Its style falls a good distance from the historical niceties of our modern era’s historically informed performance standards, but yet it still lands squarely in the most enjoyable listen category. Sir Colin Davis is near the beginning of his brilliant career to come when this Glyndebourne Festival live 1960 production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte was staged. He leads a cast including Richard Lewis, Pilar Lorengar, Heather Harper, Geraint Evans and Hungarian bass Mihaly Szekely as Sarastro, whose formidable presence on opera house stages had been overwhelming audiences since the 1920s.

Renaissance choral music from English composer Peter Philips who was, second only to William Byrd, the most published composer of the Elizabethan Age. Philips trained as a choirboy at St Paul's Cathedral in London and later spent years in Rome, imbuing his sacred music with an awe-inspiring Italianate beauty. Featuring Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, Richard Marlow (conductor).

"• “Dowland – A Game of Mirrors” is a sophisticated merging of modern jazz and English renaissance music. The French jazz guitarist/composer David Chevallier conceived this project based on the original melodies by John Dowland, and then created his own instrumental arrangements for guitar and theorbo, which give the well-known songs a completely new sound. • New acoustic jazz arrangements of Dowland Songs • Set for soprano, guitar and theorbo • Booklet in English & Frenc"

With excellent performances and a fine recording this comes with a warm stamp of approval.

Chandos’ recordings of Palestrina’s Music for Maundy Thursday (CHAN 0617), Music for Good Friday (CHAN 0652) and Music for Holy Saturday (CHAN 0679), performed by Musica Contexta directed by Simon Ravens were all described as ‘excellent performances’ in Brian Wilson’s download roundup of April 2009. If you have happened upon any of these releases you will have some idea of what to expect in this programme.

This is described as taking us on ‘a journey of Renaissance Rome on a February day at the end of the sixteenth century [on] Candlemas, the Day of the Purification, [and] at each church along the way we stop and listen to a piece of music.’ There are no special effects involved in this trip, and with no change in the acoustic there isn’t really any idea of different churches – presumably occupied by different choirs. I for one am however prepared to suspend disbelief and become completely absorbed in what is quite a special programme, filled as it is with music which sees its recorded appearance for the first time.

Not a huge amount is known about Jacques Arcadelt, or at least, the booklet notes don’t go into his life in great detail. The central work which threads this programme together is his Missa ‘Ave, Regina caelorum’ which used Andreas de Silva’s motet Ave, Regina caelorum as its basis. The whole sense of historical flow, from de Silva though Arcadelt to Palestrina, who arrived in Rome in the year Arcadelt left to go back to France, is as strong as the sense of flow through an imaginary Candlemas day of music, and the music has a seamless feel of unity and connection, one piece to the other. The warm accompaniments of The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble enhance a few of the works, with de Silva’s remarkably spare and modern sounding Inviolata, integra et casta es Maria providing something of a highlight in this regard, a solo female voice rising from among the rounded brass sounds as the contrapuntal lines intertwine through slow moving, sometimes somewhat enigmatic sounding harmonies. The choral richness of the Missa is cleverly dosed throughout the disc, the Agnus Dei delivering a climax which makes the entire journey all the more worthwhile.

Musica Contexta is not a huge vocal ensemble, and while their 12 voices, three to each part, can create a full and convincing choral sonority, the overall impression is one more of rather intimate music making than the grand-scale productions associated with Venice and the later fashions of the high Baroque. The singing is restrained, but by no means shorn of vibrato or expressive warmth, though there is something of a consistency of sound which can make everything sound a bit samey. A little more contrast might have been more inviting, and I have to admit this does sound more like Hampstead Garden Suburb than raunchy renaissance Rome, but this is after all not the kind of music which of its nature promises high drama and extremes of exotic expression. With only two out of 15 tracks not première recordings this is the kind of CD which is self-recommending in its field, and with excellent performances and a fine recording it comes with a warm stamp of approval.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

Originally released in 1998 to good notices, the 'Sinfonia Amabile' Choir and Orchestra conducted by Piotr Wajrak along with the best of the cadre of up and coming singers in Poland with Mozart's canonical Requiem in D Minor. The recording was sponsored by the Straszny Dw�r Foundation whose mission is to promote Polish artists, primarily composers, conductors, instrumentalists, singers and dancers, in Poland and around the world.

