Towards the end of any major, protracted set of recordings, especially when it has maintained such an outstanding high standard as the Bryden/Chandos series of Bax's orchestral music, there must be quite some trepidation that even Jove will nod and that the mould of excellence will be broken. Well, Thomson has yet to put a foot wrong!' Which CD 'Thomson possesses an intuitive understanding that allows more of the music to compel than one had dared hope...The London Philharmonic plays beautifully...' The Independent Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 3 & 4 April 1986 (Saga Fragment), and 11 & 12 April 1988 (Four songs) Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 2 & 3 November 1988 (Russian Suite) and 23-25 June 1991 (Golden Eagle, Romantric Overture) Producer(s) Brian Couzens (Saga Fragment) Tim Oldham (other works) Sound Engineer(s) Richard Lee (Golden Eagle, Romantic Overture) Ralph Couzens (other works) Janet Middlebrook (Assistant: Four songs) Ben Connellan (Assistant: Russian Suite) Philip Couzens (Assistant: Saga Fragment)) Peter Sheldon (Assistant: other works)

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Classical Music

This selection is also available as a Super Audio CD (SACD).

DOWLAND / PHILIPS / FERRABOSCO / BYRD / COPERARIO / MORLEY:

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Classical Music

Michele Andalo is the countertenor with the Cappella Teatina directed by Saverio Villa in this album of sacred works by Nicola Porpora, (1686 – 1768) a Neapolitan Baroque composer who usually specialized in operas. Porpora was also noted as a teacher of musicians and composers. Among his many students was Joseph Haydn.

CACCINI / MINISCALCHI / RADESCA / STROZZI: Madrigals and Son

Emma Kirkby, internationally renowned for her interpretations of early music, joins Canadian soprano Suzie LeBlanc, Peter Harvey, Clare Salaman, and The Purcell Quartet in this disc of sacred music by Buxtehude. This is the only available reecording of many of the works on this disc. Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 14-16 February 2002 Producer(s) Rachel Smith Sound Engineer(s) Jonathan Cooper Michael Common

Hasse, J.A.: Miserere / Salve Regina / Te Deum

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Classical Music

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Schutz, H.: St. Luke Passion / Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi

In 35 years the British male vocal sextet known as the King's Singers has experienced many turnovers of personnel, including the retirement of virtually all of its original members--but three important things haven't changed one little bit: quality of the performances, camraderie among the singers, and compatibility of the voices. And on evidence of this new release on the Signum label, this premier ensemble has found a recording team that shows the group's talent to an even higher engineering standard than we've ever heard before in previous issues from EMI and RCA.

Throughout these 70-plus minutes and 25 tracks, we hear nothing but absolutely first-class musicianship, top-notch arrangements, and always thoughtfully chosen, entertaining repertoire that invariably and ideally suits the group's sound and style. Among the selections are a few standard carols and arrangements--Vaughan Williams' This is the truth, Ravenscroft's Remember, O thou man, Bach's harmonizations of In dulci jubilo and O little one sweet, and the familiar, anonymous settings of There is no rose, and The Coventry Carol--but there also are many more newer and captivatingly original pieces, several exceptional ones created by King's Singers member Philip Lawson (Lullay my liking; Veni, veni Emmanuel; Noël nouvelet). Notable too are a nifty (and most uncharacteristic) Bogoroditsye Devo by Arvo Pärt, an exquisitely lovely and dramatic rendition of Tchaikovsky's The Crown of Roses, "transformed by the great jazz arranger Jeremy Lubbock", and the concluding re-working (with new, Christmas words by Lawson and a string quartet accompaniment) of the King's Singers signature You are the New Day.


For sheer vocal beauty, you can't beat the performances of Rutter's There is a flower and Stille Nacht, Lawson's Away in a manger, Praetorius' Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen, or Bach's O little one sweet. But then, the whole thing is just gorgeous, and if you love Christmas music recordings, well, what are you waiting for? This is one of the best ever. [11/15/2003]
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

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For more than two decades, Polansky, who the Village Voice called “the heir apparent to the Cowell/Nancarrow/Tenney genius experimentalist mantle,” has been composing a series of fascinating mensuration canons (a formal concept dating back to the Renaissance) that run the sonic gamut from wildly boisterous to serenely introverted. This disc collects thirteen of these canons with widely varying instrumentations that include marimbas, gamelan, electric guitars, children's voices, computer, choir, and chamber ensemble. Performances by and collaborations with William Winant, Jody Diamond, Daniel Goode, Nathan Davis, Nick Didkovsky, and others. The Wire magazine wrote about this CD, “An unashamedly tactile approach to musical material, forging an oblique angle to tradition… cool and elegant…. [I]t’s a mark of his resourceful mind that he can adapt the basic rules into a series of such complex and varied works.... Polansky’s canons show the extreme liberties that can be born from such exacting discipline.” International Record Review commented, “The music of Larry Polansky is as much fun to listen to as it is to think or get serious about…the results are dazzling as each canon defines its individual properties and unique sound world.... The transformations are ubiquitous and compelling…. With so much on offer, this is one of the best discs Cold Blue music has issued.” And ClassicalNet wrote, “Larry Polansky is the modern dean of the mensuration canon…. These canons are clever, mysterious, and comical—part theory of relativity, part Rube Goldberg.”

