Abel, M: Naomi (Berkeley)

Paul McCartney's tried it; Elvis Costello, too. So have Sting, Peter Gabriel, and even Leonard Bernstein. But a maverick California composer named Mark Abel has created what may be the most elegant and persuasive attempt yet to marry classical and rock. So get ready for a unique and powerful listening experience.

The Dream Gallery is an evocative, sophisticated and hard-hitting cycle of songs for soloists and chamber orchestra that explores the inner lives, struggles, illusions and home turf of seven archetypal Californians. The often startling lyrics and striking music combine to pierce straight to the heart of the human condition, while laying bare the flaws, foibles and sins of the society we all share, Californians or not. With winning performances from singers and orchestra alike, these stunning songs reveal a fresh style – decades in the making – in which the core content of classical and rock has been so thoroughly crossbred as to constitute a new strain of American art song.