Choral - Secular
357 products
Shostakovich: Execution Of Stepan Razin / Schwarz, Et Al
This is a very exciting performance, with fine work from the chorus and a terrific orchestral contribution making for climaxes of terrifying impact. Bass soloist Charles Robert Austin lacks the last degree of Russian depth to his tone, and he has a tendency to shout in order to compensate for the lack of weight, but he gets through the part with his honor intact. If you don't know this spectacular piece, here at last is an easy and inexpensive way to hear it.
I enjoyed the couplings too, though they are not significant Shostakovich. October is a typical piece of Socialist Realism close in tone to the 12th Symphony, but it's very exciting and effectively written, and only the obligatory triumphant ending, which Shostakovich makes no attempt to reconcile with the tone of the rest of the piece, lets it down a bit. Once again, the performance has the necessary grit and drive.
The Four Fragments bear a slight relationship to the music of the Fourth Symphony (the goofy waltz in the finale, especially), but are so, well, fragmentary that I wonder why they are played at all. In last analysis, they remain a curiosity and little more, but I can't argue with including them to round out a program nicely organized as "sequels and prequels" to various symphonies. Very fine sound, with a big, rich bass response that suits the music well, seals the deal. Essential for Shostakovich fans. [3/22/2006]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
Wagner: Piano Sonatas, Lieder / Koch, Hinterdobler, Mauro
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner’s birth. This CD clearly shows Wagner’s ambition to vie with Beethoven, manifesting the inclination towards big and boundless writing. Tobias Koch, one of the most versatile keyboard instrumentalists of his generation, reproduces Wagner’s original sound in brilliant fashion.
Red Army Choir - Volga Boatmen's Song And Other Favourites
Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensembles: Soviet Red Army Chorus, Red Army Band. Conductor: Victor Fedorov.
Testamentum
Ceremonial Music / United States Air Force Heritage Of America Band
DISC 1
1 Adjutant's Call - C.M.T.C. March 2:16
2 Sound Off, into Trombones Triumphant 0:38
3 Officer's Center - Officer of the Day March 2:27
4 Inspection Waltz 3:56
5 Bugles and Drums 2:22
6 First Call 0:12
7 Reveille 0:24
8 Assembly 0:12
9 Mess Call 0:14
10 Attention 0:09
11 Officers Call 0:10
12 Drill 0:11
13 Fatigue 0:14
14 Carry On 0:08
15 Recall 0:12
16 Church 0:38
17 Adjutant's Call 0:13
18 Retreat (Solo) 0:25
19 Retreat 0:29
20 To the Colors 0:39
21 Tattoo 0:56
22 Taps (Solo) 1:01
23 Taps 0:57
24 Echo Taps 1:06
25 Taps with Brass Accompaniment 1:22
26 First Sergeant's Call 0:09
27 Charge 0:10
28 Roast Beef of Old England 0:58
29 Yankee Doodle 1:23
30 York Marsch 2:20
31 President of the United States 0:50
32 Vice-President of the United States 0:39
33 Congressional Honors 0:45
34 4 Ruffles and Flourishes and General's March (arr. F. Kepner) 0:26
35 3 Ruffles and Flourishes and General's March (arr. F. Kepner) 0:25
36 2 Ruffles and Flourishes and General's March (arr. F. Kepner) 0:23
37 1 Ruffle and Flourish and General's March (arr. F. Kepner) 0:22
38 4 Ruffles and Flourishes and Flag Officer's March (arr. W.H. Santelmann) 0:24
39 3 Ruffles and Flourishes and Flag Officer's March (arr. W.H. Santelmann) 0:23
40 2 Ruffles and Flourishes and Flag Officer's March (arr. W.H. Santelmann) 0:20
