The celebrations of John Adams's 70th birthday continue with his Naive and Sentimental Music, conducted by its dedicatee, Esa-Pekka Salonen. A symphony in all but name, the work glows with multi-layered textures.
From meditative Minimalism to intricate counterpoint in Stravinsky’s Canonic Variations on ‘Vom Himmel hoch, da komm’ ich her' – a colourful ‘recomposition’ of Bach’s own chorale variations on the Lutheran hymn.
Rising French mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa is the soloist in Ravel’s heady song-cycle Shéhérazade, an exotic musical fantasy of distant lands and forbidden love.
Image: Marianne Crebassa © Simon Fowler/Erato–Warner Classics