In the anniversary year of the Leipzig Thomaskantorats Hans Christoph Rademann presented with the Dresden Chamber Choir also recorded all of the collection "Israelsbrünnlein" by Johann Hermann Schein, surely the greatest cantor of St. Thomas before Johann Sebastian Bach. The Israelsbrünnlein is probably the most important collection of motets in German music of the 17th century. The motets in the "Italian-Madrigalische Manir" were composed on Old Testament texts and these are what gave the collection its name. Originally created for ceremonial occasions such as weddings, funerals or graduations, they unite the secular madrigal style with the art of sacred polyphonic motet. - Carus Records

The Dresden Chamber Choir is known for the great intensity and clarity of its performances. It was established in 1985 by Hans-Christoph Rademann and students of the Dresden Carl Maria von Weber Musikhochschule. The repertoire of the choir ranges from music of the Renaissance to the contemporary, with interpretations of romantic choral works awarded special prizes in international competitions, and first performances of contemporary works encouraged by an award from the Ernst-von-Siemens Foundation. In addition to a cappella work the choir works together with the Dresden Baroque Orchestra and the Dresden Early Music Ensemble, and plays an important part in the promotion of early music in Saxony. The versatility of the ensemble is demonstrated in numerous broadcasts and recordings. - Naxos

In our time, the composer Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) from Halle is regarded as one of the most significant composers of the 17th century. Nevertheless, many of his works are less well known at present than those of his famous contemporaries Johann Hermann Schein and Heinrich Schütz - quite unjustly so, as is demonstrated by this recording featuring the Athesinus Consort Berlin directed by Klaus-Martin Bresgott. The numerous motets from Scheidt’s collection "Cantiones Sacrae" - many of which are here recorded for the first time - are complemented by the contemporary composition "Die Stimme meines Freundes" [The voice of my friend], a motet on texts from the Song of Songs and the Proverbs of Solomon by Frank Schwemmer (*1961).

Includes work(s) by Joseph Rheinberger. Ensemble: Rastatt Vocal Ensemble. Conductor: Holger Speck. Soloist: Thomas Berning.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This is a Super Audio CD playable only on Super Audio CD players.

Classical Music

In 1930 Ottorino Respighi composed "Lauda per la Nativit� del Signore", the only sacred choral piece among his works. In this song of praise to the miracle of Christmas, majestic sounding choral passages alternate with the solo vocal roles of Maria, the Angel and the shepherd, accompanied by the sound of pastoral instruments. The music is varied, containing stylistic elements ranging from the late romantic to neo baroque, as well as echoes of Gregorian chant. And towering above all is Respighi's trademark: the art of orchestration. The Rundfunkchor Berlin (Berlin Radio Choir) under Maris Sirmais and Nicolas Fink presents this unusual work along with several a cappella Christmas motets by other renowned 20th c. composers including Morten Lauridsen and Francis Poulenc.

PURCELL Timon of Athens: Curtain Tune; Overture; Hark! How the Songsters; Love in Their Little Veins; But Ah!; Come All to Me. Dioclesian: Dance; First Music; Chaconne; Prelude; Since from my dear; Let us dance; Butterfly Dance. King Arthur: For Love Ev’ry Creature; Hornpipe; Bouree. The Fairy Queen: Entrance of Night; One Charming Night; Hush No More; Ye Gentle Spirits of the Air; O Let Me Weep; If Love’s a Sweet Passion; Hark! The Echoing Air; Chaconne • Dorothee Mields (sop); Wolfgang Katschner, cond; Lautten Compagney Berlin • CARUS 83.435 (76:12)


I have rarely heard the Entrance of Night from The Fairy Queen sung more fetchingly, more sensitively than here by Dorothee Mields, but her consistently touching yet full-throated singing is hardly the full story of this Purcell disc. The program begins with what I am tempted to call a swinging version of the Curtain Tune from Timon of Athens. The first sound is of a twanging theorbo playing an ostinato pattern; it’s an “authentic” instrument, but the line, with its bent notes, played on an electric bass an octave lower would not sound particularly odd. Later the strings emphasize the back beat. This version adds percussion as well as a plucked bass; one dance unfolds over something like castanets, and I swear I hear bongo drums elsewhere. Nor is that all. Hark! How the Songsters begins with some discreet bird songs, as if it were by Villa-Lobos. You’ll never hear a more vigorous Hornpipe than the one from King Arthur played here.


I am afraid I am putting off the more serious early-music listeners. I don’t mean to. Much to my surprise, all of what I have just described is perfectly delightful. The band is lively, and beautifully recorded. The effects are tactful and often enlightening. Wolfgang Katschner has taste, and a taste for variety: There is nothing untoward or unexpected, for instance, in the little Prelude from Dioclesian that is played by flute, oboe, and bass. It couldn’t be lovelier. OK, I might not expect something that sounds like a tambourine in a Purcell recording, but it is slapped only a couple of times and creates a slightly more exuberant air. These are dances, after all. Perhaps I should speak more about Dorothee Mields as well. She has a powerful and also beautiful voice that conveys joy as well as pathos. It’s not at all jarring to go from a rousing hornpipe to Mields sweetly singing I Love and I Must. This is a surprising but also a perfectly delightful disc.


FANFARE: Michael Ullman

You really won’t be disappointed with these stylish, polished, engaging performances.

In the old days—that is, the 1980s and ‘90s—this is a recording that would have been done by the Baltimore Consort, with soprano Custer LaRue; but they would have left out the boring stuff, all those endlessly plodding “grounds”, or the excessively torturous (as opposed to the reasonably tortuous) six-and-one-half-minute Expostulation of the Blessed Virgin, in favor of livelier, more virtuosic, or just more light-hearted or even humorous material.

