OUR CHOICES
The BBC Music team’s current favourites
I’ve been listening to Copland’s music for the ballet Hear Ye! Hear Ye!, performed by the Detroit Symphony under Leonard Slatkin. The orchestration incorporates intriguing jazz influences. In Scene VI, Copland uses bluesy clarinet and syncopated percussion rhythms to evoke Chicago’s gangland nightlife. The courtroom scenes are brought to life vividly with bits of the US national anthem.
Elinor Cooper Editorial assistant
I’ve had fun putting together an Apple music playlist of seasonal music, including contemporary music by Rebecca Dale, a composer I’d not come across before. Her Winter, performed by Voces8, is superbly cold and atmospheric, and her arrangement of ‘Soay’, as heard on The Lost Songs of St Kilda CD, makes wonderful use of strings in bringing this nearly-lost folk tune to life.