinity for contemporary music, rooted in an anti-Romantic aesthetic common to the two musical scenes. Many groups have premiered new works of a more or less modernist bent, but the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra takes a new approach in this pair of works from composer Caroline Shaw: the group asked for music that specifically used the resources offered by historical instruments, genres, and performance techniques. The result is a highly accessible pair of works that don't sound quite like anything else out there. Is a Rose is a cycle of three songs written for mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, sounding fabulous as she enters senior citizenhood. With "rose" texts by Gertrude Stein, Robert Burns, and contemporary poet Jacob Polley, the three works were premiered at different times but cohere as a set, making one hear Baroque features such as a harpsichord in new ways. The half-hour The Listeners draws on the Baroque oratorio genre but is entirely...
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