Classical Vocals CDs
Classical Vocals CDs
1514 products
BACH, J.S. / HOFFMANN / TELEMANN: Alto and Tenor Cantatas, B
Bach: Preludes, Inventions & Sinfonias / Esfahani
Lonely Motel / Eighth Blackbird
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 / Heras-Casado, Anima Eterna Brugge
ROBESON
TranceClassical / Beiser
“With virtuoso chops, rock-star charisma, and an appetite for pushing her instrument to the edge of avant-garde adventurousness, Maya Beiser is the post-modern diva of the cello.” (The Boston Globe)
Campra: Messe da Requiem / Daucé, Ensemble Correspondances
Campra's famous Requiem emerged from a tradition that is still unjustly neglected. Sébastien Daucé and Ensemble Correspondances offer us an opportunity to discover these maîtres de musique of Notre-Dame who, though now overshadowed by their brilliant colleague, made no less of a contribution to the development of the 'French style' emblematic of the reign of Louis XIV.
Cello Dreams - Berceuses for Cello and Piano / Bertrand, Amoyel
Bach: Leipziger Choräle, Bwv 651-667
The Universal Flute / Samuelson
Rossini: Liederabend (Art Song Evening) 1992 / Horne, Katz
Although Marilyn Horne was 58 years old at the time of this concert, no weakness clouded the beauty of her voice. Among the recordings over the course of Horne's career, there are many Rossini operas. This all-Rossini program shows that she could convincingly dominate the smaller forms as well.
REVIEW:
Little needs be said about Marilyn Horne, one of the greatest singers of all time, with a highly distinctive voice, immediately recognizable and colorful, a deep sense of musicality, and a vocal technique that is awe-inspiring. No ornamentation, no roulade, no trill, not the longest phrase, were beyond her phenomenal breath control. Add to this her almost magical personality.
Liederabend does need a word of explanation. The Liederbands (Liederabenden) were an extensive series of vocal recitals (over 60 years) performed at the Schwetzingen South- West Radio (Germany) Festivals. For all its touting as a Liederabend Horne’s program is all-Italian, all-Rossini (a Horne specialty). 19 songs, early and late, familiar and unfamiliar; all musical delights. Among the better known are ‘La pastorella’, ‘Bolero’, ‘La molinara’, the arias ‘Cruda sorte!’ (Italiana in Algeri and ‘Di tanti palpiti’ Tancredi. A few from ‘Sins of my Old Age’ are included.
Here is a great singer at the top of her form with most entertaining music. No texts, but a biography of Horne and a history of the Festival are included.
-- American Record Guide
Mendelssohn: Choral Music / Winpenny, St. Albans Cathedral Choirs
Compared with large-scale oratorios such as St Paul, which includes the lyrical chorus How lovely are the messengers, Mendelssohn’s smaller sacred choral works were influenced by Palestrina, ranging from short liturgical motets such as the Sechs Sprüche to the canticle settings of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis. The famous sacred melody ‘O for the wings of a dove’ is to be found in Hear my prayer. The fine choristers of St Albans Cathedral can also be heard ‘on sparkling form’ (Gramophone) in John Rutter’s Gloria (8.572653).
Letters
Wesley: Ascribe unto the Lord - Sacred Choral Works
The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge has selected some of the best-known choral works of Samuel Sebastian Wesley for inclusion on this disc, interspersing them with one of his organ works as well as a psalm chant by his father, Samuel Wesley
Tango, Mon Amour! / Maria Martinova
Vaughan Williams: Sacred Choral Music / Timothy Brown, Choir Of Clare College
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Mass in g. The Voice out of the Whirlwind 1. Valiant-for-truth. Three Choral Hymns 1. Nothing Is Here for Tears 1. A Vision of Aeroplanes 2. The Souls of the Righteous. A Choral Flourish 1 • Timothy Brown, cond; 1 Ashok Gupta (org); 2 James McVinnie (org); Ch of Clare College Cambridge • NAXOS 8.572465 (63:11)
Vaughan Williams is probably my favorite 20th-century composer; I adore virtually every note that he set to paper. (There are admittedly a few clinkers, such as the Piano Concerto). One of the few works of his that heretofore has failed to appeal to me is the Mass in G Minor, which has always seemed pleasant but not particularly distinguished. That has now changed radically with this disc. The moment the Kyrie sounded through my speakers, I sat bolt upright in my chair, slackjawed and dumbfounded at the ethereal, pellucid purity and superb articulation of the singing, the fleet vigor and elegance of the pacing, and the astonishing inventiveness of the composer’s adaptation of Renaissance means to modern ends in the manner of his stupendous Tallis Fantasia . (As in the earlier work, Vaughan Williams again created an antiphonal contrast between a solo quartet and a larger ensemble.)
