Kati Agócs: The Debrecen Passion

Conductor Gil Rose and his Boston players have a sterling track record when it comes to selecting contemporary composers who fly under the radar. Add Kati Agócs to that list. The title track, a 23-minute setting of the Passion story (as written by a Hungarian poet), mixes Romantic flourishes, European high-modernist touches, and aspects of American minimalism in its orchestral and vocal writing. (One of the vocalists, Lisa Bielawa, is also a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble.) The shorter pieces that fill out the tracklist have a similar sense of dramatic purpose.