Award-winning composer Reza Vali is a native of Iran but is now based in the United States after studies in Europe. Vali’s distinctive cross-cultural style is founded in a quiet rebellion that saw him return to his Persian musical heritage. Following the dazzling concert opener Ravân, Vali has taken a text by 13th-century poet and mystic, Rūmī, two traditional texts, and words by Vali himself, to create the moving cycle The Being of Love, with each song evoking a different aspect of love. Isfahan uses Persian modes and forms, and is among Vali’s most striking microtonal works, pushing the orchestra beyond its usual twelve-note sound-world in an exciting way.

Reza Vali has been described as the ‘Persian Bartók’, and as ‘a composer of wonderful clarity, precision and effectiveness’ in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The Being of Love sees the release of three premiere recordings, all of which were commissioned and given their first performances by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Also part of our 21st-Century Classics edition, The Being of Love joins a previous release of Vali’s orchestral works on the Naxos label (8557224) which includes Folk Songs (Set no.10) and was much admired by critics. ‘Vali’s trademark mix of Persian and Western music makes for an unusual and evocative texture that is enormously appealing… The opulent sound and spirit of soprano Janna Baty, a Boston favourite who just finished a run in Boston Lyric Opera’s Così fan tutte, is ideally captured here in a memorably thrilling performance’ (Boston Herald).

Praised by the London Financial Times for her ‘eloquent dignity and vibrant tone’, and by the Boston Herald for possessing ‘a voice brimming with richness and confidence’, award-winning soprano Janna Baty has garnered accolades internationally for her exceptionally versatile career both in opera and concert music, specialising particularly in contemporary repertoire.