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.

Supersize Polyphony is a celebration of large-scale choral works from the 16th century, performed here by the Armonico Consort and the Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, under their musical directors Christopher Monks and Geoffrey Webber. The unique programme features epic motets, such as Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium and Alessandro Striggio's Ecce Beatam Lucem, alongside his rarely performed 60 part Missa sopra Ecco Si Beato Giorno. Interspersed with the serene beauty of ethereal chants by Hildegard of Bingen, this new recording presents works of magnitude and polyphonic drama in stellar performances by two of the UK's leading choral ensembles. Now Available as a CD / SACD Surround Sound album.

On this 2012 recording, previously available on Decca, Robert Hollingworth leads his celebrated ensemble, I Fagiolini, on a journey unearthing incredible lost works from the late Renaissance and early Baroque, adding to their acclaimed 'Colossal Baroque' series on CORO. 1612 - the death of Giovanni Gabrieli, master of the 'Massive Baroque' and most brilliant of Venetian multi-choir composers but also the publication of Lodovico Grossi da Viadana's very modern four-choir Vespers collection. I Fagiolini's recording remains the only version of these spectacular Vespers as well as of Giovanni Gabrieli's unparalleled military-evoking Magnificat for seven choirs (meticulously researched and reconstructed by Hugh Keyte) and replete with fanfares and canon blasts.

This project was conceived to provide the choir with new contemporary music which would be singable, appropriate to various seasons of the church year, and, above all, be highly usable as part of the choir's daily offerings of music in Christ Church Cathedral. Funding was generously provided by the Friends of Christ Church Cathedral, and it was elected to adopt a hybrid approach to commissioning.

The Eton Choirbook is recognised as one of the UK's national treasures - an extraordinary survival of the religious iconoclasm which swept away so many choral institutions and musical manuscripts as well as a great deal of beautiful art, architecture, sculpture, stone carving, stained glass, and embroidery from the colourful, pre-Reformation world. The Eton Choirbook originally contained ninety-three works by twenty-five composers who hailed variously from Eton, Windsor, Eton's sister foundation at King's College, Cambridge, Oxford, and the Royal Court. It was compiled, with great care and no expense spared, and completed around 1504/5. But what makes the Eton Choirbook so special for both listener and performer is that the music it contains is hauntingly beautiful. There really is nothing like it in continental music of the time which the 'Eton' works surpass in scale (some last over fifteen minutes), number of voice parts, and use of wide vocal ranges - as well as the high degree of melodic invention and rhythmic complexity which places them beyond the reach of most choirs nowadays. © Russell Blacker

Recorded in the recently restored 1875 Victorian Theatre at Alexandra Palace, Crouch End Festival Chorus and David Temple present Elgar's The Kingdom. Joined by London Mozart Players the soloists include Francesca Chiejina, Dame Sarah Connolly Benjamin Hulett and Ashley Riches. Arguably Elgar's least well-known choral work, The Kingdom is a mixture of gentle conversational sections and astonishing dramatic passages, and David Temple believes it is the quality of the orchestral writing that elevates it to justifiably sit alongside Elgar's other notable works. "I am so taken with it It is a gem from the first note to the last, and my desire to share this as widely as possible is reinforced by the present recording One thing that cannot happen in a concert performance is 'repeated listening'. A recording, by contrast, holds an open invitation at the end to return to the beginning! This drip-feed allows the music to be deeply absorbed, and it is this which I believe will enable The Kingdom's true quality to be more widely appreciated" - David Temple.

Folk tunes have always been an important part of the repertoire of the Norwegian Girls Choir; being a vital aspect of the choir's identity and of it's active enactment of cultural tradition. In STJERNEBRU orjan Matre has taken a selection of Norwegian folk tunes as his starting point, and they are combined with improvisations and arrangements as intermezzos. The word Stjernebru (Bridge of Stars) is taken from the hymn Nedi vester soli glader (The sun is sinking in the west), and alludes to the journey to the next world: the transition, or bridge, from the earthly to the eternal. The word can also refer to the night sky itself, and Lux Aeterna - eternal light - is a theme that runs through the whole album. Det Norske Jentekor Anne Karin Sundal-Ask, conductor Gjermund Larsen, fiddle Frode Haltli, accordion orjan Matre, composer Morten Lindberg, balance engineer and recording producer Disc 1 Hybrid SACD MCH 5.0 DSD Stereo DSD RedBook PCM: MQA CD Disc 2 Pure Audio Blu-ray 2.0 LPCM 192/24 5.0 DTS HDMA 192/24 7.0.4 Auro-3D 96kHz 7.0.4 Dolby Atmos 48kHz mShuttle: MQA + FLAC + MP3 Region: ABC - worldwide

