The Execution of Stepan Razin is a sort of sequel to the 13th Symphony, in that it sets a poem by Yevtushenko and even shares some thematic elements. It really is a magnificent work, and at half an hour, a major statement. Shostakovich put all of his considerable skill as a composer of film music into making the accompaniments as colorful as possible, while the choral writing and passages for bass solo are thrilling. Why it's not better known remains a mystery: it deserves to be as popular as Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky or Rachmaninov's The Bells.


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

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.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensembles: Soviet Red Army Chorus, Red Army Band. Conductor: Victor Fedorov.

Jan Novák’s oeuvre has not received the attention it undoubtedly deserves. His music is noted for its lightness, elegance, humor and slight provocation, and, in addition to Martinů and jazz, was inspired by Latin, which he perfectly mastered and applied (almost exclusively) in his works. The young Martinů Voices ensemble presents Jan Novák’s choral pieces, with two of them released on CD for the very first time. A special guest on the album is the composer’s daughter, flautist Clara Nováková.

Tracks:

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

Goethe' Faust is one of the highest peaks of German Romantic poetry, and fascinated composers across Europe: Berlioz, Liszt and Gounod were just some of the many entranced by it's visionary power.

Includes work(s) by Brian Ferneyhough. Ensembles: BBC Singers, Lontano. Conductor: Odaline De la Martinez.

Includes christmas carol(s) by various composers.

BOLCOM: Songs of Innocence and of Experience

From Sea to Sea' is an a cappella song cycle made up of thirteen musical settings of celebrated Canadian poems. In composing this work, I have selected one poem per province/territory of Canada - each poem written by a writer native to the region - and have set this text to music. Featured poets include such highly regarded and award-winning poets as Gwendolyn MacEwen, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Robert Service, and Shane Koyczan. I have received permission and endorsement from all poets and/or their legal estates. These pieces explore the range and versatility of the human voice and cover a wide range of musical genres ranging from contemporary classical choral, to lively folk melodies - from driving bebop vocalese, to minimalistic soundscapes.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

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!

During the 2005-6 season, Gwyneth Walker traveled across the US working with a variety of musicians as they premiered and recorded her works. During a week spent in Walla Walla, WA, she worked with the choirs at Whitman College as they rehearsed and recorded this new program of choral music, which employs evocative texts by Langston Hughes, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and Virginia Hamilton Adair, among others. Booklet notes include the full song texts. 17 World Premiere Recordings! "Gwyneth Walker is a master composer with a fertile imagination..."

Classical Music

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.

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

This album was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.

The Anglican musical tradition is rich with music for All Saints Day. The choirs of St. Philips Cathedral in Atlanta, under the direction of Dale Adelmann, perform new and traditional anthems with themes of heaven and the saints. Mr. Adelmann, Canon for Music at the Cathedral of St. Philip since 2009, has conducted choral festivals and workshops across the US. He is a past president of the Association of Anglican Musicians and served terms as editor and consulting editor of its Journal. Completing a Ph.D. specializing in the revival of Anglican choral worship at the University of Cambridge, England, he became the first North American to sing in the Choir of St. John’s College, and served as musical director of The Gentlemen of St. John’s.

The South Dakota Chorale is a professional chorus organization that gathers talented singers to share impacting performances of choral arts. Based in Sioux Falls, SD - the Chorale provides local professional singers the unique opportunity to make music, in their own backyard, with other great singers and instrumentalists from around the country. The Chorale recorded their debut commercial album with Grammy-winning producer Blanton Alspaugh. The album is particularly significant in that it includes the first major American recording of the Duruflé Requiem that utilizes Duruflé’s solo organ score. The South Dakota Chorale brings a rare opportunity for music lovers to add this version of the Requiem to their own collections.

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

Includes work(s) by Luca Pianca, Corinna Korff. Ensemble: Washington Memorial Pipes. Conductor: Frank Albinder.