Choral Concert: Magdala - Verdelot, P. / Sermisy, C. De / Pa
Gift of Music
CD
$18.99Jan 01, 2009
Music for Henry VIII a collection of glorious sacred music which was presented as a gift to Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1526 by the city of Florence. Music by the great European composers of the day which was known to Henry and heard in his great chapels throughout the land, in an atmospheric recording by Oxford's finest mixed-voice choir.
Bach: Cantatas Vol 10 / Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists
SDG
CD
$37.99Jun 24, 2005
Volume 10 of the Cantata Pilgrimage series features the programs given in Potsdam and Wittenberg on the 29th and 31st of October, respectively. The first disc is devoted to three cantatas for the 19th Sunday after Trinity with BWV 90 (for Trinity 25) tossed in for good measure, while the second appropriately contains Bach’s two great Reformation Day cantatas (Nos. 79 and 80), separated by the brief, lively, and possibly incomplete No. 192. The three Trinity 19 cantatas are altogether more solemn, or at least begin that way. Coming a third of the year after the last major festival, these cantatas are concerned more with reassurance than exultation, and each concludes with a positive affirmation, and in the case of BWV 5, a triumphant one. Best known of the three, by far, is Cantata 56, for bass. Here divorced from its customarily joined-at-the-hip partner, BWV 82, it confirms its status as one of the elite cantatas. The inclusion of No. 92 is a happy solution to a number of dilemmas. The year of the Pilgrimage did not have enough Sundays after Trinity to accommodate it; it fills out what might otherwise have been a short program, and it is a vigorous and effective foil for its more introspective discmates.
Again, the performances are superb. Personnel for the two concerts are consistent, apart from the addition of flutes, horns, timpani, and a bass sackbut for the second evening. The choir is made up of seven (count them) sopranos, one female and three male altos, four tenors, and three basses, without detectable loss of responsiveness and flexibility, and the solo quartet acquits itself admirably. Harvey’s BWV 56 is outstanding. Lunn and Towers, incidentally, pull double duty, singing in the choir as well as offering their solos.
As expected, Gardiner uses the original scoring––without Wilhelm Friedemann’s high trumpets––in Ein feste Burg (Cantata 80). Obviously it’s an (perhaps the) appropriate choice, but it set me to wondering about what seems to be an obsession among the period-practice set with composers’ first thoughts––their need to find the earliest version of any score, as if the original inspiration is automatically diminished by any subsequent modifications. We know that Bach’s music was nearly always created under the most intense pressure, and that he was constantly tinkering with it, usually out of necessity, but, who knows, perhaps out of conviction. I know that I, operating at a much lower level of inspiration, am continually tweaking whatever I happen to be working on. Recording artists, especially in the classical field, if they are successful enough, revisit music that they have already committed to disc. First thoughts are not invariably best. That’s why there are erasers on pencils and an Undo button on the Word toolbar. We’ll never know, of course, but isn’t it possible that Bach might have mentioned casually to his son that he wished he’d put some trumpets in that music he wrote for Reformation Sunday? Well, no matter. In fact, Gardiner does have a sonic surprise for us in Cantata 80, an unexpectedly prominent bass sackbut. And why not? The production is, as anticipated, exemplary. Most enthusiastically recommended.
William Croft (1678–1727) was the finest English composer of his age, having followed in the footsteps of Henry Purcell and John Blow at Westminster Abbey. This recording highlights his full anthems and Burial Service published in his ambitious and successful Musica Sacra of 1724, which succinctly demonstrates his passion for the preservation of English church music in an age rapidly becoming dominated by the stage and grand oratorios. Croft was deeply inspired by Thomas Tallis and, at the height of his career, flourished in the shadow of Handel. The Sidney Sussex College Choir’s first recording with Obsidian, Thomas Tomkins ‘These Distracted Times’ with Fretwork and Alamire was awarded both Gramophone Editor’s Choice and their CD of the Month. Their most recent, music by Thomas Weelkes, was also nominated for a Gramophone Award in 2014. David Skinner is well known as a leading scholar and performer of early music, and director of the acclaimed vocal ensemble Alamire.
Garden themes from our musical heritage. An album of fragrant songs and instrumental pieces from centuries of musical tradition. Titles include 'Greensleeves', 'Where the Bee sucks', 'Summer is icumen in' and 'Roses in Bloom', in a delightful evocation of a great English garden.
