Recorded in Pentatone’s trademark excellent, crystalline sound, this is one of the most intelligent releases to have come my way in some time. Four composers celebrate the greatness of the poetry of Emily Dickinson, each adding his own “slant of light” on Dickinson’s inimitable words. The performances are more than impeccable: technically flawless, but also much more... 

We enter a very different world for Getty’s Four Dickinson Songs (2008). These set four poems considered for the 31-poem cycle The White Election (1981) but which only find a flowering here. The orchestration of these songs is specifically for this recording. The impetus for this short cycle so many years after The White Election was a suggestion by Barbara Bonney. They are highly atmospheric, and the orchestration is masterly; the use of bells in “A Certain Slant of Light” is particularly effective.