Search results: Search results

530 results

Products

Buxtehude: Membra Jesu Nostri, Laudate Pueri Dominum / Kirkby, Thomas, Fretwork, Purcell Quartet

Chandos

$21.99 Nov 16, 2010

This new release from Chandos' early music label, Chaconne, focuses on Buxtehude's seven cantatas, collectively known as Membra Jesu nostri. These are among Buxtehude's best-known works, and perfectly exemplify the seventeenth-century preference for musical structures that are broadly symmetrical, but subtly varied in detail. Each of the seven cantatas has roughly the same shape: Biblical passages are set for the whole ensemble and enclose stanzas from the mediaeval poem Rhythmica oratio, which are set as arias for reduced vocal forces and interspersed with instrumental ritornelli.

Buxtehude's Membra Jesu nostri takes the form of a sequence of seven meditations on the crucified body of Jesus, beginning with the feet ('Ad pedes'), followed by the knees ('Ad genua'), the hands ('Ad manus'), the side ('Ad latus'), the breast ('Ad pectus'), the heart ('Ad cor'), and the face ('Ad faciem'). As such, the work is written from the perspective of a penitent kneeling at the foot of the cross and gradually extending his gaze upwards, meditating on each part of the body in turn. The keys chosen for the cantatas seem to have added symbolic meaning. As the gaze rises, they move from flats to sharps, from C minor to E minor, before finally returning to the opening key to produce a beautifully unified cycle. On this release the cantata cycle is complemented by Matthias Weckmann's Kommet her zu mir alle, a setting of the words from St Matthew's Gospel (11: 28 - 30), in which the composer gives the words of Jesus to a virtuoso bass singer with an impressive range of nearly two octaves, a part here performed by Peter Harvey, and provides him with an accompaniment of two violins, three bass viols, and continuo.

The works on this disc are performed by an excellent ensemble of early music specialists. As exclusive artists, The Purcell Quartet is today popularizing the cantatas of Buxtehude in concerts and recordings involving a fabulous quartet of soloists - Emma Kirkby,Michael Chance, Charles Daniels, and Peter Harvey - to which, for the occasion, the group is joined by the soprano Elin Monahan Thomas. The Quartet has also recorded a huge range of music exclusively for Chandos, including works by Purcell, Corelli, Lawes, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Weckmann, Buxtehude, Leclair, Schütz, Couperin, and Biber, to outstanding critical and public acclaim. The early music specialists Fretwork, the viol ensemble, also performs on this recording.

View Full Page

Buxtehude: Membra Jesu Nostri, Laudate Pueri Dominum / Kirkby, Thomas, Fretwork, Purcell Quartet
Chandos Nov 2010
CD
$21.99

Pott: Christus / Winpenny

Naxos

$14.99 ~~$29.99~~ Save 50% Aug 13, 2021

Acclaimed for his sacred choral and organ works, Francis Pott was recognized in 2021 with the Medal of the Royal College of Organists, its highest award. Regarded as an Everest of the organ repertoire, Christus is a Passion symphony that traces this dramatic Biblical narrative through evolving tonality, portraying Christ’s vast struggle through betrayal and crucifixion towards ultimate triumph. Christus here enjoys itsfirst studio recording, made in the presence of the composer. Included also are premieres of Surrexit Hodie (a toccata for Easter Sunday) and a commemorative chorale prelude, Schmückedich, Oliebe Seele.

View Full Page

Sale

Pott: Christus / Winpenny
Naxos Aug 2021
CD
~~$29.99~~ $14.99

Hauer: Melodies and Preludes / Schleiermacher

MDG

$49.99 Mar 01, 2015

Like Arnold Schönberg, Josef Matthias Hauer composed "with twelve tones" - but with a very different result! If dissonance, harmonic tension, and the highest degree of expressivity mark the musical process in Schönberg, then Hauer's music is free of all of the above. Of absolutely airy lightness, of extraordinary song character, and often concluding with euphonious major triads, Hauer's preludes and melodies recorded here for the first time in complete form by Steffen Schleiermacher offer a compendium of this composer's musical philosophy.

