Sephardic Diaspora

This is quite a special album entitled Ayre, which is one of the pieces on the cd written by Osvaldo Golijov for voice and small chamber ensemble ( Dawn Upshaw and the Andalusian Dogs ) The industry wants to push Golijov as the new big thing in classical music, although to me this work is more of a form of world music fusion taking for its' inspiration as it does Sephardic melodies, Semitic electronica and Arabic poetry. There is a clear political statement being made too, relating back to the time in Andalucia when Jewish, Arabic and Christian communities co-existed. Golijov wrote the piece to be a companion to Folk Songs for voice and seven instruments by Berio which makes up the rest of the cd. I think the whole works very well but see it more as an isolated, albeit excellent, project rather than a whole new direction for classical music to take. I even wonder how much of a performing life his recent work in this vein will have, relying as it does on the tour de froce interpretations of Dawn Upshaw. She is currently battling illness from which it is to be hoped she makes a complete recovery. I wonder how many other sopranos would take the risks to their voice with the distortion and emotion she puts into the ethnic songs. I suppose in that respect, comparisons could be drawn with Berio and Cathy Berberian for whom he wrote the Folk Songs among many other pieces.