The experience sent me scrambling to audition every other recording of the Mass on which I could lay my hands, to find out what I previously had been missing. My conclusion is that most recordings err in using far too large a choir and correspondingly slower tempi, resulting in an overly opaque sound that overburdens a finely wrought, delicate score. To bring out properly the neorenaissance character of the music, a smaller ensemble is needed. In Fanfare 26:2 James Miller cited a Cedille CD by the Chicago-based ensemble His Majestie’s Clerkes as his favorite, I suspect (though not explicitly stated) for reasons similar to mine. (Martin Anderson voiced a contrary opinion in 21:6.) However, the acoustic in that recording is extremely reverberant, overly so for my taste, whereas Naxos gets it exactly right, with balanced clarity and depth. The other recordings I have found with a similar approach are an ABC disc with the Trinity College Choir of Melbourne, which uses boy trebles instead of female sopranos (I prefer the distaff voices here), and a Delphian CD with the Laudibus chamber choir and a highly transparent, echt -Renaissance ensemble sound (I find the Clare College Choir a bit livelier and better blended). In sum, this is now the recording of choice for this work.
The other pieces recorded here are performed on a similarly high plane, and have much less competition, especially since some (The Voice out of the Whirlwind, Three Choral Hymns, A Vision of Aeroplanes ) are offered with organ rather than orchestral accompaniment. All are very typical of the composer’s choral works, except for Vision with its exotically spiky and dissonant opening section, evoking the roar of an aircraft squadron by analogy with the prophet Ezekiel’s apocalyptic vision of four winged creatures. The closest thing to a competitor in this combination of repertoire is the Hyperion disc with the Westminster Cathedral Choir, containing the Mass, Valiant for Truth , and Vision , but the Naxos CD is superior in every way. This is also apparently the first recording of Nothing Is Here for Tears , and the only available recording of the Exultate justi . The booklet notes, by the conductor, are excellent; the only flaw in this production is the lack of texts, which, given the density of certain passages, are a necessity even with fine choral diction. A Google search will turn up all of those on line; in addition to that of the traditional Latin Mass, they are:
• The Voice out of the Whirlwind : Job 38:1–10 and 16–17, 40:7–10.
• A Vision of Aeroplanes: Ezekiel 1:4–28.
• The souls of the Righteous : Wisdom of Solomon 3:1–3.
• Exultate justi : Psalms 32:11 and 33:1–4.
• Valiant-for-Truth : The passage regarding that character in the last chapter of The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, beginning, “After this it was noised abroad.”
• Nothing Is Here for Tears : a potted version of lines 1721–40 from Book IV of Paradise Regained by John Milton.
• Three Choral Hymns : German hymn texts (two derived through Martin Luther) translated by Miles Coverdale, beginning “Alleluya. Christe is now rysen agayne,” “Now blessed be thou, Christ Jesu,” and “Come, holy Spirite, most blessed Lorde.”
Aside from this one drawback, this disc has my highest possible recommendation, and is a candidate for the 2010 Want List.
FANFARE: James A. Altena
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Recordings of Vaughan Williams' Mass in G minor don't come along that often--but with this new one, Naxos has two first-rate performances in its catalog, the other with the Elora Festival Singers. That's where the similarity between the two recordings ends, however--and that's a good thing. In fact, this disc is different from most Vaughan Williams choral programs due to its abundance of rarely-heard works.
The two more-familiar items--Valiant-for-truth and the Mass--are performed as well as you'll hear anywhere on disc; the challenging a cappella scoring in both--but especially in the very exposed textures of the Mass--allows us to fully appreciate this choir's ensemble unity and solid intonation. The Mass is among the faster-paced versions on disc, similar to our reference recording (Cedille), but Timothy Brown knows that slower can mean trouble in this work, and he moderates tempo where it counts, most importantly in the Agnus Dei.
