Martin Palmeri is an Argentinian composer, born in 1965. His trajectory is curious from a European perspective, but not so much from an Argentinian one: he studied composition, conducting and singing in Argentina and the United States, but his chief inspiration is the Tango Nuevo. His best-known work is the Misa a Buenos Aires, but I think that this Magnificat will not lag far behind. It depends on having a virtuoso bandoneón player, of course, and that is the case here, with Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi doing the honours. The composer himself, incidentally, is at the piano.

This kind of ‘crossover’ (that’s not really the right word, because the composer is at home in both worlds) depends, inevitably, on one or more of the performers being fluent in the vocabulary of the ‘second world’. In this case that is assured by Pietrodarchi and Palmeri; what is much less predictable is a corresponding flexibility from the ‘first world’, that is to say, in this case, classical performers. But such concerns have absolutely no foundation here: the orchestra and choir, under Kinga Litowska, are more than a match for the rhythmic swing of the music and interact with bandoneón and piano as to the manner born. Soprano Aleksandra Turalska and mezzo-soprano Agata Schmidt are stunning – pure, clear voices entirely in tune (in all senses) with this fascinatingly hybrid work. Let me be clear: this is not Missa Criolla meets Piazzolla; it is something entirely individual, the work of a composer as familiar with Bach as he is with Tango. Or even with a more relaxed, lounge-like kind of music. I can’t think of another setting of ‘Et misericordia eius’ that mixes supplication with the cocktail bar in quite this way. And it’s not kitsch; it’s entirely convincing, and utterly surprising at the same time – the ending takes your breath away!

If I say that I cannot imagine the work being used liturgically, that is not to say that it does not have another role. This is powerful, original music, outstandingly performed.