7 - UNTO THE HILLS : ELIZABETH LLEWELLYN, O DUO + BRC Percussionists

A UK premiere for one of the America’s most original composers, George Crumb, sees the nave of St Magnus Cathedral filled with percussion and piano and voice.  In his later career, the composer grouped songs from the folk and traditional world of American culture and in this collection songs like Black is the colour and Poor Wayfaring Strangers concentrate on music from the Appalachian tradition.  A phenomenally inventive backdrop of percussion scintillates and shimmers under the soaring voice.  O Duo are joined by percussionists from Birmingham Conservatoire accompanying the stellar soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn who has been seen most recently as Ellen Orford at ENO and Bess in the Metropolitan Opera in New York.