The first album from the Choir of St John's with their new music director - Christopher Gray. Leaning into the college's well-established tradition of championing new music, at the heart of the programme are two triptychs: James MacMillan's Cantos Sagrados, composed 35 years ago, and Joanna Marsh's Echoes in Time, commissioned by the College in recent months. There is also a new choral work by Helena Paish and a new organ work by Martin Baker alongside existing works by Roxanna Panufnik and Dobrinka Tabakova. The commissioned works were conceived with the distinctive environment of St Johns' Victorian chapel (designed by George Gilbert Scott and consecrated in May 1869), it's organ and it's fine, world-famous choir which has done service since it's post-Restoration establishment in the 1670s.

A Western is Michael Gordon's extended musing inspired by the legendary 1950s film High Noon, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. It's about the Wild West, the way of the gun, classic American TV fantasies, and of course the good guys versus the bad guys. Caroline Shaw's How to fold the wind is a mesmerizing choral work that expands on the vocal acrobatics the composer has explored with her Grammy-winning ensemble Roomful of Teeth. The piece is inspired by Japanese origami, using speech, inhaled notes, wordless melodies and innovative vocal effects to fold individual voices together into a complex whole. Released together as a "split album" on CD, the two works mirror each other in a compelling array of contrasts and similarities. Each was recorded by one of Denmark's premier vocal ensembles - A Western by Theatre of Voices, How to fold the wind by Ars Nova Copenhagen - with each performance conducted by Paul Hillier. And although the lyrical forms of each piece couldn't be more strikingly different, somehow they elevate each other into a revelatory listening experience that expands the scope of modern choral music.

THE CITY AND THE SEA project is a bridge connecting artists from two corners of the world - a valued American choirmaster and composer, originator of the idea of a virtual choir, Eric Whitacre, and a young Cracow composer - Klaudia Rabiega. The presented works were mostly composed to texts by well-known Anglo-Saxon poets. The compositions fit into the genre of vocal and instrumental chamber music in which the choir is equivalent to the other instruments with the piano keeping the whole together. Klaudia Rabiega knows how to compose choral music; she is perfectly at ease in the polyphonic vocal texture, and her musical language evolves in search of a balance between modern and creative style and simple language accessible to listeners. The project, which includes world premiere recordings, was implemented by excellent musicians associated with the Cracow music scene, and the whole was supervised by the charismatic conductor Andrzej Korzeniowski.

TEBE BOGA HVALIM WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD : Sacred Music of Polish and Serbian Composers

Thomas said, "Music is akin to an infinite alphabet." Weaving together two texts, originally written in two different alphabets (about 800 years apart,) Freedom To be Free and Sky Bound unfolds and develops an elegant, resonant, graceful dialogue between Parks' "Freedom" and Rumi's "Love". Textual and musical braids embody Thomas' notion of "infinite alphabet." Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American activist in the civil rights movement, best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement." Parks received countless recognitions, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, Hanafi faqih, Islamic scholar, Maturidi theologian, and Sufi mystic. Like other mystic and Sufi poets of Persian literature, Rumi's poetry speaks of love which infuses the world. This is made explicit in Rumi's verse (not included in this composition) that describes love as "that flame which, when it blazes up, burns away everything except the Everlasting Beloved." © Augusta Read Thomas

Featuring timeless melodies from Guide me, O thou great redeemer (known to millions as 'Bread of heaven') to Abide with me, this stunning collection of some of the best-loved hymns of all time from The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, accompanied by the College's magnificent Eule organ, offers a glimpse into the daily musical life of this celebrated choir.

Thomas said, "Music is akin to an infinite alphabet." Weaving together two texts, originally written in two different alphabets (about 800 years apart,) Freedom To be Free and Sky Bound unfolds and develops an elegant, resonant, graceful dialogue between Parks' "Freedom" and Rumi's "Love". Textual and musical braids embody Thomas' notion of "infinite alphabet." Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American activist in the civil rights movement, best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement." Parks received countless recognitions, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, Hanafi faqih, Islamic scholar, Maturidi theologian, and Sufi mystic. Like other mystic and Sufi poets of Persian literature, Rumi's poetry speaks of love which infuses the world. This is made explicit in Rumi's verse (not included in this composition) that describes love as "that flame which, when it blazes up, burns away everything except the Everlasting Beloved." © Augusta Read Thomas

The reputation of Havergal Brian (1876-1972) as a late-blossoming symphonist obscures the fact that he was an early-blossoming composer of choral music for the huge market of amateur choirs thriving in Edwardian England. His choral songs range from simple unison settings for children's or women's voices to harmonically complex essays intended to tax the ability of groups taking part in the choral competitions once popular in many parts of Britain.