Somervell's four songs on poems from William Blake's Songs of Innocence were written in 1889, dedicated to Dolly and Gwen, and simple and child-like in form and appeal, perfectly crafted examples of such work. The song cycle based on Tennyson's monodrama Maud dates from 1898. There are thirteen songs in the whole work that traces the story from the memories of the suicide of the protagonist's father, ruined by unfortunate speculation, making his son's match with Maud, daughter of his father's closest friend, and his betrayer, impossible. Three of these are included here. Maud's family return to the Hall and gradually the young man at the heart of the drama falls in love with her again. In the fifth song of Somervell's cycle, Birds in the high Hall-garden, the lovers meet, before Maud returns to the house, with the flowers she has picked. The verses that tell of the arrival of another to woo her are omitted. The seventh song, Go not, happy day, expresses the love of the couple. The first part of the poem ends with the words that provide the ninth song of Somervell's cycle, Come into the garden, Maud, words perhaps more familiar in the setting by Balfe. The singer calls Maud to the garden, as he hears the sound of music from the Hall, where he has not been invited. As she approaches, he is in ecstasy, but the song does not tell how their meeting is to be interrupted by Maud's brother, his quarrel with her lover, and her brother's death in the dreadful hollow, where the drama had started. In the remaining songs Maud's lover seeks exile abroad and goes out of his mind, while Maud, in his absence, dies. The cycle ends with the singer's resolve to meet his fate in war for his country. The song cycle derived from Robert Browning's James Lee's Wife was published in 1907 with a dedication to Marie Brema, a Liverpool-born singer of German-American parentage who, in 1894, was the first English-born singer to appear at Bayreuth, where she sang Ortrud in Lohengrin and Kundry in Parsifal. James Lee's Wife first appeared, under the title James Lee, in 1864 in Browning's Dramatis Personae and from the original nine poems Somervell takes five. The first version has an orchestral accompaniment, but the songs were later arranged for an accompaniment of piano quintet, and then simply with a piano accompaniment. As in other dramatic monologues by Browning, the woman of the title reveals her story, telling first of changing love, more dramatically in the second song, By the Fireside, as she tells of the rot and rust, run to dust, of a ship seemingly safe in port, as she and her husband had seemed. The same idea continues in the third song, In the Doorway, from which the middle two verses of the original poem are omitted. In the fifth of Browning's poems, On the Cliff, she sings of the parched vegetation on the rock and how from this may come color and life, as with the minds of men. The cycle ends with the seventh of Browning's poems, Among the Rocks, in which she proclaims her message that If you loved only what were worth your love, / Love were clear gain.

Julianne Baird and her frequent collaborator, the period-instrument group The Aulos Ensemble, offer some of the fruits of their many Christmas concerts together in a pleasingly varied, Baroque-focused program of vocal and instrumental works. Most of the 16 selections feature Baird's bright, clear, and very agreeable soprano, supported by some combination of flute, recorder, baroque oboe, violin, and cello, and harpsichord or organ. Most familiar are the title tune, plus such mainstays of today's Christmas repertoire as "Remember O thou Man", "Gently the Fragrance" (better known as Whence is that goodly fragrance, or by its French title, Quelle est cette odeur), and "Tomorrow shall be my dancing day". Another favorite is a beautiful Advent cantata aria by Bach (from BWV 36), usually heard as "Auch mit gedämpften..." but for some reason performed here in the version from the decidedly non-Christmas secular cantata Die Freude reget sich (BWV 36b). Regardless, the music is still just as lovely, although you can hear the BWV 36 setting sublimely rendered by Sibylla Rubens, Philippe Herreweghe, and Collegium Vocale on an excellent 1996 Harmonia Mundi recording.


The instrumental playing is first-rate, and the accompaniments to Baird's singing are smartly arranged and well-balanced with the voice. My only reservation concerns a couple of the longer selections--Böddecker's Veni Salvator hominum and the instrumental "Symphonie" by Corrette--whose musical material isn't substantial enough to fully command our interest for six or eight minutes. On the other hand, Corrette's Noël Provençal, an instrumental number that closes the disc, is a wild, wonderful, colorful rustic dance that leaves you smiling and uplifted, a perfect complement to the opening "In dulci jubilo". The sound, from Princeton Theological Seminary's Miller Chapel, is suitably vibrant, clear, and natural. [10/26/2006]
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Soothing songs and tunes for children. Hush, hush! Baby needs sleep! An album of lullabies and gentle, soothing music to help baby - or even Mum and Dad! - get some sleep after a busy day. Mozart, Chopin and folksong, piano and harp combine in a program which becomes gradually quieter and more serene.

The Lute was introduced into Europe from the Easy during the Medieval Era and maintained it's popularity throughout the seventeenth century. The repertoire of songs for voice and lute accompaniment composed during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries was extensive, with European countries developing their own individual styles.

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Classical Music