41 1 Ruffle and Flourish and Flag Officer's March (arr. W.H. Santelmann) 0:19
42 1 Ruffle and Flourish - Last 32 of Stars and Stripes Forever 0:39
43 The Stars and Stripes Forever 0:37
44 Trio to the National Emblem 1:20
45 2/4 Drum Cadence 0:42
46 6/8 Drum Cadence 0:44
47 The Star Spangled Banner 1:22
48 The Air Force Song (arr. R.R. Bennett) 0:37
49 The Air Force Song (arr. J. Wasson) 3:10
50 The U.S. Air Force Blue March (arr. L. Ludlow) 0:59
51 Lord Guard and Guide, "The Air Force Hymn" 1:06
52 Lord Guard and Guide, "The Air Force Hymn" (arr. F. Werle) 1:06
53 The Air Force Dirge (arr. G. Cray) 5:18
54 U.S. Army Song (arr. Lake) 0:37
55 God of Our Fathers 1:31
56 The U.S. Navy Song (arr. P. Yoder) 0:36
57 Eternal Father, strong to save, "Melita" (arr. C. Smith) 1:07
58 The Marines' Hymn (arr. D. Hunsberger) 0:38
59 The Marines' Hymn (arr. Farmer) 1:28
60 U.S. Coast Guard Song (arr. W.C. Schoenfeld) 0:36
61 Armed Services Medley 3:34
62 The Stars and Stripes Forever 3:26
63 Gary Owen March (arr. J. McFulton) 2:30
64 Semper Fidelis 2:46
65 Heave Ho! My Lads, Heave Ho! 2:11
66 The Song of the Seabees 3:15
67 American Legion March 2:17
68 American Red Cross 2:26
DISC 2
1 Liberty Fanfare 0:25
2 Emperata Overture 0:22
3 Ceremonial Fanfare 0:44
4 3 Jubilant Fanfares: No. 1. Fanfare Jubilante 0:29
5 Aloft! 0:28
6 America The Beautiful (arr. C. Dragon) 3:15
7 Battle Hymn of the Republic (arr. S. Nestico) 4:33
8 God Bless America (arr. E. Leidzen) 2:17
9 My country 'tis of thee, "America" 1:09
10 This Is My Country (arr. F. Werle) 1:59
11 God Bless the USA (arr. for wind ensemble) 3:08
12 Wind Beneath My Wings 3:32
13 Hero for Today 3:32
14 The Last Full Measure of Devotion (arr. M. Davis) 5:03
15 Americans We 2:48
16 National Emblem 2:58
17 The Washington Post March 2:38
18 Chimes of Liberty 3:11
19 Hail to the Spirit of Liberty 3:31
20 Hands Across the Sea 2:47
21 Auld Lang Syne 1:41
22 Military March No. 1 in D major, Op. 39, "Pomp and Circumstance" (Land of Hope and Glory) (arr. C. Grundman) 5:36
23 Amazing Grace (arr. W. Walker) 1:38
24 Amazing Grace (arr. F. Ticheli) 4:43
25 Eternal Father, strong to save, "Melita" (arr. C. Smith) 1:56
26 God of Our Fathers 1:31
27 Nearer my God to Thee (arr. P. Rawlins) 2:42
Schumann: Scenes from Goethe's Faust
Ferneyhough: Choral Works / Martinez, Bbc Singers
Includes work(s) by Brian Ferneyhough. Ensembles: BBC Singers, Lontano. Conductor: Odaline De la Martinez.
The Very Best Of Christmas
Includes christmas carol(s) by various composers.
BOLCOM: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Aaron Jensen: From Sea To Sea
I Himmelen
Khachaturian, A.I.: Spartacus / Ode in Memory of Lenin / Ode
Aria
Mikaeli Chamber Choir: The Songs of Songs
The Rilke Ensemble Sings Arne Mellnäs
Serenade - Songs Of Night And Love / Camerata Musica Limburg
Forget everything you ever knew about all-male choirs – unless you already know the two other GENUIN CDs previously released by the highly successful Camerata Musica Limburg... Not familiar with the discs yet? Then be sure to get the new recording of Romantic vocal repertoire featuring works by Schubert, Vaughan Williams and Sjöberg. The warm timbre of the male chorus and the four fantastic French horns glow like stars in the night, and the excellent soloists Alison Browner and Christoph Prégardien are beautifully supported and can allow their artistry to effortlessly unfold. The snow melts away and love is awakened in your heart... An absolute highlight!