Our Favorite Things / Tony Bennett, Charlotte Church, Plácido Domingo, Vanessa Williams
Sony Masterworks
CD
$11.98Oct 16, 2001
Track Listing 1. Christmas Song, The - (with Tony Bennett) 2. O Holy Night - (with Charlotte Church/Plácido Domingo) 3. Do You Hear What I Hear - (with Vanessa Williams) 4. Jesus De Nazareth - (with Plácido Domingo) 5. Winter Wonderland - (with Tony Bennett/Vanessa Williams) 6. Silent Night - (with Charlotte Church) 7. My Favorite Things - (with Vanessa Williams/Tony Bennett/Plácido Domingo) 8. White Christmas - (with Tony Bennett/Vanessa Williams) 9. Hacia Belen Va Un Burro - (with Plácido Domingo) 10. Through The Eyes Of A Child - (with Vanessa Williams) 11. First Noel, The - (with Tony Bennett/Plácido Domingo) 12. Somewhere In My Memory - (with Gumpoldskirchner Spatzen Chorus) 13. I Saw Three Ships - (with Plácido Domingo/Vanessa Williams) 14. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - (with Tony Bennett) 15. Hijo De Dios - (with Plácido Domingo) 16. I'll Be Home For Christmas - (with Tony Bennett/Plácido Domingo) 17. Joy To The World - (with Plácido Domingo/Vanessa Williams) 18. Angels We Have Heard On High - (with Tony Bennett/Vanessa Williams/Plácido Domingo) 19. Silent Night 20. One More Year - (with Plácido Domingo/Vanessa Williams)
Musicians include: Tony Bennett, Charlotte Church, Placido Domingo, Vanessa Williams (vocals); Steven Mecurio (conductor); Ralph Sharon Quartet; Gumpoldskirchner Spatzen Children's Choir; Vienna Symphony.
Recorded live at the Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria in December 2000.
This stellar line-up, recorded live in Vienna, performs a program of quintessential Christmas songs in a rich variety of styles, from the light pop of "My Favorite Things" to traditional Spanish tunes such as "Hacia Belen Va Un Burro" and English equivalents like "Angels We Have Heard on High." Tony Bennett kicks the whole thing off with a typically warm rendition of "The Christmas Song." He's followed by a pretty straight reading of "O Holy Night" by the Welsh teen classical prodigy Charlotte Church and the inimitable Placido Domingo, and Vannessa Williams' gospel-tinged version of "Do You Hear What I Hear?"
It's an evening of familiar favorites, impeccably performed, with the added bonus of the Gumpoldskirchner Spatzen Children's Choir providing an appropriately child's-eye view of the holiday. OUR FAVORITE THINGS is a worthy addition to the bulging repertoire of Christmas collections, in a gimmick-free traditional setting.
Schmidt: The Book of the Seven Seals / Young, Hamburg Philharmonic
Oehms Classics
CD
$31.99Mar 11, 2016
This album is being released in honor of the 90th concert conducted by Hamburg Artistic Director Simone Young. The rarely performed work The Book with Seven Seals is an oratorio by composer Franz Schmidt (1874-1938) and is based on the Revelation of St. John for soloists, choir, organ, and orchestra. The piece was composed between 1935 and 1937. Featured soloists on this recording include Klaus Florian Vogt, Georg Zeppenfeld, Inga Kalna, Bettina Ranch, Dovlet Nurgeldiyev, and Volker Krafft.
REVIEWS:
The performance under Simone Young is terrific. The Hamburg Orchestra plays eloquently, and Krafft’s handling of the critical organ part is of daemonic intensity.
The choruses sing with discipline and beauty—even the complex contrapuntal passages are always clear. The soloists acquit themselves valiantly. Especially praiseworthy are Klaus Florian Vogt as the evangelist-narrator and Georg Zeppenfeld as the voice of The Lord. Their singing is of commanding stature, with expression and enunciation to match.
-- American Record Guide
This performance has much to offer that often only a live performance can give. There is a strong line up of soloists and a first rate chorus combined with expert direction from Simone Young. This is a fine record of a special occasion that stands up well to repeated listening.
-- The Classical Reviewer
This live 2015 performance by Simone Young and the Hamburg Philharmonic is an impressive presentation of the work, and the powerful performance marked the end of Young’s decade-long tenure with the orchestra.
