Swayne’s Silent Land on disc

A new recording devoted to the choral music of Giles Swayne is released on NAXOS on 1 November. The disc features several of the composer’s most significant works performed by the Dmitri Ensemble and cellist Raphael Wallfisch conducted by Graham Ross.

Silent LandMagnificat I draws on the music of the Senegalese Jola people and the Ba-Benezele of the Congo. The silent land, scored for 40-part chorus and solo cello, combines words from the Requiem Mass and Christina Rossetti’s poetry, while Stabat mater interleaves the medieval Latin poem with the Islamic and Judaic burial rites in Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic, and is dedicated to the women of Israel and Palestine.

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