Ned Rorem, renowned for his vivid art songs and unapologetic diaries, also composed a vast and underappreciated body of choral works. This album, featuring St Martin's Voices, showcases selections from his impressive choral output spanning seven decades. From the playful intricacies of Festive Alleluias (1992) to the lush harmonies of Two Psalms and a Proverb (1962), Rorem's music for chorus-often imbued with religious texts despite his devout atheism-reveals his gift for blending homophony with subtle counterpoint. The album includes pieces like the lyrical Sing my soul, his wondrous love (1955), the haunting Canticle of the Lamb (1971), and the entrancing O Magnum Mysterium (1978), offering a compelling cross-section of Rorem's choral imagination. With rich emotional depth, innovative text-setting, and surprising rhythmic shifts, these works-many previously overlooked-finally receive the attention they so richly deserve.

The new Kreuzkantor Martin Lehmann and his Dresdner Kreuzchor present their new recording of Francis Poulenc's "Gloria" for soprano, mixed choir and orchestra (FP 177). Combining it with the liturgically corresponding "Mass" for soloists, choir and orchestra in A flat major (D 678) by Franz Schubert. They performed the two works in the acoustically magnificent Kulturpalast Dresden with a first-class cast of soloist Elsa Benoit, Irike Malotta, Patrick Grahl and Klaus Hager. This album is continuing the Dresden Philarmonic Orchestra and Kreuzchor's long history of recordings and artistic collaboration on Berlin Classics.

As Bath Abbey Boys' Choir marks it's 150th anniversary, we are delighted to present this album. I hope you will enjoy this varied collection, which has been designed to showcase the very best of our boys' choral singing. One of the highlights of this project has been welcoming our alumni to sing again in Bath Abbey as part of the recording. Seeing the joy of our former choristers at being back in the Abbey, some of whom left the choir over 50 years ago, demonstrates the lasting mark that their time as a chorister has made on their lives. We know how important these choirs are for training future musicians. However, I believe we often underestimate the impact that being part of a choir can have on the choristers who pursue other careers; the discipline, teamwork and concentration skills that will support them throughout their lives, helping to build the leaders and team players of the future. This recording has been made to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the introduction of the Boys and Lay Clerks (formally Men's choir) in 1875. At a time when boys' choirs are decreasing due to mixing the treble line with boys and girls, we are lucky that, despite there being no choir school at the Abbey, we can maintain our independent boys' choir. For part of this recording, we have invited our girls and lay clerk alumni to join us for two items as we celebrate the history and tradition that helped many singers to find their voice. © Huw Williams

The Netherlands Radio Choir and Benjamin Goodson present The Voice of the Beloved, a powerful collection of 20th-century sacred choral works by Frank Martin, Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, and Olivier Messiaen. At it's heart is Martin's Mass for Double Choir, a deeply personal expression of faith composed in 1922 and kept private for decades. It's austere beauty and luminous harmonies make it one of the most moving sacred works of the last century. Daniel-Lesur's Le Cantique des cantiques transforms the Song of Songs into a sensual and spiritual choral tapestry, weaving up to twelve voices into a radiant soundscape. Messiaen's O sacrum convivium, a brief but transcendent motet, completes the program with shimmering reverence. Following their acclaimed 2023 release Rheinberger & Mendelssohn: Choral Works, the choir returns with a recording that reveals the sacred not only in worship, but in the raw, expressive power of the human voice.

On 13 April 1716, the long-awaited heir to the Habsburg throne was born. All of Europe rejoiced, for it was expected that the Spanish War of Succession so recently ended would not rekindle into another disastrous conflict. The city of Frankfurt am Main, where emperors were elected and crowned, marked the event on 17 May with a huge celebration, and Georg Philipp Telemann contributed two large-scale works for it. The performances in the Barfüsserkirche and on the Römerberg were part of a day-long series of festive activities with hours of carillons ringing and hundreds of cannon salutes-but it was music director Telemann who emerged victorious in the end. Understandably so, as the first recording of the two festive pieces reveals. These two gems further enrich our label's Telemann catalogue.