Paul Moravec: Useful Knowledge (Naxos Audio CD)  

Vita Brevis (version for soprano and piano trio)
Characteristics • Useful Knowledge: A Franklin Fantasy
Amy Burton, soprano • Trio Solisti • Simon Mulligan, piano
Randall Scarlata, baritone • La Fenice • Cecilia Brauer, glass harmonica

World Premiere Recording

This programme of musical portraits by Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Moravec encompasses a song cycle, a cantata and a solo piano work. Vita Brevis is a beautiful cycle of five songs that chart a birth-to-death journey, whereas Characteristics enshrines tributes from the composer to seven musical friends, three pianists, two composers, a violinist and a countertenor, in the form of pithy piano commentaries. Moravec’s tribute to Benjamin Franklin, Useful Knowledge, is a soliloquy-come-fantasy that celebrates Franklin’s pioneering rationality with music of dextrous imagination.