Bach revised his St. John Passion time and again - indeed making it one of his most enigmatic and fascinating compositions. On the 300th anniversary of it's world premiere, MDG is reissuing the highly acclaimed recording for the first time in full three-dimensional sound on Super Audio CD for the PREZIOSA series.

One of the duties of the office of municipal music director in Hamburg was to perform a Passion every year during Lent, alternating from year to year according to the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Telemann took on this task with particular fervour and created a total of 46 passions throughout his time in Hamburg, from spring 1722 until his death in 1767, half of which are unfortunately lost today.

The Bevan Family Consort return with a selection of choral works celebrating the season of lent and passiontide, including a world premiere recording of of the six-voice Lamentations by Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder. The programme follows the liturgy from the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday to the darkness of Holy Saturday. For each day of Tenebrae, they've included a setting of a Lamentation. "Recording an album with the family is always moving, but this one was especially so because of the theme of the music... Like previous albums, this one contains well-worn family favourites beside newly-discovered or un-recorded rarities, thanks to our in-house editor and arch-polyphony enthusiast, Francis... We hope you enjoy our selection and that it can be a prayerful accompaniment to the Lenten season." - Michael Bevan

Barthold Heinrich Brockes was an influential German poet who added reflective and descriptive poetry into the texture of his Passion. Among several musical settings, the most famous is the one by Handel. This acclaimed staged version transports Handel's Brockes Passion into the opera house, widening the work's historical narrative to embrace the creation of the world, bringing a message of human greed and destruction into direct contact with the present day. The Handelfestspielorchester Halle, on period instruments, is conducted by Michael Hofstetter.

Influential German poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes reinvented the Passion oratorio tradition, transforming it's textures into a much-admired poetic meditation that took hold of the imagination of many German Baroque composers. Of several settings Handel's is by far the most famous, creating an eloquent and moving score from his friend's libretto. This acclaimed staged version directed by Walter Sutcliffe extends the vision of the original by asking fundamental questions about the evolution of mankind and it's dangerous implications for planet Earth.

Influential German poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes reinvented the Passion oratorio tradition, transforming it's textures into a much-admired poetic meditation that took hold of the imagination of many German Baroque composers. Of several settings Handel's is by far the most famous, creating an eloquent and moving score from his friend's libretto. This acclaimed staged version directed by Walter Sutcliffe extends the vision of the original by asking fundamental questions about the evolution of mankind and it's dangerous implications for planet Earth.

Bohuslav Martinu's opera The Greek Passion, here in the 1961 version, is based on the novel The re-crucified Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. The opera develops the Christian doctrine of "love thy neighbour" ad absurdum, as a group of refugees are driven out of a little Greek village just as the village is putting on a Passion play for Holy Week. The opera is a pessimistic plea for humanity, made in the awareness that humanity must always wrestle anew with it's own egoism. Director Simon Stone "creates a modern parable, somehow both contemporary and timeless." (The Times) For the last of his 16 operas, Martinu developed a tonal language which combined his early musical experiences with elements of Greek folklore, Greek Orthodox liturgy and dance music. Maxime Pascal, the 2014 winner of the Salzburg Festival's annual Young Conductors Award and at the podium of the Wiener Philharmoniker for the first time, "unfolds a musical and dramatic intensity that makes your hair stand on end, both in the tender outbursts and the violent ones. A maestro of his time." (Le Figaro) "A highlight of this year's Salzburg Festival" The Times The Greek Passion elected "BEST PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR 2023" OPER! Awards 2024 "This opulence and the playing of the overall grippingly coherent ensemble hits one to the core." Neue Musikzeitung

Bohuslav Martinu's opera The Greek Passion, here in the 1961 version, is based on the novel The re-crucified Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. The opera develops the Christian doctrine of "love thy neighbour" ad absurdum, as a group of refugees are driven out of a little Greek village just as the village is putting on a Passion play for Holy Week. The opera is a pessimistic plea for humanity, made in the awareness that humanity must always wrestle anew with it's own egoism. Director Simon Stone "creates a modern parable, somehow both contemporary and timeless." (The Times) For the last of his 16 operas, Martinu developed a tonal language which combined his early musical experiences with elements of Greek folklore, Greek Orthodox liturgy and dance music. Maxime Pascal, the 2014 winner of the Salzburg Festival's annual Young Conductors Award and at the podium of the Wiener Philharmoniker for the first time, "unfolds a musical and dramatic intensity that makes your hair stand on end, both in the tender outbursts and the violent ones. A maestro of his time." (Le Figaro) "A highlight of this year's Salzburg Festival" The Times The Greek Passion elected "BEST PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR 2023" OPER! Awards 2024 "This opulence and the playing of the overall grippingly coherent ensemble hits one to the core." Neue Musikzeitung

Richard Cameron-Wolfe's Passionate Geometries features eight of his chamber works written over a thirty year period, displaying the wide range of aesthetic approaches at play in his music, from his theatrical micro-operas to deeply felt settings of instrumental works that explore microtonality. Cameron-Wolfe's musical voice is rarefied and unique in it's precise detail, injecting pathos and brilliance into the smallest of gestures as they come together to convey rich narratives.

