Tasmin Little, Matthias Bamert, Diego Masson - Robert Saxton: Music to Celebrate the Resurrection, I Will Awake the Dawn, Violin Concerto, In the Beginning & Caritas (2004)

The sacred and profane blur in the spiritually conflicted works of Robert Saxton, whose recurrent themes are doubt, faith, and the private journey of the soul in a hostile society. Saxton's modes of expression range from angst-laden atonality -- exploited with great complexity for the bulk of a piece -- to the growing appearance of triadic harmonies and joyous tonal paeans in the concluding measures. This simple scheme is effective in the orchestral Music to Celebrate the Resurrection, I Will Awake the Dawn for double a cappella choirs, and In the Beginning for orchestra, all corresponding to Saxton's ideas of redemption. The Violin Concerto is more ambiguous, yet the violin part clearly represents an aspiring spirit, struggling against the violence and chaos of the orchestra. The BBC Symphony Orchestra, under Matthias Bamert, provides an ominous accompaniment to Tasmin Little's searching solo, and this performance is the most satisfying for its intensity and clarity. In his two-act opera Caritas, Saxton turns his religious themes inside-out by portraying a fourteenth century anchoress' descent into madness, caused by religious zeal and isolation. The vocal soloists and the English Northern Philharmonia are disturbing and sometimes frightening, though one imagines that this opera is much more compelling on-stage than on this distant recording.