The solo and dialogue cantatas are the exceptions amongst the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. They do not correspond to the cliche, surely already predominant during Bach's time, of works of greater length or for larger ensembles in the sequence of recitatives and arias with an instrumental or vocal instrumental introduction and concluding with a chorale for the instrumental-choral ensemble. After rave reviews of the solo cantatas in the press, Thomas E. Bauer, Johanna Winkel and Christoph Spering show us on this new production how magnificently the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach can be interpreted.
As Dreams / Pedersen, Oslo Sinfonietta, Norwegian Soloists' Choir
BIS
SACD
$21.99Oct 14, 2016
The works that make up this adventurous release are all, to quote Shakespeare, "such stuff as dreams are made on". In various ways these recordings refer to night and dreams, to the distant past or to an uncertain future. With composers from Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany and Greece, and texts ranging from fragments of ancient Assyrian and Sumerian and 8th-century Wessobrunner Prayer to many other places, the concept of "here and now" become blurred and dreamlike.
Sono Luminus proudly presents Celebrating the American Spirit, performed by Essential Voices USA and directed by Judith Clurman, which reconfigures musical expressions of nationhood. EVUSA comes together with guest soloists and instrumentalists, including singers Kelli O'Hara and Ron Raines, and composer arranger Larry Hochman. There is even a new lyric by Sheldon Harnick, the famed lyricist of Fiddler on the Roof. From beginning to end, EVUSA delivers imaginatively conceived performances that articulate new visions of community and civic responsibility in the 21st century. At the core of the CD is 'Sing Out Mr. President', a series of sixteen newly commissioned works set to quotations by U.S. presidents stretching from George Washington to Barack Obama. Judith Clurman initiated this inventive project in response to 9/11, after she conducted the Juilliard Choral Union in a wrenching memorial concert at a firehouse in New York City.
Bach: Cantatas Vol 14 / Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists
SDG
CD
$20.99Jul 26, 2005
These days we have to be reminded that Easter, not Christmas, is the primary festival of the church year. (In Bach’s Leipzig, of course, Good Friday was the most important day of the musical year.) Nevertheless, Christmas was a major celebration at that time and place, with services on Christmas and the next two days, followed by observances on New Year’s day, the first Sunday of the New Year, and Epiphany. Consequently, Bach created considerable music for the season. The present disc, Volume 14 in the series, features two Christmas cantatas, BWV 91 (1724) and 110 (1725), and two cantatas for the day after Christmas, BWV 40 (1723) and 121 (1724).
Cantata 91, from the year of chorale cantatas, imbues Luther’s Christmas hymn, Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, with a feeling of anticipation and exhilaration unusual even for Bach. Budding excitement in the opening chorus finally erupts in striking syncopations. The final chorale is enhanced by fanfare-like expressions from the brass. Another chorale cantata is BWV 121, based on Christum wir sollen loben schon. It begins with a more subdued choral movement, but a joyful air is introduced by the subsequent tenor aria and reinforced by a jaunty aria for bass. Cantata 40 does not belong to the chorale-cantata cycle, but three of the seven movements after the opening chorale fantasia are straightforward chorale settings. Most resplendent of these four cantatas is No. 110, which opens with a choral re-make of the third movement of the Fourth Orchestral Suite.
Gardiner’s preface again reminds us that the Cantata Pilgrimage was not undertaken as a recording project; the recordings are fortuitous by-products of the Pilgrimage. The concert captured on this disc, which took place in New York City on Christmas Day, 2000, was the third-to-last in the whole enterprise. One might reasonably have excused any evidence of fatigue at that point, but there is none in evidence; rather, the energy generated by the performances is quite extraordinary. For listeners who wish to sample the series before committing themselves to it, this single disc may provide an auspicious starting point. Most enthusiastically recommended.
Incidentally, in reviewing earlier releases from the Pilgrimage, I noted the sterling attendance record of violist Colin Kitching. A letter from Clifford Bartlett of Early Music Review noted that Kitching is the Monteverdi Choir’s librarian. But, alas! He didn’t make it to the Big Apple, so Sir John will be the only person to have participated in every one of the Pilgrimage recordings.
Louis-Claude Daquin (1694-1772) was a French organist, harpsichordist and composer. He was also a child prodigy. After taking some harpsichord lessons from his godmother Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, and composition lessons from Nicolas Bernier, he was capable of playing before Louis XIV at the age of six and of conducting his own Beatus vir in the Sainte-Chapelle at the age of eight. The Nouveau livre de noëls were published in November 1757 and is the fruit of many improvisations. This premiere recording marries Daquin's Twelve Noels (well-known as organ pieces) to the original late mediæval verses from which they were derived.