In her latest album, Tatjana Vorobjova focuses entirely on emotion. Expressed in richness of sound, dynamics and refined nuance, the highly acclaimed Latvian harpsichordist explores expanding the instrument's expressive possibilities and shows how well this can be achieved with the grand master of counterpoint in a touchingly personal selection of Bach's highly expressive works.

Learn more about Elite Recordings and the revival of their VOX Classics albums on the Naxos Classical Spotlight Podcast!

The three choral masterpieces featured on this recording, conducted by Leonard Slarkin, were originally issued on the Vox label in 1982. The Bells is sung in an English translation by Fanny S. Copeland of the Russian poet Konstantin Belmont's poem. The recordings were produced by Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz whose recordings are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest available. The Russian sung texts, transliterations and English translations are included in the booklet.

REVIEW:

Leonard Slatkin is adept atmost conveying the melancholy, sunset world of Rachmaninoff; when passion is called for, the Slatkin of 44 years ago in these performances musters plenty of it. He certainly guided the St Louis Symphony to become one of the nation’s finest orchestras, and they sound resplendent here.

— American Record Guide

The Hanseatic wealth of North Germany in the 17th century is reflected in its magnificent cathedrals, and the enormous grandeur of its church music was composed to fill the rich acoustics of these spaces. This programme presents a wide range of Easter music that displays the wealth of inventiveness in this period, enhancing the texts and finding different colors and surprising effects through improvisation and adaptation of the manuscripts. This early music is brought vividly to life by the acclaimed Margaretha Consort.

REVIEW:

This recording offers an excellent overview of the kind of Lutheran Church music one would have heard in the major cities and noble courts of northern Germany in the 17th Century. Jacob Handl’s ‘Ecce, Quomodo Moritur Iustus’ stands out as the only Latin motet on the program. Otherwise, it consists of German sacred concertos of varying dimensions. For instance, ‘Jesu Meines Lebens Leben’ by Dietrich Buxtehude sounds like a polychoral concerto, and Schütz’s ‘O Süsser, O Freundlicher’ sounds more like a sacred cantata, scored for solo tenor and continuo. Some pieces sound as though they replicate the timbre of a church congregation performing a strophic chorale melody to Sietze De Fries’s improvised organ part. Between the choral works, De Fries offers further improvisations, for example on the chorale melody ‘Jesu, Meine Freude’.

I am very taken with this recording, both for the selections and for the quality of the performances. Most of these works exhibit hallmarks of the stile moderno and indulge in the expressive properties of chromaticism and unusual harmonic juxtapositions. The notes are in English, but one will have to look elsewhere for the texts.

-- American Record Guide

Cantata Collective, an ensemble “of San Francisco early music luminaries” (San Francisco Chronicle) inaugurates a major series of J. S. Bach’s choral works with a live recording of the composer’s St. John Passion. With celebrated conductor Nicholas McGegan, the toast of today’s new generation of vocal soloists and a three-to-a-part chamber choir, the Cantata Collective conveys the emotional intimacy and dramatic power of this monumental passion in a highly polished performance that led Early Music America to implore: “To the excellent musicians of Cantata Collective: More Bach Please!”

This new recording from the Staatskapelle Weimar under Hansjörg Albrecht presents a rarely heard compilation of Richard Wagner’s themes from Tristan und Isolde, arranged for orchestra by Henk de Vlieger (b. 1953). This is Hansjörg Albrecht's follow-up Wagner recording to his album Der Ring ohne Worte (OC1872). The Staatkapelle Weimar dates back to 1491, making it one of the oldest orchestras in the world, and one that is more than familiar with the works of Richard Wagner.

The Spanish pieces on this CD became famous mainly as solo guitar compositions by the three Catalan master pianists Isaac Albéniz, Joaquín Malats and Enrique Granados. I have often played them that way in concerts as well. In 2019, Nicolas and I had the idea to transcribe these works combined with works by Astor Piazzolla for viola and guitar. Since then, we have enjoyed playing this music in numerous concerts. The viola-guitar combination gives these compositions a whole new dimension. Compared to the solo guitar versions, the works appear in a completely new light, allowing the compositions to emit transparency and a variety of tonal colors.

