Indicating that modernism of an expressionist bent isn't dead yet, "Lady Dark," Michael-Thomas Foumai's well-appointed orchestral outline to the emotional trajectory of Shakespeare's "dark lady" sonnets, is fascinating from first to last. The brief instrumental solos, particularly for flute, oboe, and clarinet, are nicely folded into the fabric. The complicated terrain covered includes foreboding unisons near the start and an episode of aggression in which the horns take over. Something like exhaustion — hinting at the inevitable listlessness that follows intensity in love — sets in until the full orchestra gains force once again, only to subside hauntingly near the end before a final "Basta!"
