The album ‘Song of Songs’ features the world premiere performances of two remarkable works - by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lang and eminent composer Betty Olivero - centred around the ancient text of ‘The Song of Songs’, “a love song accepted as scriptural in Jewish and Christian traditions from times before reckoning”.
Both Louth Contemporary Music Society commissions, Lang’s ‘Just (after Song of Songs)’ and Olivero’s ‘En La Mar Hai Una Torre’ (In the sea there is a lighthouse) are lyrical yet beautiful contemporary spiritual works that are breath-taking from beginning to end. The recording also features Luciano Berio’s ‘Naturale’, his 1985 piece for viola, percussion and the recorded voice of a Sicilian folk singer - which is apt considering that Berio was one of Olivero’s most important teachers.
The brilliant Scandinavian singers Trio Mediaeval (Anna Maria Friman, Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Berit Opheim), much acclaimed for their ECM recordings, collaborate with the renowned viola player Garth Knox, cellist Agnes Vèsterman, and percussionist Sylvain Lemêtre for the first time, along with Irish concert harpist Cliona Doris. The recording stems from a Louth Contemporary Music Society concert given in October 2014 where both composers, Lang and Olivero, attended the performance and recording session.
David Lang’s mesmerising ‘Just’ features on the soundtrack of Paolo Sorrentino’s 2015 film ‘Youth’, starring Michael Caine as an ageing composer, alongside Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz and Jane Fonda.
