From Sappho’s Lyre is a double CD of music by Constantine Caravassilis.  There are five cycles for voice and various combinations of instruments, all, as the album title suggests, related to Sappho of Lesbos.  The first is a setting of her Hymn to Aphrodite; the longest, extant work.  It’s intended to be performed as a “spectacle” with dance, costumes etc.  It’s scored for soprano (Lana Guberman-Chriss), mezzo soprano (Carla Jablonski), countertenor (Daniel Moody), narrator, chorus Jeffrey Duban), eight piece chamber ensemble (Tenth Muse Ensemble) and recorded sounds and it’s conducted by the composer.  It’s sung and narrated in a mixture of Ancient Greek and English and it’s richly orchestrated.  It’s complex but mostly tuneful music with quite dense textures and lots of percussive effects.  It’s really a very distinct musical voice as becomes clearer as one progresses through the pieces on the records.

Equal to the Gods (He Appears to Me) is another setting of text by Sappho; again in a mixture of Ancient Greek and English translation and uses the same forces as the Hymn.  There’s more use of pre-recorded sounds here and generally a more frantic feel to the piece as it wrestles with Sappho’s unrequited passion.  But again it’s colourful and evocative with very dramatic sections contrasting with something more lyrical.

The second CD begins with Five Duban Songs: Eros Sanctified.  This sets five Sappho inspired poems by Jeffrey Duban.  It’s scored for mezzo soprano (Ariana Chris) and chamber ensemble (Tallinna Kammerorkester) and is conducted by Kaisa Roose.  This piece oozes sexuality even though in one place it sounds distinctly like a Bach chorale.  It’s very lush, almost overblown in places, but really quite satisfying.

My Life a Lyric Cry sets text by American poet Sara Teasdale, again inspired by Sappho,  It’s scored for soprano (Jenni Klauder), piano (Maria Pikoula), cello (Sophie Shao), oboe/English horn (Katherine Needleman) and narrator (Jeffrey Duban).  It’s another richly written piece with interesting use of the spoken voice narration and some really high, plaintive sections for soprano.

The final piece is Sappho de Mytilène.  This is a setting of five Sapphic fragments translated into modern Greek  by Odysseus Elytis and then translated into French by Veronique Perl.  It’s scored for soprano (Ariana Chris), piano (Maria Pikoula) and flutes (Anna Uray).  The five poems are set in quite a variety of styles.  At times it’s langurous and even voluptuous but other sections are very busy, even anguished, and it finishes extremely playfully.

There’s over two and a quarter hours of music on the two CDs and it’s all rhythmically, harmonically and melodically inventive.  There’s a lushness to much of the music that’s very appealing but there’s variety too.  I found some of the writing for tuned percussion very interesting and the mix of high sung voice with spoken narration is effective.  All in all there’s lots to like and lots to explore.

The recordings were made in a variety of ocations but any difference in acoustic is really not noticeable.  The hi-res (96kHz/24bit) digital version of the recordings that I listened to had excellent clarity and range.  It’s also available as physical CDs, CD quality FLAC or MP3.  The booklet has full texts and translations and a wealth of other material about the poems, the music and the general background to the project.

Catalogue number: Orchid Classics )RC100260