The penultimate release in Angela Hewitt's cycle of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas features the Piano Sonata in F minor Op.2 No.1. The listener's understanding is again enhanced by Angela's illuminating booklet notes, in which she sets out her approach to performing these most canonic of works in the entire piano literature.
EMI Classics is proud to release a 2-CD album chronicling the best so far from acclaimed crossover boy choir Libera, including all the hits from their previous albums, as well as three brand new tracks and two tracks previously unavailable on CD! The band has established a dedicated U.S. fan base following appearances at the 2007 Kennedy Center Awards and the 2008 Papal Mass in New York, as well as their first U.S. tour in the Spring of 08. This album is the perfect introduction for people looking to learn what the buzz on this exciting group is all about!
The world is looking forward to seeing Paris's Notre-Dame restored to it's familiar physical glory. In the meantime, the musical joys of the great cathedral can be experienced with the singers of it's choir school, Maitrise Notre-Dame de Paris. Backed by more than 800 years of choral tradition, the Maitrise offers training and performance opportunities to talented children, teenagers and adults. On Cathedrale d'emotions they and the professional singers of the Ensemble vocal de Notre-Dame de Paris perform music that spans the entire history of the cathedral, including works premiered at Notre-Dame in the 21st century.
2023 release. Roger Eno's second solo album for Deutsche Grammophon invites listeners to reflect on the nature of sound and silence. The Skies, They Shift Like Chords. Contains a dozen tracks that express nostalgia for something lost while projecting a sense of something timeless, like the renewal of the seasons or the rise and fall of the breath.
Voces8, the internationally acclaimed British vocal ensemble, is pleased to announce the release of their new album, 'A Choral Christmas' out on November 3rd via Decca Classics and showcasing a joyful, cinematic soundscape-packed hamper of choral and orchestral treats. A Christmas musical extravaganza filled with sparkling, cinematic new arrangements of favourite carols from US composer Taylor Scott Davis. Featuring several world premiere recordings of brand new works and arrangements, including the centrepiece of the album, a major new work for choir and orchestra, Taylor Scott Davis's dazzling setting of the Magnificat, originally commissioned for Voces8's LIVE From London festival. Also includes a serene and intimate new a cappella carol The Sleeping Child from British composer Bob Chilcott written especially for Voces8. Largest scale recording of Voces8 to date - featuring the Voces8 Foundation Choir and Orchestra for the first time, instrumental soloists and conducted by Voces8's co-founder and countertenor Barnaby Smith.
Marlow articulates the music so coherently that he neatly side-steps any impression of aimlessness.... carefully graduated dynamics, close attention to the meaning and spirit of the text and disciplined singing result in readings which sparkle with life.
The titular 'lion of nobility' was (probably) King John II of France, making the most expansive work on this album a lament for a historical event: the French defeat at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. Elsewhere, Machaut's protagonist continues to scrutinize the joys and sorrows of courtly love in obsessive detail.
Angela Hewitt's notes for this important new album describe a teenager's moment of revelation when she first came to appreciate the epic masterpiece that is the Liszt Piano Sonata. Here we have a heart-felt recording where this palpable sense of wonder is manifest alongside Hewitt's enthralling technical facility at the keyboard. The program is completed by the second half of Liszt's dazzling second Annee de pelerinage collection: The three Petrarch Sonnets and the noble Dante Sonata, the latter composed as a fund-raiser for the Bonn Beethoven monument in 1839.
Vinyl LP pressing. As well as solo piano pieces, 'the skies: rarities' includes one track for choir and electronics ("Patterned Ground"), and one for string orchestra ("Breaking The Surface"), for which the instrumentalists of Scoring Berlin were asked to both play from the score and improvise. Guitarist Jon Goddard, meanwhile, appears on "Into Silence," giving the track what Eno calls "a particular flavor it would otherwise have lacked."
As one of the most respected liturgical composers of our time, Michael Joncas has earned his reputation by writing music for the Church that proclaims the Scriptures in song, fits the ritual moment, and speaks to the heart. This new collection will no doubt reaffirm his fine reputation and reestablish once again his valuable contribution to the art of pastoral music making. The rich, lyrical Joncas style is evident in the title song, "As the Deer," a beautiful setting of Psalm 42 usable as a responsorial or processional, scored for harp, winds, and strings. "Exultate Justi," "Cantate Domino," and "Wisdom Is Calling" are grand processionals, scored for brass and organ. There's also a lovely setting of the Francis Patrick Sullivan text "A Shepherd" for solo voice, and Joncas's ever-popular "Spirit of God within Me," with text by Timothy Dudley-Smith, is recorded with a full complement of instruments. Joncas's scholarly research and personal love of the Liturgy of the Hours has led him to compose a new setting of evening prayer entitled "St. Francis Evening Prayer." Composed in a classical style, this new and accessible setting should be explored by any community considering the Liturgy of the Hours.