With this new release Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra continue their critically acclaimed series exploring Polish music for Chandos. It features two large scale works by Karol Szymanowski, the expressive Stabat Mater and the vigorous and colorful ballet Harnasie. The Stabat Mater, recorded here in its 1965 revised version, features a cast of internationally acclaimed soloists: Lucy Crowe, Pamela Helen Stephen, Robert Murray and Gabor Bretz.

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The works featured on this new album are by German composer Esaias Reusner (1636-1679). Reusner was a child prodigy who traveled and performed at courts across Europe with his lutenist father, Esaias senior. Reusner released two collections of lute suites, “Deliciae testudinis,” and “Neue Lauten-fruchte.” These pieces are taken from the latter. These pieces are performed by world-renowned Japanese lutenist, Toyohiko Satoh. Satoh gave his first public recital in Tokyo in 1965, and moved to Europe shortly after. He studied lute with Eugen Muller-Dombois at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.

First monographic recording ever published about Cristóbal Galán, master of the Spanish Royal Chapel under the reign of Charles II (end of the 17th Century), with a refined selection of his best religious works in Latin and Spanish.

It is difficult to decide what to admire most: the music or the performance. The combination of the two makes this disc a winner.

here are many ensembles which concentrate on the polyphony of the renaissance. Most of them don't pay that much attention to French music written in the second half of the 16th century. French ensembles like the Ensemble Clément Janequin concentrate for the most part on the secular chanson. The sacred repertoire is not fully explored. That is certainly the case with compositions written under the influence of the Reformation. The ensemble Ludus Modalis here set about redressing the balance.

Not much is known about Paschal de l'Estocart. It is not unusual that a year of birth isn't exactly known, but in de l'Estocart’s case we don't even know when he died. All his music which has come down to us was printed in 1582; then he just disappears. There is some circumstantial evidence that he was still alive in 1587 but that’s about it.

His early years are also shrouded in mist. He was born in Noyon (Picardie) and lived for a while in Lyon, where he married in 1563. The next recorded landmark came in 1581 when he enrolled at Basle University. Here he came into contact with the Huguenot pastor Antoine de La Roche-Chandieu, one of the authors of the 'Octonaires de la vanité du monde', a collection of spiritual huitains, set to music by Claude Le Jeune and La Roche-Chandieu himself. The first and second book of the 'Octonaires' were set to music by L'Estocart as well. These were recorded in 1982 by the Ensemble Clément Janequin for Harmonia Mundi. There is every reason to believe that L'Estocart was at the very least sympathetic to the ideas of the Reformation.

The music on this disc is taken from the collection 'Sacrae Cantiones', which contains sacred music on both French and Latin texts. The fact that L'Estocart also used Latin texts gives food for thought that he could have been indecisive in his religious convictions. Composers had to think practically: the inclusion of motets on Latin texts increased the chance of commercial success. The texts of the motets included here (five of the total of 8) are certainly not in conflict with the ideas of the Reformation.

The French pieces belong to the genre called chanson spirituelle. Originally the chanson was mostly of a secular nature. In the wake of the Reformation the – often amorous – texts were replaced by sacred texts. After a while a new genre emerged: protestant songs with original texts and music. These were either metrical psalms (like those by Marot and De Bèze) or chansons spirituelles on non-biblical texts. Both genres are part of the 'Sacrae Cantiones' by L'Estocart.

The melody of a metrical psalm is used by L'Estocart in 'O combien et plaisant', a setting of Psalm 133 (O how pleasant and desirable to see brothers united, amicably). The melody, which appears in the tenor of L'Estocart’s setting, is sung unisono first.

The title of this disc refers to the chanson spirituelle 'Deux coeurs aimants' which is about love according to biblical principles: "Two hearts, in worthy and holy faith, cherishing the sweet pleasure, fidelity's reward". It gives some idea of the character of these chansons spirituelles, many of which are about sin and redemption.

