'CD review' - Path of Miracles - 11.05.06

From the BBC’s weekly programme ‘CD Review’ with Andrew McGregor – Saturday 6th May

“Another choral disc did more than just catch my ear this week, it all but bent my brain, and that’s a new disc from composer Joby Talbot, ‘Path of Miracles’ an hour-long musical meditation on the great pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostella and beyond to Finistere with libretto created by poet Robert Dickinson.”

“Talbot wrote ‘Path of Miracles’ for Nigel Short’s powerful, professional vocal ensemble TENEBRAE, and it begins with a stunning sound effect that must really tax their abilities – a chant from the Bunun people of Taiwan that they call ‘Pasiputput’.”

Excerpt: Opening of ‘Path of Miracles’ by Joby Talbot, mvt 1 ‘Roncesvalles’

“The Joby Talbot, ‘Path of Miracles’ an hour-long musical meditation on the great pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostella plus it’s often thrilling singing is more than enough to If you thought that the opening was something of a ‘coup de tete’ [trans. ‘surprise’], then the disappearance of the singers into silence as they reach the most westward point and the pilgrims disperse is almost as effective.

It’s a hybrid SA CD from Signum Classics, released on Monday.”