The children's choral work I Am I Say, by the young British composer Kate Whitley, gets top billing here. It's an attractive work in the great English tradition of music for young choristers, with a text by Sabrina Mahfouz and, notably, the singers themselves. And the performance, by what could easily have been an unwieldy group of massed school choirs, is clean and affecting. I Am I Say comes last on the program, though, and the music that comes before is considerably different in style. It's a good deal less tonal ...
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The children's choral work I Am I Say, by the young British composer Kate Whitley, gets top billing here. It's an attractive work in the great English tradition of music for young choristers, with a text by Sabrina Mahfouz and, notably, the singers themselves. And the performance, by what could easily have been an unwieldy group of massed school choirs, is clean and affecting. I Am I Say comes last on the program, though, and the music that comes before is considerably different in style. It's a good deal less tonal (although there is usually a tonal center) and generally edgier in feeling, with sharp planes of sound that intersect and strain the capabilities of the instruments involved without, for the most part, going into the realm of extended technique. The exception here is the first of the Three Pieces for violin and piano, where the pianist creates a fascinating counterpoint with the plucked violin by using one hand as a damper. Sample this movement for an idea of Whitley's style in these...
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