Given the subject-matter, Dove’s new song-cycle In Damascus (setting texts by the Syrian poet and journalist Ali Safar, exploring themes of diaspora and mourning in response to the current situation in the war-torn city) was never going to be an easy listen as such—but Dove’s writing is so accessible and lucid (aided by Mark Padmore’s eloquent, unhistrionic delivery) that its appeal is immediate and its impact impossible to forget.

Presto Classical