The longest piece on this disc is the 'Ode en douze parties', a series of twelve chansons whose complete title declares the subject matter: "Ode, in which Jesus Christ, the very God and very man, reminds all Christians of the good they receive through him". Christ speaks in all of these pieces: six of the twelve begin with the words "Je suis" (I am). "The anaphoric construction (…) at the start of the strophes is set each time to a rising motif which spans a whole octave, possibly serving to symbolise the metaphysical distance between God and his creation"; so writes Anne Coeurdevey in the booklet. The twelve chansons span the whole of the Bible, beginning with "The work of the creation of the world", followed by "Jesus Christ came to redeem man", his death, resurrection and ascension to heaven and ending with an "Exhortation to Christians to seek all good in Jesus Christ, and uphold His holy word".

"The musical language of L'Estocart is influenced, as with all the French composers of his generation, by that of Lassus. The whole range of compositional techniques, from imitative counterpoint to homorhythmic chordal writing, are employed to serve the goal of expression, the neatness with which the musical syntax matches that of the text, rhythmic variety and the sense of movement (…), and the wide use of rhetoric figures (…)." A good example of chordal writing and use of rhythm to express the text is in the ninth of the chansons from the 'Ode en douze parties', on the text "I reduce the enflamed rage of haughty rulers to air, and dash their intrigues".

The ensemble is very profound in its approach to these compositions. As the chansons were meant to be sung at home, the ensemble have opted for a more intimate acoustic than in the motets. As one of the aims of the ensemble was "to allow the richness of the polyphonic writing as much space as possible" they have opted for a performance without instruments. The scoring of the pieces, written for four to seven voices, varies: "solo voices for the chansons spirituelles and at specific moments during the Ode; doubled upper voices for the psalms; and all doubled voices for the large-scale motets". They also chose to perform these pieces at - "historically justified" - low pitch and with the contemporary French and Latin pronunciation.

This approach has certainly paid off. The result is a recording which is just wonderful: it is difficult to decide what to admire most, the music or the performance. It is the combination of the two which makes this disc a winner. The music is first-rate: how well did L'Estocart translate the texts into music and how well he used the compositional tools of his time to express the meaning of those texts. The ensemble is first-rate: the intonation is immaculate, the blending of the voices and the balance between the voices in the ensemble is excellent. The rhythmic flexibility, the dynamic shading and the communication of the text are most admirable.

I have very much enjoyed this disc, and I sincerely hope Bruno Boterf and his colleagues will record more pieces by L'Estocart.

-- Johan van Veen, MusicWeb International

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This release presents music by one of the most important electronic and contemporary composers Sikora Elzbieta.

SONGS

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Hei-Kyung Hong, the formidable Korean soprano, sings a selection of arias perfectly suited for her rich soprano voice. A soprano in the league of Schwarzkopf, te Kanawa, and Fleming, Hong is one of those artists who can easily change hats. She is equally comfortable as The Countess singing "Dove sono" as she is portraying Violetta in 'La Traviata.'
Her interpretation of "Caro nome" from 'Rigoletto' is enchanting and touching, while her flair for lighter repertoire comes alive in "Quel guaro il cavaliere" from 'Don Pasquale.' Hong's singing of "Ach, ich fühl's" rings of the frustration of lost hope and love that Pamina feels, and Micaela's aria from 'Carmen,' "Je dis que rien ne m'epouvante," is deeply heartfelt. Conductor John Fiore, a fixture at the Metropolitan Opera House, adeptly leads the Orchestra of St. Luke's in this thoroughly satisfying disc.

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Real Wagnerian sopranos are rare, but Jane Eaglen has the deep, rich soprano, as well as the stamina it takes, to be a Brünnhilde. Here she is, off the rock and away from the opera stage, presented in a veritable iron-woman triathlon of late romantic song cycles, all of which tax the human voice to its limits, merely asking it to float and soar above a large orchestra and still sound angelic. While Richard Strauss's 'Four Last Songs' is the ultimate example, Wagner's own 'Wesendonk Lieder' is the prototype for this subgenre of evoked sunsets and dreams: indeed, the desire to make time and season stand still in a nether world between sleep, dreaming and waking is common to nearly every song in all three cycles. The 'Seven Early Songs' of Alban Berg makes a perfect discmate, especially for the Strauss, as it similarly stretches tonality in every beautiful direction without attempting to leave it. These are songs of impossible longing, and they require nearly impossible musicianship to carry off, but Eaglen and conductor Donald Runnicles, with flowing tempos and carefully judged balances, bring you into the reverie and don't let go.

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God Bless America

Music for Queen Mary

AVE MARIA IN THE VIRGIN MARY B

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