English String Orchestra - Enigma Variations - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Bon is considered to be the ensemble of pre-Buddhist beliefs of the Tibetans; it embodies a vast mass of ritual practices bearing on exorcism, divination and the appeasement of wrathful divinities, and elaborate teachings for spiritual realisation -which place Bon among the great mystico-philosophical systems of the world despite it's relatively small number of followers. These recordings illustrate various facets of the religious activities of the Bonpos through their chant and their psalmodic recitation. They intend to bring to a wider audience the musical aspects of a ritual tradition that is largely unknown to the Western World and has remained obscure to the Tibetan themselves.

This fourth album by philharmonie zuidnederland includes works by Darius Milhaud, Charles Koechlin, Duncan Ward and Edward Elgar. Principal conductor Duncan Ward takes you on a symphonic journey with Darius Milhaud's La Création du monde for small orchestra, after which we fly to the stars in Charles Koechlin's mysterious Vers la voûte étoilée - Koechlin had first intended to become an astronomer. We then travel further afield with Ward's own Fumes; Ward had studied in India with sitar legend Ravi Shankar before joining him in California. The album ends with Elgar's Enigma Variations. Elgar portrayed fourteen of his closest friends in this enigmatic, humorous and moving work.

Roger Norrington - Enigma Variations [COMPACT DISCS] date 07/26/2011