Recorded in the middle of a European tour in December 2024, this release marks the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists debut of acclaimed French conductor Christophe Rousset. Rousset brings his Gallic elegance and refinement to Charpentier's Baroque Christmas music - the motet In Nativitatem and the Messe de minuit pout Noel, along with the instrumental noels, or Christmas carols, that form the basis of Charpentier's unique mass.

Recorded live in concert in October, this release marks the Monteverdi Choir's 60th birthday and the 200th anniversary of Bruckner's birth with an album that combines his celebrated a cappella motets with the sacred motets of Carlo Gesualdo (1566 - 1613). Performed in 2024 by the Monteverdi Choir in Ely, Oxford and the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich under conductor Jonathan Sells, the album brings alive both the tormented passion and the exultant beauty of both composers' music.

Classical Music

Classical Music

In Spring 2019, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, led by John Eliot Gardiner, presented a critically-acclaimed European tour of Handel’s opera 'Semele', including Alexandra Palace Theatre in London, where this live recording took place. Semele had not been performed by John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi ensembles since they originally recorded it in the 1980s and this recording gives listeners the chance to hear a fuller version of the work. A glamorous team of young soloists joins the Monteverdi ensembles to bring the story of Semele to life, including celebrated English soprano Louise Alder, who takes on the title role, with the young tenor Hugo Hymas portraying the amorous Jupiter.

-----

REVIEW:

A new recording is always welcome, especially when it comes from someone who knows his dramatical business as John Eliot Gardiner does. Alder is a happy choice, her voice rich, fluid and precise, and her agile and alert acting skills finding ideal projection in the wonderful clutch of arias Handel sets before her..Hymas has just the smooth vocal beauty needed for a sympathetic Jupiter.

– Gramophone

Sir John Eliot Gardiner presents a long-awaited, dazzling and insightful recording of the Violin Concertos with leader and soloist, Kati Debretzeni. Debretzeni also presents her own arrangement and world-premiere recording of the harpsichord concerto BWV1053, published by Fountayne Editions."Bach's violin concertos reveal an ebullient sense of invention and rhythmic exuberance in their dance-based outer movements and a hushed intimacy in the sublime slow movements. It is rather as if one is overhearing a passionate conversation between friends. Yet to maintain the conversation's flow the soloist needs not just to master the different technical demands of each concerto and to capture moods that range from the playful to the profound, but also to locate the spirit of each individual movement and, as a result, to touch your soul. To me that is exactly how it felt when we recorded these four miraculous concertos with Kati Debretzeni and members of the EBS last December - with everyone sharing a palpable delight in the music-making." John Eliot Gardiner

Also available: Pilgrimage To Santiago
"This is a treasure, not to be missed." – Fanfare

-----


Here's one that almost slipped unnoticed among legitimate candidates for 2010 "best of the year" releases. Although recorded in 2004 and previously issued by Universal Spain, this exemplary program seems to have made its first true North American appearance only this past fall (2010), following its best-selling companion, Pilgrimage to Santiago. The 10 selections--representing composers such as Guerrero, Lobo, and Victoria--are among the more impressive, if not so well-known, examples not only of the high refinement of sacred music of the period, but also of the music's unique emotional disposition.

Guerrero's Duo Seraphim--for 12 voices in three choirs--must have been a big hit at Seville Cathedral, its grand antiphonal effects seeming to resonate in eternal, heavenly harmony. Likewise, Lobo's motet Versa est in luctum (Lobo was Guerrero's successor at Seville) is the embodiment of the full flower of Spanish Renaissance sacred music, its soaring melodic lines and sensual chordal movement reflecting the magnificent, harmonious proportion exemplified in the great cathedrals where such works were performed.

At first I thought Gardiner conducted some of these pieces too slowly--but repeated listening proved me wrong. The truth is, not just any choir can sing these long-phrased, extended works so convincingly, with such confidence and technical skill; but when you have an ensemble like Gardiner's Monteverdi Choir, you can push the boundaries and get away with it, which they do here.

As described in the liner notes, "this is an anthology of Golden Age 'classics'...in turn moving, intimate, spectacular, and awe inspiring"--and that comment gets no argument from me. Here Gardiner goes back to what he and his exceptional choir do best, captured in a very favorable acoustic (a London church) by a first-rate sound engineer (Mike Hatch). This is one of those discs you'll never tire of hearing.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music