Composer Roxanna Panufnik is best known for her choral music, which has become very widely performed in her native Britain and beyond. She combines emotional appeal with a contemporary idiom, and this quality extends to the chamber works heard here. They differ somewhat, however, from the broader choral idiom in that they are depictions of strong individual presences, which may be vocal or, more often, instrumental. One of these, in the sort of charming gee-whiz stroke at which Panufnik excels, is that of a bear, whose ...
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Composer Roxanna Panufnik is best known for her choral music, which has become very widely performed in her native Britain and beyond. She combines emotional appeal with a contemporary idiom, and this quality extends to the chamber works heard here. They differ somewhat, however, from the broader choral idiom in that they are depictions of strong individual presences, which may be vocal or, more often, instrumental. One of these, in the sort of charming gee-whiz stroke at which Panufnik excels, is that of a bear, whose heartbeat was captured while under anesthesia and realized by the string quartet in the final piece, the "Lament for a Bulgarian Dancing Bear" second movement of the quartet Heartfelt. (The cover image is that of the actual bear involved.) Things open seriously with settings of wartime letters for voice (baritone Roderick Williams absolutely excels in intimate works of this kind), and with an oboe-and-quartet piece inspired by letters of imprisoned Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi,...
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