Simon Wright realised the score from the keyboard original and matched it to the original carol melodies before orchestrating it with remarkable imagination. Mark Darlow researched and put together the text during a period of stud leave in Paris. Through a process of consultation the verses were sifted, and a pastoral progression of solos and choruses has emerged, with the shepherds who 'tended their flocks by night' a sthe main characters. The RSAMD is Scotland's International Academy for Music and Drama, with Professor John Wallace as their Principal.
The small British chorus called the Sixteen and director Harry Christophers have delivered consistently popular recordings of Renaissance and Baroque music, maintaining very high standards of performance. Here they couple two of the most popular Baroque works of all, Vivaldi's Gloria in D major, RV 589, and Bach's Magnificat in D major, BWV 243, and the results are handsome indeed. The tenor of the performances flows from the conceptions of each work that Christophers expresses in one of the little personal essays that appears at the beginning of each booklet in this series: Vivaldi, he said, is "effective," and even operates in places here "at his simplest," while Bach is "complex." Some would use other words first, for each composer -- daring or kinetic for Vivaldi, devotional or a dozen other words for Bach. There are recordings that give Vivaldi in general and the Gloria in particular more of an edge; there are recordings of Bach that seem warmer, or more rooted in the sacred texts. But here, as usual, Christophers, the Sixteen, and the Symphony of Harmony & Invention Baroque orchestra play it straight up the middle and create accessible, appealing recordings using historical instruments. The Magnificat is really superior in the choral sections, with superb articulation of Bach's difficult interlocking runs of sixteenth notes; the building energy of the final three choruses is marvelously rendered, and the opening "Magnificat" is expansive and rich. The Vivaldi is sunny rather than triumphal, with the choir a bit reined in and rounded in tone in the famous opening "Gloria," but all the solos are top-notch, with the "Laudamus te" soprano duet of Lynda Russell and Gillian Fisher an especially lilting standout. The listener has many choices when it comes to recordings of these works, but it's hard to imagine these, the Bach especially, being substantially outdone.
2009 3 X CD 250th Anniversary edition of Salomo (Salomon) Oratorium in Drei Akten HWV 67. Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester Berlin conducted by Heinz Rogner. Performers include Marga Schiml, Eberhard Buchner, Hermann Christian Polster, Regina Werner, Eva Maria Bundschuh, Helga Termer & more.
Bach: Cantatas Vol 12 / Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists
SDG
CD
$37.99Oct 26, 2010
SDG is delighted to release Volume 12 - Cantatas for the twenty-second and twenty-third Sundays after trinity.
John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists performed both of these programmes in England: at All Saints church in Tooting and at Winchester Cathedral, in November 2000.
The soloists include James Gilchrist, Peter Harvey and Joanne Lunn.
The highlight of this album is Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (“Sleepers, wake”) - one of Bach’s best known cantatas, and one that has long been part of the Monteverdi Choir’s repertoire. It is described as “a cantata without weaknesses, without a dull bar, technically, emotionally and spiritually of the highest order”.
Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht (“I, wretched man, I slave to sin”) is Bach’s only cantata for solo tenor still in existence. It is sung movingly by James Gilchrist.
Of three cantatas on the parable of the unjust steward (BWV 55, 89, 115), Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit (“Prepare yourself, my soul”) is considered to stand out for its subtle instrumental writing and spellbinding arias, which evoke the yearning of the soul for divine mercy.
The recording in Tooting (CD1) is the only one in the whole series that wasn’t recorded live: the original concert took place in Eton chapel, right under the Heathrow airport flight path, so we had to try and recreate the same conditions in a quieter place.
This album is packaged with a separate index sheet of the Cantata series.
Aside from three impressive string quartets, Icelandic composer Jón Leifs’ (1899–1968) chamber music consists of only two original works - Quintet, op. 50, Scherzo concreto, op. 58 - and his string quartet arrangement of his Variazioni pastorale, op. 8, originally for orchestra. + All of these works are included on this disc, which closes with one of the composer’s most personal works: Erfiljóð (Elegies), composed in 1947 shortly after the death by drowning of his young daughter Líf. + BIS Records have re-mastered these original Smekkleysa label recordings for this present release.
![Handel, G.F.: Solomon [Oratorio] (Sung in German)](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1511351.jpg?v=1786737600&width=800)
![Handel, G.F.: Solomon [Oratorio] (Sung in German)](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1511351.jpg?v=1786737600&width=400)
