DAVIDOVSKY: “SCENES FROM SHIR HA-SHIRIM.” Phyllis Bryn-Julson,...

DAVIDOVSKY: “SCENES FROM SHIR HA-SHIRIM.” Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Frank Hoffmeister, Charles Walker, Raymond Murcell; Parnassus conducted by Anthony Korf. “ROMANCERO.” Diane Ragains; Szyzygyu New Music Ensemble conducted by Larry Livingston. CRI SD+530. Davidovsky’s 23-minute setting of excerpts from the “Song of Solomon” evokes a tightly knit, austere response rather any overt display of voluptuousness from the Argentine composer. Elements of serialism, wide intervals, shifts from monophony to polyphony, daring deployment of his four soloists and spare, exotic, Orientally tinged instrumentation all conspire towards a gripping ritualistic end. In “Romancero,” Davidovsky sets four anonymous Spanish texts, treating both carnal passion and religious obsession. Ragains manages the fearsome leaps around the scale and the wide dynamic contrasts with aplomb.