Dominick Argento is widely considered to be one of America’s leading composers of lyric opera and choral music. The two major song cycles on this recording demonstrate Argento’s flair for setting unusual texts to music. From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, which won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Music, is based on eight of the writer’s confessional journal entries, while The Andree Expedition sets diaries and letters from an ultimately tragic balloon expedition to the North Pole in 1897. “For me, all music begins where speech stops.” (Dominick Argento)