View Full Page

Hauer: Melodies and Preludes / Schleiermacher
MDG Mar 2015
CD
$49.99

St Luke Passion
Capriccio Jan 2003
CD
$18.99

Bach: Weimar Preludes and Fugues
Gothic Jan 2009
CD
$18.99

Schutz: Cantiones Sacrae / Rademann, Dresdner Kammerchor

Carus

$29.99 Jan 29, 2013

SCHÜTZ Cantiones Sacrae , Op. 4 • Hans-Christoph Rademann, cond; Dresdn C Ch • CARUS 83.252 (2 CDs: 108: 31 Text and Translation)

The fifth issue in Rademann’s projected complete works of Heinrich Schütz, this publication of 1625 has already been recorded complete three times. Rudolf Mauersberger used a large choir of men and boys with instrumental ensemble; the Eterna recording was once available on Telefunken LPs but, in a Berlin Classics set of 10 CDs of Schütz’s music, never came for review. Manfred Cordes ( Fanfare 20:5) got a rave review for rendering one voice to a part, unaccompanied except for motets that required continuo. Matteo Messori (30:5) also used one voice to a part with organ continuo throughout. The new version has a vocal ensemble of 18 with continuo.

One might wonder why this collection of Latin-texted motets, written over a period of years (some of them were certainly sung for the Emperor Matthias when he visited Dresden in 1617) is not heard as often as the German-texted Geistliche Chor-Musik of 1648, which has been recorded complete 10 times. In a very informative note here, Oliver Geisler shows that Carl von Winterfeld (1834), Philipp Spitta (1894), Joachim Moser (1936), and most recently Clytus Gottwald have singled out the treasures that are to be discovered here, beginning long before the revival of interest in the greatest German composer of the 17th century. The last-named lamented that 20th-century church music has been modeled on the 1648 book instead of this expressionist music that would have led composers in more adventurous directions. It would seem that the music is more admired than loved. Rademann sets out to make it loved.

To read Cordes’s notes is to imagine that, foreseeing this new recording, he was arguing against it in his insistence on one voice to a part without the “rigid sound” of the organ, but his real reference was to Mauersberger’s pioneering set. Rademann shows how light and flexible his singers can sound in this madrigalian music, and the continuo is so discreet as to fade out of hearing. (Indeed, I cannot hear it at all in at least one piece, “Dulcissime et benignissime Christe.”) I find the two versions equally appealing, appreciating the one I am hearing before switching to the other equally impressive performance. My head tells me that Cordes argues persuasively, but my heart tells me that the warmth of Rademann’s multiple voices is unarguable. These Scriptural texts in Latin are not madrigals, after all.

At least six conductors have assembled partial collections of this music to fit a single disc. The largest was two LPs under Helmut Rilling, both issued here on Musical Heritage Society, probably a projected complete set that was never finished. The most recent, a full CD by Erik van Nevel (15:5), was commendable when the only complete set was Mauersberger’s, but van Nevel never made the rest of the book. It should be noted that I referred in that review to “41 motets;” the correct count is 40, since “Pater noster” is printed twice as the secunda pars of two motets. If you have not discovered the marvels of this book, I urge you to hear Rademann. He promises to give us a commendable complete works.

FANFARE: J. F. Weber

View Full Page

Schutz: Cantiones Sacrae / Rademann, Dresdner Kammerchor
Carus Jan 2013
CD
$29.99

Bach: Praeludien und Fugen / Rinaldo Alessandrini
Naïve Sep 2015
CD
$18.99

ORGELBUCHLEIN BWV 599-644 - BACH: COMPLETE WORKS

HARMONIA MUNDI

$21.66 Oct 14, 2022

With it's forty-five chorale preludes, the Orgelbuchlein bears witness to a mastery of the art of improvisation on the organ, as the congregation heard it at the time before singing the hymn in it's turn. It was a tempting experiment to revive this primary function: by collaborating with the combined forces of the Ensemble Vocal Bergamasque and the Maitrise de Notre-Dame de Paris, Benjamin Alard gives the 'little organ book' it's full significance and expressive power.

View Full Page

ORGELBUCHLEIN BWV 599-644 - BACH: COMPLETE WORKS
HARMONIA MUNDI Oct 2022
CD
$21.66

Graun: Der Tod Jesu

Oehms Classics

$31.99 Jan 13, 2015

Carl Heinrich Graun’s “The Death of Jesus” was first performed on 26 March 1755 at Berlin Cathedral. The sister of King Friedrich Wilhelm II, Princess Anna Amalia, provided the impulse for the text and character of the work. Its popularity remained strong until Bach’s St. Matthew Passion supplanted it in the late 19th c., the work succumbing to a lengthy and unjustified obscurity. A passion oratorio in the galant style, this new OehmsClassic recording features the Arcis Vocalists and the Baroque Orchestra L’arpa festante led by Thomas Gropper.

