Nicholas Phan and Nico Muhly on the genesis of 'Stranger'

Nico Muhly's Stranger, premiered in 2020, gives its name to a new album from Avie featuring the tenor Nicholas Phan. The album also includes two earlier works, Muhly's Lorne ys my likinge, written as a companion piece to Benjamin Britten's Abraham and Isaac and similarly scored for countertenor, tenor and piano (for which Phan is joined by countertenor Reginald Mobley and pianist Lisa Kaplan), and Impossible Things, setting poems by CP Cavafy, and featuring a solo violin and ensemble: on the new recording, The Knights, conducted by Eric Jacobsen with Colin Jacobsen taking the solo violin role.

James Jolly caught up by video call with Nicholas Phan in San Francisco and Nico Muhly in New York to talk about the album, and how Stranger came into being.

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