Search - Tsoupaki, Beekman, Arvanitis :: St Luke Passion (Jewl)

This new St. Luke Passion, from Greek composer Calliope Tsoupaki, is a dualistic masterpiece. The deeply religious composer found her inspiration in the icon featured on the cover of this CD. When one looks carefully, this Christ seems to have two faces--and so does Tsoupaki's music. At once severe and enigmatic, loving and tender, or joyous and sad, Tsoupaki looks back to the seventh and eighth centuries, when early Gregorian chant merged with Byzantine melodies. A comparable merging of East and West is achieved by combining the forces of Palestinian singer Raneen Hanna and Dutch tenor Marcel Beekman with a Byzantine choir and the Egidius Quartet. The Nieuw Ensemble is conducted by Ed Spanjaard, one of the foremost contemporary music conductors from the Netherlands.