Album: Sofia Gubaidulina, Canticle of the Sun

Featuring unorthodox showcases for violin and cello, this album is testament to the sensitive individualism of Sofia Gubaidulina. Performed by Gidon Kremer's Kremerata Baltica, "The Lyre of Orpheus" proceeds via a series of discrete violin flourishes and glissandi, until coaxed into the open under cover of the ensemble. Its inclusion of sleighbells is one example of Gubaidulina's characteristic use of unusual percussion, which reaches further extremes in her setting of St Francis's "Canticle of the Sun" when cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, having de-tuned his instrument to its lowest possible note, eventually abandons it to bow first a drum, then a flexatone device. Strange, but beautiful.

DOWNLOAD THIS The Lyre of Orpheus; Canticle of the Sun