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Voci seems an appropriate title for a disc about the composer's very personal responses to Sicilian folk music. There are three pieces on this album--the first, the aforementioned
Voci, is scored for viola and full orchestra. Berio manages to successfully combine so-called avant-garde techniques with more traditional harmonic and melodic procedures, so that more tuneful elements really stand out. The folk aspects of the music can be discerned sometimes as distant impressions and sometimes almost as transcriptions. The scoring is large and spacious (three percussionists surround two inner ensembles and the violist) but is used sparingly. The piece is itself powerful and raw, helped by the fact that Kashkashian's playing is gritty and virtuosic. Of the other tracks,
Naturale, is a closer reflection aurally of Sicilian folk music but together belongs very much to the vein of
Voci. All the recordings have a rather "live" element to them and this helps to draw out the vibrancy of the music. --
Dominic Sewell