The Spanish music of the CD program alternates with music by one of the most frequently performed works of Manuel de Falla (1876–1946), and the Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992). Piazzolla is considered the great innovator of the Tango, the “Tango Nuevo”. He originally composed the “Histoire du Tango” for flute and guitar. The other compositions are short character pieces, all of which we have arranged for viola and guitar. The two movements “Bordel-1900” and “Café-1930” evoke the history of Tango in their respective eras. “Bordel-1900” goes back to the beginnings of the Tango. The new dance form was played in the brothels of Buenos Aires around this time. As “1930” marked a new era, the Tango was no longer danced as it was around 1900, and people limited themselves to listening to it. The Tango becomes more musical and romantic, the movements become slower, new harmonies are added. The music takes on a strong melancholic streak.

The proud Hanseatic city of Hamburg enjoys a special status in northern Germany - and that was already the case 400 years ago. Maritime trade made it prosperous even back then, and through skilful diplomacy and a gigantic defensive wall, the city was almost completely spared the devastation of the 30 Years' War, while much of the rest of Europe sank into rubble and misery. The office of Hamburg's city cantor was thus one of the most attractive positions that northern Germany had to offer at that time. Thomas Selle held this position from 1641 and repaid his new home with outstanding compositions such as the St. John Passion from 1643, which is particularly striking for the extraordinary colourfulness of the instrumentation. The Göttingen Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Antonius Adamske, brings it out radiantly, providing the perfect support for the illustrious trio of soloists.

The Ukrainian folk song is unquestionably a unique phenomenon. No nation in history has amassed such a wealth of songs as those created by the Ukrainian people. UNESCO has an impressive audio library of folk songs from all over the world. The Ukrainian contribution amounts to some 15,500 songs and is far and away the biggest collection in the library. Folk music in the Ukrainian language originated in the 9th century at the time when Kyivan Rus was founded; the authors of the texts of most songs have long since been forgotten. Over the years, many composers researched and arranged them, principally for voice and piano, and transformed them into “Romances”, art songs, like German Lieder. The program includes 15 songs: three romances by four composers and three folk songs. Each work has accompanied the artist's life in one way or another, so it has a special meaning for Lena Belkina.

Many of the works on this album are being recorded for the first time – and this is a great opportunity to discover Ukrainian music, its character, its temperament, its melodic language and the influence of time upon it. The program is emotional and multi-faceted and would not have sounded so authentic without the pianist Violina Petrychenko. She is making Ukrainian piano music known around the world, recording composers like Kosenko, Revutskyi, Barvinskyi and other artists little known in the wider world. This duet is a union of opposites that are brought together to complement one another, to reflect personal strength and passion for music. The artists united by a common goal – showing Ukrainian art full of love for their country to the whole world.

These works were commissioned by the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart to write works to mark Bach Year 2000. Osvaldo Golijov´s Pasión Según San Marcos is the work of one who moves back and forth between different worlds and can scarcely be pigeonholed as representing a specific culture. His work unites the music of South America, Cuba, the West and Jewish tradition to produce an unconventional conception of a “Passion“ in which Jesus is not a light skinned European, but instead a person of color. Sofia Gubaidulina's response was a St John Passion, and subsequently she added a sequel, St John Easter, which was premiered in Hamburg in March 2002. Both those works originally had Russian words, drawn mostly from St John's gospel and the Book of Revelation, but in 2006, prompted by conductor Helmuth Rilling, Gubaidulina collaborated on a German translation of the text, while also making revisions to the score itself.

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin returns to Pentatone together with soprano Christina Landshamer, presenting La Passione, a collection of dazzling concert arias on love, longing and loss by Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn, paired with the latter’s “La Passione” Symphony. Ranging from pastoral simplicity to exuberant outrage, the program offers some of the finest vocal writing around 1800, including some of Beethoven’s rare and little-known excursions to Italian bravura opera, as well as one of the most dramatic and expressive symphonies of the eighteenth-century.

The Akademie für Alte Musik is generally seen as one of the best period-instruments ensembles of today, and has a substantial Pentatone discography, including CANTATA with Bejun Mehta (2018), Handel’s Concerti grossi op. 6 (released in 2019 and 2020). Telemann’s Miriways (2020), Handel’s Messiah (2020) and Haydn’s L’isola disabitata (2021). Christina Landshamer featured as Marzelline on Beethoven’s Fidelio (2021).

