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!
The audience of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival experienced a great musical event when the Kammerchor Stuttgart, conducted by its founder Frieder Bernius, performed Luigi Cherubini's Messe Solennelle No. 2 in D minor. The soloists of the evening were Ruth Ziesak, soprano, Christa Mayer, contralto, Christoph Genz, tenor, and Thomas E. Bauer, bass. The recording of this truly extraordinary work is now available on album. After a beginning which seems familiar, unforeseen, imaginative and witty turns lead melodic progressions and harmonic developments into entirely new directions. The harmonic variety is impressive, and chromaticism plays no less important a role. Subtle instrumentation lends many sections an exquisite sonority. And last but not least, the deeply felt interpretation of the text by means of melodic, rhythmic or harmonic figures, as well as by dynamics and tempo is one of the outstanding features of the work, highlighting the performers' brilliance.