View Full Page

Graun: Der Tod Jesu
Oehms Classics Jan 2015
CD
$31.99

Pater Noster: Geisitliche Chormusik aus Fünf Jahrhunderten

Oehms Classics

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Feb 10, 2015

The Lord's Prayer is the most universal prayer in Christendom, prayed by believers of all denominations. What would be more natural, then, than to bring together several settings of this prayer on a CD with the outstanding Salzburg Bach Choir? the CD was recorded in a relatively modern church in the Salzkammergut (Salzburg Province, Austria), equipped with interior wooden ceilings and walls, resulting in a very special acoustic. Alois Glassner, choral conductor and Professor of Music, University of Vienna, has been the choir's artistic director since 2003.

View Full Page

Sale

Pater Noster: Geisitliche Chormusik aus Fünf Jahrhunderten
Oehms Classics Feb 2015
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Preludes Tableaux

Neue Meister

$19.99 Nov 21, 2025

Explore the cutting-edge fusion of tradition and technology with Preludes Tableaux, the latest album by visionary composer Johannes Motschmann. In this groundbreaking work, Motschmann collaborates with a custom-built AI, uniquely designed and meticulously trained to understand and replicate his distinctive compositional style. This is no ordinary AI; it was created specifically for this project, using a vast dataset of Motschmann's previous works to shape it's creative output. Each track on the album is the result of a dynamic interaction between Motschmann's human intuition and the AI's computational creativity, blurring the lines between human and machine-made music. The result is a compelling blend of organic and synthetic artistry that redefines musical collaboration. To enhance the sonic depth, the album was recorded using iconic analog instruments such as the Steinway D, Yamaha CP 70, Rhodes, and Wurlitzer, creating an immersive and rich soundscape. Alongside Motschmann's original compositions, the album features faithful, original renditions of classical works by Bach, Schonberg, Skrjabin, and Alain, offering a journey that bridges the gap between the historical and the contemporary.

View Full Page

Preludes Tableaux
Neue Meister Nov 2025
CD
$19.99

Mix & Match

Johann Michael Haydn: Messe für Frauenchor

Carus

$20.99 Mar 25, 2014

• The Hannover Girl’s Choir under the direction of Gudrun Schröpresents three masses for high voices. The two masses by Johann Michael Haydn (1737–1806) were written on the occasion of Holy Innocents’ Day. The CD is rounded out by the world premiere recording of the Missa in f Minor women’s choir by Hans Koessler (1853–1926), a composer who belonged stylistically to the “Rheinberger School”.

View Full Page

Johann Michael Haydn: Messe für Frauenchor
Carus Mar 2014
CD
$20.99

PREIST IHN SEINER WELT ZULIEBE
EBS Jan 2012
CD
$20.99

Homilius: Complete Organ Chorales

Brilliant Classics

$17.99 Jul 31, 2015

Homilius's choral preludes are rooted in the contrapuntal tradition propounded by his teacher Bach; not, however, without characteristics belonging to the more affective aesthetic movement of Empfindsame Stil for which Bach's son CPE is now best known. Thus there are some bold modulations which Father Bach would never have imagined or countenanced, such as the oscillation between C minor and C sharp minor in Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder, or the (then still) unusual B flat minor key of Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten. This appears to be the first recording to include all the great organ chorales so far authenticated as the work of Homilius - many of them remain unpublished. It is made by a Venetian keyboard musician specializing in early music, on a modern (2007) instrument tuned to Werckmeister III - as close as is practicable to the tuning that Homilius would have known.

