Fairouz: Zabur (oratorio)

Hailed by The New York Times as ‘an important new artistic voice’ and by Gramophone as ‘a post-millennial Schubert,’ Mohammed Fairouz is one of the most significant composers of vocal music of our time. His oratorio Zabur (Arabic for ‘psalms’) is a kind of war requiem documenting a conflict’s effects on human beings, most notably children. Though cast in a contemporary setting, in a city under siege, Fairouz evokes a timeless world, acknowledging tragedy while asserting an eternal, luminous hope that transcends the disastrous present.