Following the success of 100 Christmas Classics (Capriccio C7331) comes Christmas Meditation, featuring 100 choral and vocal works from across the centuries. The set encompasses sacred Renaissance treasures including Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Bach/Gounod’s Ave Maria, Handel’s Baroque masterpiece Messiah (‘He shall feed his flock’) and classic Christmas carols such as It Came Upon A Midnight Clear by Richard Storrs Willis and Franz Xaver Gruber’s Stille Nacht (‘Silent Night’). Featuring some of the most renowned choral institutions, Christmas Meditation offers listeners a classical Christmas to remember.

REVIEWS:

A rather sumptuous collection of seasonal choral works, instrumental pieces and carols. --BBC Music Magazine

After the success of the 5 CD box “100 Christmas classics” (Capriccio C7331), the new 5 CD box “Christmas Meditation” contains 100 choral and instrumental works from past centuries. It contains works from 43(!) composers, including excerpts from Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Bach/Gounod's Ave Maria, Handel's Baroque masterpiece Messiah, and traditional and classical carols such as "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" by American composer Richard Storrs Willis, and Franz Xaver Gruber's "Silent Night”. With some of the most renowned choirs, “Christmas Meditation” offers you an unforgettable Christmas.

In addition to world-famous Christmas music, in this box you will also discover previously unknown but no less beautiful work by Bruch, Rheinberger, Carl Neuner, Wagenseil, Robert Fuchs, Johann Philipp Reichert or Johann von Herbeck. Cannot be missed!

--Stretto

Beside the famous master of Baroque Music – Johann Sebastian Bach – this 2CD set, Baroque Christmas Rarities includes nearly unknown but no less atmospheric treasures of baroque Christmas music by Bach’s talented sons, Telemann, Buxtehude, and others. Most of them were commissioned works for the feast and includes very different styles: from festive cantatas, moody motets to chamber musically solo songs. A “must” for all lovers of Baroque Music as well for listeners that would like to find some extraordinary music for the upcoming feast.

REVIEW:

Seasonal motets and cantatas by Christian Geist, Pal Esterhazy, Buxtehude, and Giuseppe Maria Po del Finale, with a tranch of contributions from Bach family members. Thoroughly engaging.

-- BBC Music Magazine

Classical Music

The oratorio Der Kampf der Buße ind Bekehrung (The Struggle for Penance and Conversion) is among Michael Haydn's lesser-known works. The Purcell Choir together with the Orfeo Orchestra, under the direction of György Vashegyi, now present a recording of the second and only surviving part of this three-part oratorio. It is impressive, especially for its unusual scoring: All of the the five solo roles are allotted to sopranos. The artistic mixture of majestic passages, surprising turns, Baroque rhetorical figures, and virtuoso arias makes clear why later composers such as Mozart, Schubert, and Bruckner repeatedly took Michael Haydn's music as their model.

FASCH Ouverture in d, FWV K:d5. Passio Jesu Christi, FWV F:1 1 • Mary Térey-Smith, cond; Mária Zádori (sop); 1 Zoltán Megyesi (ten); 1 Péter Cser (bs); 1 Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis; 1 Capella Savaria Baroque O • NAXOS 8.570326 (71:24)


Since the turn of the 20th century, when musicologist Hugo Riemann drew attention to the long-neglected work of Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688–1758), the critical estimate of this Weimar-born composer has steadily grown. His prolific and original œuvre illustrates the stylistic evolution from the high Baroque to the classicism of Haydn and Mozart. More than 60 extant concertos attest to Fasch’s imaginative and resourceful instrumentation, especially remarkable in his writing for winds. Having languished so long in the shadow of Bach, Fasch now can be counted among Bach’s more interesting German contemporaries.


This fascinating new Naxos release pairs an orchestral suite or Ouverture with what may be the first recording of Fasch’s Passion setting ( Mich von Stricke meiner Sünden ) to a text by Brockes. They are presented in compelling and heartfelt performances by Hungarian ensembles and soloists under the direction of the conductor and musicologist Mary Térey-Smith. The sound of the Capella Savaria (an original-instruments ensemble established in 1981 in Szombathely, western Hungary) is unusually rich. Their stylish performance of the Ouverture, FWV K:d5 compares favorably with the justly praised recording by Paul Dombrecht and Il Fondamento (Fuga Libera 502).


Fasch’s Passio Jesu Christi survives in two divergent manuscript copies, one held at the Leipzig Städtische Bibliothek and the other at the University of Chicago. Both were consulted by Térey-Smith to prepare the performing edition recorded here. Less rigorously polyphonic than Bach’s Passions, the power of Fasch’s setting is achieved with smaller gestures and lighter textures. The beautifully blended and translucent sound of the Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis is gracefully supported throughout by Capella Savaria. The tessitura of the Daughter of Sion role lies a bit high for soprano Mária Zádori, whose upper register develops a piercing edge in some instances. On the other hand, the young tenor Zoltán Megyesi acquits himself brilliantly as the Evangelist. His agility in the challenging, quasi-Handelian “Verwegene Rotte, was fängest du an?” is exhilarating, while the tender simplicity he brings to “Brich, mein Herz, zerfliess in Tränen” (accompanied by pizzicato strings and continuo with traverso obbligato) is stunning. Térey-Smith’s fine ear for detail is everywhere evident, though never limiting the fluent pace and momentum of these beautiful scores.


This recording was made in Szombathely in October 2006. Balances are acute and the presence rich. Nigel Springthorpe provided the informative notes. Recommended.


FANFARE: Patrick Rucker