View Full Page

Homilius: Complete Organ Chorales
Brilliant Classics Jul 2015
CD
$17.99

Bach: Lutheran Masses, Vol. 2

Coro

$20.99 Mar 03, 2014

BACH Mass in G , BWV 236. Gott der Herr ist Sonn’ und Schild , BWV 79. Mass in A , BWV 234 • Harry Christophers, cond; The Sixteen • CORO 16120 (73:52 Text and Translation)

A Lutheran Mass consists of just the Kyrie and Gloria, which were still sung in Latin more than a century after the Reformation began. (The Credo was sung in German and the last two movements were optional parts of the service.) Bach wrote five settings, but the Missa 1733 eventually gained the rest of its movements to become the Mass in B Minor. The other four have now been recorded by The Sixteen, though I have not received the other disc containing BWV 233, 235, and another cantata (BWV 102). Cantata 79 was chosen for inclusion because each of these Masses includes one movement that is a parody of the cantata, the “Gloria” of BWV 236 and the “Quoniam” of BWV 234. In fact, 20 of the 24 movements of the four Masses have been drawn from cantatas, reworked in various degrees. In each case the Gloria is divided into five movements with choruses framing the three inner movements. The Masses have not been regarded favorably by commentators, who seem to prefer the music in its original form as cantata movements, and Christophers calls them “seldom heard.” Perhaps they are not often heard in concert, but the “Qui tollis” from BWV 234 was recorded (twice) in the shellac era, and Hans Grischkat recorded an integral set of the four Masses in the earliest days of LP (he added the four settings of the Sanctus, BWV 237 to 240). Beginning around 1970 more sets began to arrive from Helmuth Rilling, Michel Corboz, Martin Flämig, Richard Hickox, and Hans-Martin Linde. After that I lost track, but sets have been more common than recordings of single Masses.

The performances are up to the ensemble’s expected high level. The group, always flexible in makeup, consists here of eight singers and an ensemble of 22 players. The cantata, written for Reformation Sunday of 1725 (the composer’s third cycle of cantatas), is especially well done. It is nice to hear the Mass movement that was singled out in the shellac era, a soprano solo with flute obbligato. The long lines require a voice capable of a sustained legato line, elegantly realized here by Julia Doyle. This is characteristic of the high level that Christophers has brought to this endeavor. I cannot compare this with the competition, but it can stand on its own for a favorable recommendation.

FANFARE: J. F. Weber

View Full Page

Bach: Lutheran Masses, Vol. 2
Coro Mar 2014
CD
$20.99

J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Klavier - 48 Preludes and Fugue

Idil Biret Archive

$45.99 Apr 04, 2025

The centerpiece of the Bach collection is a 2015 recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier, the so- called old testament of piano music, a series of 48 preludes and fugues in all of the piano's possible keys. A look at that monumental collection's recorded history could serve as a compendium of piano performance styles through the last 120 years. Unsurprisingly, Biret conforms to none, and perhaps the best way to describe her interpretations is orchestral. As the historically informed Baroque practitioners prescribe, each prelude and fugue certainly has a distinct character, but those long lines emerge with the definition of strings, brass or winds, lush and strident by turn. Trills are mellow and exquisitely shaped, and a wealth of detail is present but never exaggerated. Biret's Bach is a cliff wall to be scaled, a peak to be reached and an aspiration to be achieved.

View Full Page

J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Klavier - 48 Preludes and Fugue
Idil Biret Archive Apr 2025
CD
$45.99

J.L. Bach: Trauermusik; Motets; Cantatas; Missa Brevis / Max, Das Kleine Konzert, Rheinische Kantorei
Capriccio Aug 2011
CD
$29.99

Filsell - Briggs: Choral Music

Naxos

$19.99 Oct 29, 2013

This recording brings together two of today's finest British organist/composers and includes specially commissioned works. Jeremy Filsell's music is rooted in a long liturgical tradition and ranges from a poignant Epitaph to a Te Deum which recreates the spirit of William Walton's glorious piece for the 1953 Coronation. David Briggs's Pange lingua portrays the wonders of the Holy Communion in music, and his dramatic and grandiose Messe pour Saint-Sulpice also has moments of quiet, emotional profundity. The Vasari Singers' Great British Anthems (8.572504) has been described as 'essential listening' (Gramophone).

