Beginnings

With its second commercial release, the brilliant sextet Eighth Blackbird continues to inject vitality and allure into the new-music scene. The two works here come at creation from fascinatingly diverse angles, a neo- Christian approach from the exuberant young composer Daniel Kellogg and the shaggy eco-humanism of old master George Crumb. My money's on the former -- Kellogg's 30-minute "Divinum Mysterium" is one of the most engaging, hallucinatory and beautiful works to come along in years. From the liturgical opening (sung by Chanticleer), the piece traces the world's creation in a few vivid strokes: the God-visited chaos, the advent of light (Wagner's "Magic Fire" music reimagined by Stravinsky) and the celebration of completion. Crumb's "Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale)" has a hippie-dippy aspect, but its earnest theatricality comes through.

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