Skin

"This superb disc ought to gain Saunders many more admirers, for it includes one of her finest achievements: Skin for soprano and ensemble, which was composed in 2016 for Juliet Fraser, who is the outstanding singer here with Klangforum Wien ... Like Skin, the other two works here - Void for two percussionists and orchestra, from 2014, and the string quartet Unbreathed of 2017 - are equally fastidious in their attention to the minutest details of texture and tuning ... Void is music of violent contrasts, of pounding menace in the bass and delicate hazes of microtones, while the quartet traces a path from violent confinement to a final quiet resolution. It's all important music, superbly delivered".

Læs anmeldelse

"På dette fabelagtige portrætalbum af en af vor tids største komponister, engelske Rebacca Saunders, trækker den 55-årige klangnørd på inspiration fra Samuel Beckett, James Joyce og Haruki Murakani. Men de tre værker ... er helt umiskendeligt Saunders' egne med deres komplicerede, men alligevel næsten kåde nodeskrift ... Klangforum Wien fungerer i 'Skin' som en forstærkning af Juliet Frasers dramatiske sopran under umenneskeligt disciplineret ledelse af dirigent Bas Wiegers ... Akkurat hører man hende hviske et 'Wonderful' på en udånding, og det er nøjagtig, hvad der er at sige om dette portrætalbum".

"Scraping strings; the hum of Japanese singing bowls; silence - Saunders explores the sculptural properties of sound, focusing on contrasting and complementary timbre rather than traditional harmony ... Juliet Fraser is the spiralling soloist in Skin; swaggering between feverish virtuosity, muttered musings and penetrating trills, the soprano works wonderfully with 13 members of Klangforum Wien, led by Bas Wiegers".