A BRIDGE OF DREAMS – ARS NOVA COPENHAGEN; LAWRENCE-KING; HILLIER (HYBRID SACD) DACAPO

Anne Boyd’s As I crossed a bridge of dreams (1975) gives its title to the CD and, with its rapt sostenuto, steals the show. Almost endlessly sustained, immaculately imagined, and – like everything else here – admirably performed.

A Bridge of Dreams

with Andrew Lawrence-King (harp), Paul Hillier (recitation)

Ars Nova Copenhagen

Body: Lullabies (5)
Boyd: As I Crossed A Bridge Of Dreams
Edwards, Ross: Sacred Kingfisher Psalms
Harrison, L: Mass for Saint Cecilia’s Day
Sola, Liu: The Seafarer

Dacapo present scintillating vocal music from the Pacific Rim featuring composers and poets from China, Japan, California, New Zealand, Australia and one ancient Anglo-Saxon Seafarer.

This is unusual and lovely music sung by the Grammy Award winning vocal ensemble, Ars Nova Copenhagen, under their conductor Paul Hillier, and with early harp virtuoso Andrew Lawrence-King.

These are composers who have consciously looked beyond Western aesthetic traditions to create a musical language with a variety of different reference points. Some have found their sources close at hand in the aboriginal cultures of the land where they live, while others have looked towards the religions and music of Asia. The results are still concert music—not musical exotica—but the direction from which their ideas have arrived gives their music a sense of openness and receptivity.