The first countertenor to win the prestigious Metropolitan Opera Auditions, Brian Asawa is also the recipient of a career grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation. Asawa enjoys an international career and excels in the music of the Baroque as well as the contemporary. This recording features the countertenor in an eclectic collection of songs with a particular focus on the form known as the vocalise. A vocalise is a wordless vocal study sung to one or more vowels, and Asawa breathes new life into the form.
Perhaps the most famous vocalise is the haunting Pavane, Op. 50 by Gabriel Fauré. Asawa brings great sensitivity and style to the Vocalise and four other Fauré songs. Asawa's superb musicianship and melting tonal beauty is well suited to the remainder of the program which includes music by Nicolai Medtner, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Sergei Rachmaninov. The Academy of St. Martin In The Fields under the direction of Sir Neville Marriner provide lush orchestral accompaniment.