Among the lesser-known works, The Voice out of the Whirlwind is one of those grand cathedral anthems with a busy organ accompaniment, fun for all to sing and play, while Nothing is here for tears (written on the death of King George V) is in the best tradition of this composer's unison-voice anthems whose lovely, easily singable hymn-like tunes and well-crafted organ parts are always appreciated by choral directors and choirs. In a completely different universe is the motet A Vision of Aeroplanes, a tour de force for choir and organ (especially for organ!) that sets words from the prophet Ezekiel (the one about the vision of the "wheel within a wheel..."). In the hands of organist James McVinnie and these exceptional singers, the whole fantastic picture comes vividly to life.
Perhaps best of all--and also among the rarely-heard pieces--are the Three Choral Hymns. Although the three-movement work was originally scored for orchestra, Brown and his choir offer what apparently is its first recording with organ accompaniment. It works well, and perhaps in this form it will draw broader attention and more performances.
The Mass always seems difficult to record, and that's true here, with some harshness in the loudest passages and occasional uneven balances between the two choirs and between the choir and quartet of soloists. It's not a big deal, just a peculiar phenomenon that may be related to the particular features of the work's scoring, harmonic structure, and voicing. I also have to mention that for a recording of choral music to come without printed texts, as is the case here (they are only available online), is not ideal, especially when the majority of texts will not be familiar to most listeners. That said, this is an excellent and much needed addition to the Vaughan Williams choral catalog, and fans of the composer will not want to be without it. Strongly recommended.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com
DUETS: 30TH ANNIVERSARY
Britten: Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 2 (English Song, Vol.
Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1 / Cuarteto Casals
Bach: Cantatas Vol 12 / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
As is to be expected from Suzuki, the performances are meticulous and sensitive, and he brings out each cantata’s different emotional character with quiet authority. BWV 21 is particularly impressive, his team breathing vivid life into Bach’s portrayal of the Soul’s journey from darkest night to heavenly bliss. In contrast to this spiritual introspection, Philippe Herreweghe’s excellent disc features three cantatas Bach wrote for the annual inauguration of the Leipzig town council. This is public-event music, ablaze with ceremonial splendour: the earliest cantata, 1723’s BWV 119, begins with a French overture and is among the most richly scored of all the cantatas. The other two follow suit, jubilant choruses and brass fanfares proclaiming civic pride, though Bach takes care to balance this pomp with more delicate colours in the arias. Funeral music, yet another facet of the Cantor’s output, is explored on John Eliot Gardiner’s newly reissued 1989 recording. The deft vocal interweavings of the Actus tragicus and the Trauer Ode’s lavish salute to the Electress Christiane are adeptly handled by Gardiner, whose (relatively) small forces give the music a rapt, devotional air. In this company, Stephen Cleobury’s King’s College double seems lacklustre. The programme, which mixes major works with miniatures and extracts, is cluttered, the latter pieces merely distractions. Performances, while good, rarely match the precisely focused, sharply etched flair so evident on the Herreweghe and Suzuki discs. Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)
-- BBC Music Magazine
BLACK SWANS: EARLIEST AFRICAN-AMERICAN CLASSICAL
WAR SILENCE - RARE ITALIAN PIANO CONCERTOS
The Heart's Refuge - Le refuge de cœur
Handel: Messiah / Christophers, Handel & Haydn Society
Dramatic, highly-colored music from one of the most approachable and individual voices in contemporary music.
Handel’s ever-popular Messiah was recorded live in the superb acoustic of Boston’s Symphony Hall, to mark the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Handel and Haydn Society, America’s longest-standing performing arts organization. Messiah was first performed in Dublin in 1742 and the Handel and Haydn Society gave the first complete performance of the work in the USA in 1818. It has been performed annually in Boston as part of the Handel and Haydn Society concert season every year since 1854.
REVIEWS:
In his rendering of the score, Harry Christophers eloquently guides us through the entire oratorio with a steady hand and firm conviction. The tempi are sprightly where they ought to be, even sparkling like jewels at times—but not blazing as if on fire—and are equally slackened when they need to be. Further, the text is not merely declaimed; rather, every word is expressed!
The period instrument orchestra plays each and every note, trill, and ornament to perfection. As one would expect, the soloists are likewise fantastic. Soprano Gillian Keith, countertenor Daniel Taylor, tenor Tom Randle, and baritone Sumner Thompson off er impressive virtuoso contributions.
The chorus’s full-bodied yet accurate ensemble singing perked up these ears from the very first pitch of “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed” all the way through “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” and the mammoth, closing “Amen.”
– Choral Journal