Mields is certainly a wonderful singer—indeed, this is some of the best work she’s done—and the instrumentalists are first-rate. But I don’t buy the legitimacy of the programmatic device that supposedly unifies the chosen repertoire: a “journey into the extremities of the life of the soul, caused by feelings of love.” The word “mad” pops up frequently in the liner notes, supposedly a theme that links all of the music, by Purcell and a few contemporaries—but you’ll be hard pressed to hear and feel this connection as you listen.

That’s not to say that the program isn’t composed of some fine and well-chosen songs—and Mields has admirable command of the material; yet her final, gorgeously sung Dido’s Lament lacks a true emotional connection with the character’s situation, eliminating that oft-recorded, beloved aria as a reason to own the disc. But there are plenty more reasons among the 31 tracks—and if you’re a fan of this period and place (latter 17th-century England), and of songs such as “Sing, sing Ye Druids” and “The Three Ravens”, you really won’t be disappointed with these stylish, polished, engaging performances.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

There can be no doubt – the Missa in C minor KV 427 by W.A.Mozart is a fascinating work. Simply calling it a “mass” is inaccurate; indeed, there is hardly more than a musical torso full of enigmas and problems – and brimming with magnificent music. What has survived is a fragment, in more ways than one. Mozart left the work unfinished; moreover parts of the autograph have been lost. Carus has now produced a new edition which is not only based upon a profound knowledge of Mozart’s music and the church music practice of that time, but also meets with the current demands of performance practice. Frieder Bernius is the co-editor of the sheet music edition; he and his Stuttgart Chamber Choir recorded this version. The album impresses with its outstanding musical quality, as well as with its quality of its recording. In addition to the new version of the mass, the release also contains a bonus track with the Credo fragment without completed instrumental parts. This album is a true discovery!

For most listeners, including choral music enthusiasts, this disc's subtitle, "Contemporary choral music from Lithuania", isn't likely to spark the recall of a list of familiar works or even composer names. Here is territory that to say the least is unfamiliar--and yet, as proved by this long-overdue program devoted to works by Vytautas Miškinis (b. 1954), is well-worth getting to know. Works by Miškinis occasionally turn up on a compilation program--for instance, a recent release (Baltic Exchange) on Hyperion with the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge (type Q12694 in Search Reviews)--and each time the one Miškinis piece among many others distinguishes itself. It invariably makes you want to hear more. And so, now we can.

All the works on this program, sung with expert technique and impeccable ensemble by the 25-voice Kammerchor consonare, are squarely in the tonal world, yet the "quartal/quintal" basis for much of the harmony--enlivened by added seconds and occasional clusters--ensures just enough ambiguity to keep us listening expectantly and openly. Your first reaction on hearing the opening Gloria is likely to be--wow, a 21st-century composer who writes in a modern idiom, with a true understanding and mastery of the special character and capability of voices in ensemble, but who remains firmly committed to the oft-disdained key to all the best, most memorable, longest-surviving choral music: singability.

Although the 18 works on the program would not fall into the "easy" category, neither are they treacherously difficult (as some composers seem to delight in writing), and many are absolutely accessible to the better amateur choirs, likely a reflection of Miškinis' training and long involvement in the "real world" of conducting his own groups. Indeed, it's really remarkable to find a program of works by a modern choral composer whose every selection is clearly written with both singer and listener in mind.

Although we may have heard this kind of harmony before, it's Miškinis' reverence for text--and his uncommon affinity for word-setting--that makes these works, well, sing the way they do. He has an impressive facility for melody--listen to the gorgeous Ave Maria and to the chant-like (impressions of Duruflé) Tu es. And then there's the uplifting Cantate Domino (one of several settings Miškinis has made of this text), an almost too-catchy, pop-influenced motet that you'll not stop singing for days.

But then there is the exquisitely wrought O salutaris, a masterpiece of choral color, effervescent rhythm, and vibrant harmonic character, enhanced by what may be some aleatoric effects--also apparent in the astonishing Dum medium silentium, a highlight of the disc whose music and performance embody the words "virtuoso" and "inspired". It would be easy to go on--commenting for instance on the economy and consistently high quality of the writing in the title work, a set of seven pieces, mostly psalms, every one of which is worthy of church or concert performance.

In fact, there's not a weak link on this entire program--and Kammerchor consonare obviously knows and respects this composer just as he clearly knows and respects singers and choral music. The sound, from a Hamburg church, is first rate. My only complaints: precious little information is given in the liner notes about the music (there's nothing at all about the Thoughts of psalms); translations are given only in German; and, if you want to order the few scores available from the sheet music publishing arm of Carus, you have to order a minimum of 20 copies, sight unseen--not a great way to encourage conductors to take a chance on a newly discovered composer. That issue aside, this is one of the best choral recordings of 2010, an essential disc for every true lover of choral music.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

The oratorio Der Kampf der Buße ind Bekehrung (The Struggle for Penance and Conversion) is among Michael Haydn's lesser-known works. The Purcell Choir together with the Orfeo Orchestra, under the direction of György Vashegyi, now present a recording of the second and only surviving part of this three-part oratorio. It is impressive, especially for its unusual scoring: All of the the five solo roles are allotted to sopranos. The artistic mixture of majestic passages, surprising turns, Baroque rhetorical figures, and virtuoso arias makes clear why later composers such as Mozart, Schubert, and Bruckner repeatedly took Michael Haydn's music as their model.

Organ

Classical Music