MICHAEL NYMAN Acts of Beauty - Exit no Exit

Michael Nyman wrote his song cycle Acts of Beauty for Italian singer Cristina Zavalloni. Zavalloni, whose background is in jazz, but who branched into new music and early music, has an extraordinary instrument: powerfully primal, smoky, and supple. The texts, from sources ancient and modern, have at least some tenuous connection with the idea of beauty, but little else in common. Nyman, who frequently shows a real gift for lyrical vocal writing, is off his game here; the blocky text-setting doesn't give Zavalloni much opportunity to demonstrate the expressiveness at which she excels. The music for the accompanying instrumental ensemble is far more interesting than the vocal line (except that the first movement, with its quirkily contrasting sections, remains something of an enigma). The other movements, though, sound like four beautifully shaped minimalist pieces for chamber ensemble, with an added part for voice, whose text has little to do with the musical mood or structure and which had to be awkwardly squashed out of shape to accommodate itself to the accompaniment. Exit No Exit for bass clarinet and string quartet is far more successful. It is oddly proportioned, with 10 movements lasting from one to two minutes, with a penultimate 10-minute movement. The playful miniatures prove to be a good size for Nyman's whimsical ideas. The longer movement sounds like a string of brief contrasting movements played without pause, but some of its sections are gorgeously lyrical. The sound is clean and present, but weighted a little strongly toward the instruments. (Stephen Eddins)

DAVID LANG Child

According to the composer, the five works on David Lang's 2003 recording Child constitute an "attempt to examine certain experiences as I remember (and misremember) them from my childhood. Each individual movement is in some way a memory of how I learned to do something." For this recording, Lang gathered the separately commissioned but closely affined pieces into a suite for a varied ensemble of winds, strings, piano, and percussion, presented here by the Italian chamber ensemble Sentieri Selvaggi. Lang clearly draws on the repeated patterns and static harmonic fields of minimalism, but reduces the volume almost throughout to a restless murmur (save in the frenetic pianistic patter of Short Fall). The extramusical associations of the works range widely: a half-forgotten mnemonic memory device for the order of the planets lends its title -- as well as its gentle orbital feel and lack of closure -- to My Very Empty Mouth, the subtle intoxication of the dentist's laughing gas is invoked by the undulating woodwinds in Sweet Air, and the structural contours of Stick Figure are reduced to simple lines of sustained notes with sudden percussive strokes marking off its spare features. The streamlined yet lyrical nature of this music is complemented by the intimate, subtly articulated recording. (Jeremy Grimshaw)

Sentieri Selvaggi plays GAVIN BRYARS & PHILIP GLASS

Sentieri Selvaggi, made up of some of the brightest young Italian musicians to emerge around the turn of the millennium, has devoted itself to a wide range of contemporary music, ranging stylistically from Glass to Stockhausen. The two eight-minute pieces recorded here are taken from the full-length 1999 album Musica Coelestis, which included 12 pieces. The outstanding sound is clean and the instruments are vividly differentiated. The performance of the Glass is a reminder of the variety of interpretations that can be brought to minimalist repertoire. Glass and his ensemble perform Façades with rhythmic strictness, but with linear expressiveness; in fact, it comes across as one of the composer's more overtly emotional pieces. Sentieri Selvaggi performs it with absolute strictness with both rhythmic and dynamic contours. This makes for a square-ish performance, but it works on its own terms. It also tends to be somewhat bass-heavy, which has the advantage of making Glass' subtle changes in the lower string parts clearly audible. Bryars' Sub Rosa, for an unusually quirky ensemble of timbrally disparate instruments, is something of a remix for live performers of "Throughout," a song from Bill Frisell's 1984 album, In Line. Sentieri Selvaggi's recording is superior to Bryars' own murky version largely because of the splendidly clear sound quality that allows the strangeness of the ensemble to be savored and wondered at. It's a short CD, but one that should interest fans of Bryars and Glass. (Stephen Eddins)

Sentieri Selvaggi LE SETTE STELLE

Sentieri Selvaggi is an Italian musical ensemble, specialising in contemporary music.

It was founded in 1997 by Carlo Boccadoro, Filippo Del Corno and Angelo Miotto. The ensemble has worked with composers such as Ludovico Einaudi, Michael Nyman, Philip Glass, Fabio Vacchi, David Lang, James MacMillan, Lorenzo Ferrero, Ivan Fedele and Louis Andriessen.

Sentieri Selvaggi has been a regular guest at Italian musical festivals including Teatro Alla Scala, Venice Biennale and MITO Music September, as well as at Italian cultural events including the Literary Festival at Mantua and the Science Festival at Genoa, and at international festivals including the Bang On A Can Marathon in New York City and the SKIF Festival in Saint Petersburg.

The group also organized a festival in Milan which since 2005 has become a contemporary music season with a program of concerts, public talks, and master classes. Every program focuses on a specific theme: in 2010 the title of the season is Nuovo Mondo (New World).

The ensemble has also staged chamber operas, including Io Hitler by Filippo Del Corno, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Michael Nyman and The Sound of a Voice by Philip Glass.