Sicilian Culture With No Hint Of The "M" Word

This is a lavishly produced release of music by Berio in the usual austere ECM house style. There are two major Berio works, Voci and Naturale, and in between these works are fascinating recordings of Sicilian folk music from the Ethnomusicological Archives of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Rome. Voci is subtitled Folk Songs II and is performed by the solo viola of Kim Kashkashian and the Radio Symphonieorchester Wien conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. Berio reflects and amplifies the songs through his orchestrations and Kashkashian plays very soulfully. The archive recordings show the archaic Sicilain folk styles to be very modal and harshly sung, with connections back to traditions of street vendors and a world away from the ballad tradition of northern Europe apart from the occasional use of pipes as accompaniment. Sicily has been subject to many different cultural influences over the centuries of course, because of its' crossroads location in the Mediterranean. Naturale ( Su melodie Siciliane ) again features Kaskashian on viola with taped extracts from further archive recordings and percussion played by Robyn Schulkowsky. The presence of the archive voices gives a much more obvious and direct link to the source material but Berio again is able to expand and embellish what was originally conceived as a theatrical performance. The diverse percussion and committment off Kim Kashkashian provide their own theatrical element and once the listener adapts to the sound world it makes a most accessible entry into Berio.