A major force on the American music scene for more than six decades, LUKAS FOSS has achieved remarkable distinction as a composer, a conductor, and a pianist. The four Judaically inspired works presented here include the WORLD-PREMIERE RECORDINGS of Song of Anguish (based on the prophet Isaiah’s dramatic denunciation of national corruption and evil, and his admonition to trust in God and His wisdom), a majestic setting of the hymn Adon olam, and Lammdeni (an imaginative choral and percussion work based on the two oldest-known musically notated Hebrew manuscripts). The touching Elegy for Anne Frank combines solo piano with an orchestra that both plays and sings!

ROBERT BEASER has garnered wide acclaim for The Heavenly Feast, his deeply moving and masterfully orchestrated musical portrait of Simone Weil, who had ecstatic visions of feeding the victims of World War II while starving herself to death.