This album of choral works by British composer Roxanna Panufnik is presented as an observation of her 50th birthday, and, as such collections often do, it contains new music, as if to say that the best days of the composer involved are not yet done. As it happens, in this case the new music contains hints of exciting new directions. The best comes first, in the form of Unending Love, a commission from Britain's National Youth Choir, setting a poem by Rabindranath Tagore. The work entails the collaboration of an Indian ...
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This album of choral works by British composer Roxanna Panufnik is presented as an observation of her 50th birthday, and, as such collections often do, it contains new music, as if to say that the best days of the composer involved are not yet done. As it happens, in this case the new music contains hints of exciting new directions. The best comes first, in the form of Unending Love, a commission from Britain's National Youth Choir, setting a poem by Rabindranath Tagore. The work entails the collaboration of an Indian-British instrumental-vocal group called Milapfest. Panufnik starts out with a rather bland rendition of an Indian raga mode, but things quickly get more interesting as Panufnik essentially lets the disparate traditions converse rather than trying to force them together. Sample the middle of the work, where the smooth sound of the choir Ex Cathedra forms a fascinating contrast with the South Indian vocalist from Milapfest. The youth choir's commission specified a "Bollywood ending," and...
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