View Full Page

Filsell - Briggs: Choral Music
Naxos Oct 2013
CD
$19.99

Johann Wilhelm Hertel: Die Geburt Jesu Christi

CPO

$18.99 Nov 19, 2013

The Koelner Akademie under the conductor Michael Alexander Willens presents a compelling interpretation of the Christmas Oratorio by Johann Wilhelm Hertel. The former “Court and Chapel Composer” at the court of Duke Friedrich von Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Hertel composed this cantata between 1777 and 1783 for its sacred concerts. The oratorio came across well and in the introduction by Franziska Seils to the score published by the ortus musikverlag, we read: “Along with the harmonically highly expressive opening chorus and the simply set chorales on familiar melodies from Christmas songs, the angelic proclamation radiating in trumpet splendor and the fully dimensioned, eight-part concluding chorus certainly also contributed to the popularity of the work […] areas of influence interact in Hertel’s Christmas cantata: the tradition of the popular lyrical pastoral idyll and the dramatic oratorio, the baroque philosophy of the emotions and the will to symphonic design.”

View Full Page

Johann Wilhelm Hertel: Die Geburt Jesu Christi
CPO Nov 2013
CD
$18.99

Rheinberger: Missa et Hymni
Carus Jul 2013
CD
$16.99

Choral Music for Christmas

Carus

$10.99 Oct 06, 2017

“Choral Music for Christmas” presents the very best of Advent and Christmas choral music from the Carus catalog. Contemporary arrangements of popular Christmas carols by composers such as Fredo Jung and Giacomo Mezallira feature alongside works by well-known composers including Handel, Bach, Heinichen, and Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The performers, including the Calmus Ensemble, the Kammerchor Stuttgart conducted by Frieder Bernius, the Dresdner Kammerchor conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann, and the ensemble L’arpa festante, guarantee an absolute choral treat.

View Full Page

Choral Music for Christmas
Carus Oct 2017
CD
$10.99

Rosetti: Jesus In Gethsemane, Hallelujah & Salve Regina / Moesus, NDR Chor, Mecklenburgisches Barockorchester
CPO Jan 2009
CD
$36.99

Vision Bach - The First Cantata Year, Vol. 8

Haenssler Classic

$32.99 Mar 13, 2026

At the highest level VISION. BACH Vol. 8 "Hans-Christoph Rademann as director of the Gaechinger Cantorey implements this in an exemplary manner with his ensembles and the soloists. The choir consists of a small chamber ensemble of up to four accomplished voices per register, including the solos. This potential forms an exceptionally high-quality chamber choir, is technically absolutely unchallenged in the demanding opening choruses, is agile and fresh, at the same time full of vocal power and affective clarity, precise and easily comprehensible in it's diction at all times. The chorales are tackled decisively and with the necessary grandeur, without ever seeming statuesque - however, with the right amount of Lutheran vigor and conviction. " Klassik. Com

View Full Page

Vision Bach - The First Cantata Year, Vol. 8
Haenssler Classic Mar 2026
CD
$32.99

Reger: Samtliche Choralkantaten / Meyer, GewandhausChor

CPO

$18.99 Apr 29, 2016

This new release, featuring the recording premiere of his complete chorale cantatas, is in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of composer Max Reger’s death. Although raised Catholic, Reger had an early fascination with Protestant music, much to the concern of his family. Regers chorale contributions to the Protestant church cannot be overlooked, and he submitted many compositions to the monthly Monatschrift fur Gottesdienst und kirchliche Kunst.

View Full Page

Reger: Samtliche Choralkantaten / Meyer, GewandhausChor
CPO Apr 2016
CD
$18.99

J. S. Bach: Dritter Theil der Clavier Ubung

Arcana

$29.99 Aug 14, 2026

According to his first biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Bach possessed an extraordinary ability to combine organ stops in a wholly unusual manner, astonishing the organists and organ builders of his time. However, very few accounts survive of how he actually made these timbral choices. A valuable source of information is the Harmonische Seelenlust by Georg Friedrich Kauffmann (1733-36), a large collection of chorale preludes that displays striking points of contact with the third part of the Clavier-ubung (1739) - to the point of appearing almost as a model for it - and includes registrations so original and bold as to recall the style described by Forkel. Having already distinguished himself with the award-winning Bach Mirrored (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik), organist Maurizio Croci draws on the timbral resources of the historic Treutmann organ at Grauhof (1737) to offer us a fresh reading of Bach's masterpiece which, taking inspiration from Kauffmann's registrations, places registration at the centre of expressive interpretation and proposes a renewed listening perspective.

View Full Page

J. S. Bach: Dritter Theil der Clavier Ubung
Arcana Aug 2026
CD
$29.99

Mix & Match