Old meets new in this podcast, as we compare Boston Camerata's recent album of medieval Christmas songs with newly-recorded vocal works by Reiko Füting (using texts by the 13th century nun Mechthild von Magdeburg) and David Lang (a new version of The Little Match Girl Passion). The connections between the sound worlds, sensibilities and exploratory character of these pieces—among the earliest and most recent examples of Western art music—are unmistakable.
We also preview David Robertson's immanent appearance with Seattle Symphony, and bid farewell to David Del Tredici and his Alice in Wonderland works. We revisit an epic piece by Giya Kancheli that attracted little attention upon its premiere 50 years ago in Tbilisi, but which helped to usher in the spiritual minimalist movement that soon dominated the late Soviet musical milieu. And new improvised and fixed-media works by Tim Daisy, Mark Feldman, Angelika Niescier, Leonor Falcón, Vasco Trilla and Beatriz Ferreyra round out the show.