ArcoDiva's newest release presents works for oboe performed by Martin Danek, a graduate of the prestigious Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin and winner of the 2019 Prague Spring International Competition. He says: "I've been living abroad for a long time, and playing in my own country is always something special", says Mr. Danek. "This is especially true in the case of Prague Spring, with it's festive atmosphere, which I remember from my childhood. The combinations of instruments and works on this program will be unusual, so it will be a unique experience for both the audience and the performers."

Recording the St. Matthew Passion with boys’ and young men’s voices is an exceptionally intensive experience. Singing from memory and seeing Jesus’ suffering from the trusting perspective of children leads you to a different conclusion than it would with adult singers. The voices of children and adolescents sound more linear with a lower vibrato amplitude; they are rich in overtones and usually use a shorter phrase length. But children breathe very quickly, and their voices can be applied with virtuosity. Chords sound calm and clean.

The choir and soloists of the Wilten Boys’ Choir and the Academia Jacobus Stainer Orchestra recorded the St. Matthew Passion in the middle of a lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, and were therefore tested daily and stood at a distance from each other in the Saal Tirol of the Congress Center in Innsbruck. The choir and the second orchestra were both further away from the conductor, just as was probably the case with Bach in the former St. Thomas Church with its swallow’s nest organ on a gallery above the triumphal arch. In any case, the St. Matthew Passion was performed in 1736 “mit beyden orgeln” (with both organs) in St. Thomas Church. We studied every recitative, every aria and every chorale as written in Bach’s wonderful handwriting and were amazed, especially in the secco recitatives, by some changes that became apparent for us after reading the meticulously written autograph that was later revised by Bach.

Affecting Passions by Heinichen. The Passion music Johann David Heinichen wrote for the Dresden court is a document of cultural and confessional openness of the Saxon residence, and his two Italian oratorios heard here are surrogates of large-scale Passion music. "Come? S'imbruna il ciel" - composed in 1728 - is the latest of the sepolcri, his other Passion "L'aride tempie ignude" the first of the sepolcri to survive from Heinichen in Dresden. Both texts are by Stefano Pallavicino, who had been active at the Dresden court since 1719. In the first-mentioned Passion, the meditation on the Passion event recurs to the experience of the earthquake that, according to biblical accounts, occurred immediately after the death of Jesus. The description of the violent natural events gives Mary the Mother of God, John (Jesus' favorite disciple), and Mary Magdalene an opportunity to reflect on their relationship to the Crucified. Different aspects of affection and love are thematized. The meditation on the Passion event in the second-named Passion is designed as an allegorical play of death (Morte) and hope (Speranza), divine love (Amor divino) and penance (Poenitenza), and follows an easily comprehensible dramaturgy. The affinity to opera seria is evident in both passions not only in the arrangement of the pieces. The keys, gestures and instrumentation also correspond to the models familiar from baroque musical theater. Full of affect!

Ukrainian pianist Vitalii Kyianytsia knows how to convince on his debut album "Last Day of Spring" with an almost perfect touch. With seven of his own compositions, the pianist composed the lion's share of the repertoire, drummer Mathias Ruppnig contributed the fast-paced "Stranger Than Fiction" and the number with the mysterious title "S.O.M. & D.I.D." comes from bassist Johannes Fink. Vitalii Kyianytsia comes from Kiev and learned the piano from the bottom up. "I started playing the piano at the age of six and then had a classical education," he said. "At the age of seventeen, I started to become interested in jazz. In the beginning, I particularly liked Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and Duke Ellington, later also Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. I then studied jazz in Kiev, but later also classical composition. This experience was important to me, and my final graduation examination was a piano concerto with an orchestra."

Composer Phillip Wilby has built his reputation on writing for brass band and music for the Christian liturgy, for which he composes extensively. The three works presented on this album were all composed between 2014 and 2019, the earliest of which is the Knaresborough Service, commissioned by the Parish Church of St John the Baptist in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. The anthem God’s Grandeur was written in 2017 and is a setting of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poem of the same name. Wilby’s An English Passion According to Saint Matthew was written in 2018, for Matthew Owens and the choir of Wells Cathedral. One important characteristic of the work is the congregational hymns are taken from the collection of English tunes, published by Vaughan Williams in his English Hymnal of 1906. These hymns, with their timeless melodies, anchor the Passion in a very English setting.

The Australian writer Henry Handel Richardson (1870–1946) was christened Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson: she adopted a male nom de plume in anticipation of professional prejudice. Although she made in international reputation as a novelist, she first trained as a pianist and wrote songs all her life – but they remained unpublished, so that her output as a composer has been completely overlooked until now. Her songs are straightforward and melodious, drawing their inspiration from Romantic German Lieder and Edwardian drawing-room ballads, lullabies and parlor songs in the manner of Bridge, Ireland, Quilter and other such composers.