An Hour to Dance
When I Was a Young Man
Hymns Through The Centuries Vol 2 / Cathedral Choral Society
Includes hymn(s) by various composers. Ensembles: National Cathedral Choral Society Washington, D.C., Washington Ringing Society. Conductor: J. Reilly Lewis. Soloists: Eric Plutz, Edward M. Nassor, Rachel Barham, James Shaffran, John G. Sprague.
Masters of the Renaissance / Gloriae dei Cantores
Ms. Patterson is a true choral alchemist, and never fails to draw truly golden sound and beautifully nuanced singing from her hard-working musicians. Sacred illumination is their mission, and they achieve it with spiritual sincerity and power."
—Lindsay Koob, American Record Guide
"Is it possible for a mixed choir of 44 voices to sing late Renaissance and early Baroque Flemish, Italian, German, and French anticopolyphony in an artistic, historically informed manner? Probably not very often – that is, unless the mixed choir in question is the Gloriae Dei Cantores. For them, the answer is an emphatic affirmative. This group sings with the clarity and control of a carefully drilled chamber ensemble a fifth their size. Phrasing, intonation, articulation, blend, and color are precisely thought out and perfectly executed."
—The American Organist
"This is quite an astonishing competitor to such celebrated ensembles as The Sixteen . . . This disc will greatly enlarge most collections of Renaissance motets with rare pieces of outstanding worth, sung with skill and devotion."
—J.F. Weber, Fanfare
Argento: Walden Pond / Dale Warland Singers
This album was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.
Into the House and Gate of Heaven
In Paradisum
Simple Gifts / Fullington, The Tudor Choir
SIMPLE GIFTS • Doug Fullington, cond; Tudor Ch • GOTHIC 49265 (59:35 &)
Choruses and arrangements by BRACKETT, HAMMOND, jr., BRADY, SIEGFRIED, BILLINGS, NEAUM, POSTON, THOMSON, COPLAND, fine, Ireland, VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, PERCIVAL, RUTTER, FULLINGTON, CHILCOTT, TRAD
The Tudor Choir is a Seattle-based chamber chorus of 12 voices, whose recording on Loft of Shaker music, in arrangements by Kevin Siegfried, Craig Zeichner “implored” us to buy (25:1). This recording is intended as a complement to that earlier one, and offers slightly more varied fare, all of it from the same musical and emotional neighborhood, however. The choir uses little vibrato and its fairly bright sound lets the sopranos stick out at the cost of the altos, though this is in part because there are only two altos but four sopranos. The choir sings cleanly and articulates clearly, and that is always a plus, even if one wishes there were a bit more heft now and then.
The core of this program is Shaker music, though only one Shaker piece is done in the unison we take to be the Shaker style, and that is the title piece (which, however, uses a variant of the melody we best know in Aaron Copland’s use of it in Appalachian Spring ). These words, and three different arrangements of it, by Kevin Siegfried, Copland (as further arranged by Irving Fine), and Bob Chilcott (for the King’s Singers), recur throughout the program. These are certainly more polished versions of Shaker tunes than those exhibited on Joel Cohen’s more scholarly recording with the same title (on Erato), done in the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community.
The major piece on the program is At the water’s edge , a setting by Kevin Siegfried of four poems by Sarah Orne Jewett. Commissioned in 2005 by the community chorus of South Berwick, Maine, where Jewett lived, these are gentle, largely consonant, nature settings, though the third, in five parts, ventures some discreet dissonance. They are similar in style with the rest of the program.
This matter of stylistic coherence is one of the striking features of this recording. Most of the arrangements are by Siegfried, and those by others share similar traits. That is, they tend to adopt the scale-structure of the melody being arranged. This was a technique demonstrated to great effect by Robert Shaw and Alice Parker in their arrangements of spirituals, which, like a number of the tunes here, have “gapped scales,” that is, scales that are incomplete somewhere within them.
This is a fine recording and I think Siegfried’s unfussy Jewett settings are certainly worth getting to know. They are a solid, mainstream, contribution to the modern American choral repertoire.
FANFARE: Alan Swanson
Brothers Sing On! / Albinder, Washington Men's Camerata
Includes work(s) by Luca Pianca, Corinna Korff. Ensemble: Washington Memorial Pipes. Conductor: Frank Albinder.
