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In Nomine II

Signum Classics

$19.99 Nov 15, 2019

Over thirty years ago, Fretwork made it's first recording - well, technically speaking it was the second album to be recorded, but the first to be released - and it was called 'In nomine', which consisted mainly of 16th-century examples of this remarkable instrumental form. While this isn't an anniversary of that release, we want to look both back to that first release and forward, to bring the genre up to date. There were several examples of the In nomine and related forms that we didn't or couldn't record in 1987, and this album seeks to complete the project. The form was created unwittingly by John Taverner (1490-1545). His 6-part mass, Gloria tibi Trinitas, is based on the plainchant of that name. In the Sanctus, at the words Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini (Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord), the six-part texture is pared down to two and three parts; and then, with the words in nomine Domini, Taverner makes, for the only time in the mass, a complete statement of the cantus firmus, accompanied by three voices. This four-parts section - very beautiful as it is - must have struck contemporaries as some kind of perfection, to be used as a template, to be emulated and copied. And then those copies were copied and changed again.

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In Nomine II
Signum Classics Nov 2019
CD
$19.99

Mielczewski: Deus in nomine tuo - Benedictio et claritas - M

Coro

$20.99 Oct 06, 2017

The fifth volume in this highly acclaimed series, conducted by The Sixteen’s Associate Conductor, Eamonn Dougan, celebrates the music of Polish composer Marcin Mielczewski. Together with Bartlomiej Pekiel, Mielczewski was amongst the most notable of 17th-century Polish composers and was recognised as a leader among his contemporaries. Influenced by the many Italian composers who graced the Polish courts in the 1600s, Mielczewski was a prolific composer. The cross-section of works recorded here shows an exceptionally accomplished musician at work, one whose music deserves a wider audience and who can confidently stand alongside the maestri who came before him and from whom he learnt his craft.

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Mielczewski: Deus in nomine tuo - Benedictio et claritas - M
Coro Oct 2017
CD
$20.99

Benedict: Piano Works

Naxos

$19.99 Sep 12, 2025

Julius Benedict studied with Hummel and Weber, beginning as a virtuoso pianist and then becoming a conductor and operatic composer. In 1835 he moved to England where he spent the next 50 years as a much-admired composer, teacher and writer. His most famous work is the opera The Lily of Killarney but the music for his own instrument displays a precocious talent. This is most evident in the Piano Sonata No. 1 in E major, where novelty and beguiling modulations co-exist with the influence of his teachers. The smaller pieces exhibit his taste, finesse and maturity, while the Andante and Rondo Brillante is a glittering showpiece.

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Benedict: Piano Works
Naxos Sep 2025
CD
$19.99

Frank La Rocca: Requiem for the Forgotten / Sparkes, Benedict XVI Choir & Orchestra

Cappella Records

SACD

$19.99 Mar 15, 2024

Cappella Records proudly announces the release of Frank La Rocca’s “Requiem for the Forgotten - Messe des Malades”, performed by Benedict XVI Choir and Orchestra, directed by renowned international conductor Richard Sparks.

“Requiem for the Forgotten” commemorates the displaced and the homeless, constructing a musical sanctuary for the soul while championing the inherent dignity of every person, particularly those who have been forsaken. Drawing upon his Ukrainian heritage, La Rocca’s setting of a poem on Ukrainian priest Andrei Ischak (martyred by the Bolsheviks) deeply resonates with those enduring oppression today. The composer’s late sister Carin, who valiantly confronted the challenges of multiple sclerosis, gave inspiration to the “Messe des Malades” (Mass for the Sick). It underscores the universal need for healing, capturing the composer’s personal journey as well in every note. Infused with an ethical power towards empathy, this music moves us to use our own gifts in a more excellent way for a broken world.

Benedict XVI Choir’s début recording of these works is sung by some of America’s finest singers, many GRAMMY®-nominated. Sung in Latin and English. Booklet includes all translations.

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Frank La Rocca: Requiem for the Forgotten / Sparkes, Benedict XVI Choir & Orchestra
Cappella Records Mar 2024
SACD
$19.99

Medieval Chant, Tallis Lamentations / Nigel Short, Tenebrae Consort

Signum Classics

$19.99 Mar 25, 2014

TALLIS Missa Puer natus est. Salvator mundi. Quod chorus vatum. Benedictus. Magnificat a 4. Audivi vocem de caelo. Videte miraculum • Andrew Carwood, dir; The Cardinall’s Musick • HYPERION 68026 (67:39 Text and Translation)

MEDIEVAL CHANT AND TALLIS LAMENTATIONS • Nigel Short, dir; Tenebrae Consort • BENE ARTE 901 (65:23 Text and Translation)

This is the third disc in Andrew Carwood’s Tallis series. The first one marked his debut on Hyperion ( Fanfare 29:3), but now the next two have come in such quick succession (37:4 for the second one) that it seems as if he may be planning an alternative to Alistair Dixon’s set of the complete works on 10 Signum CDs (the ninth issue had an extra disc to get the overflow in). His favorite venue is Arundel Castle, probably for the historical significance of the recusant Catholic Duke of Norfolk’s estate as much as for the superb acoustics of Fitzalan Chapel, for he made his complete set of Byrd’s sacred music on 13 CDs there. The two recent discs each include a Mass, but this time he adds the chant introit for the third Mass of Christmas, though no Kyrie is supplied (Dixon included a Kyrie and a whole set of Mass Propers). Unlike Dixon’s homogeneous discs, Carwood offers more varied programming. The first disc had Latin-texted music, the longest being Gaude gloriosa (almost as long as a Mass). The second had more English-texted pieces than Latin to fill out the Mass. This one has mostly Latin works, including the two great gospel canticles, with only the Benedictus set in English.

Much as I have admired Alistair Dixon’s work, influenced certainly by the ambition of his project, Carwood has achieved a standing second to none among English vocal ensemble directors. That is saying a great deal, but in this field, it is crowded at the top, and each group will have its partisans. The Mass for Christmas of 1554 on this disc has attracted several recordings recently because of its connection with Queen Mary, whose presumptive “puer” (not the Christmas “Puer”) would have been the heir to the throne if he had been born. As it turned out, he was not even conceived. The closest competition in the Mass comes from the exquisite Stile antico (34:4), Peter Phillips, Harry Christophers, and Dixon’s volume 3 (21:6). Grant Llewellen (27: 5) is also good, though his choir is larger than these vocal ensembles. Reconstruction of the Mass parts started with David Wulstan (4:1; CD in 12: 1), but now this new entry must be considered in any comparison of the recordings.

The shorter works range from the familiar Videte miraculum to the seldom recorded Quod chorus vatum , though both belong to the feast of Candlemas. The latter was first recorded by Christopher Robinson (20:2) and is found now only in Dixon’s volume 4. Since Tallis wrote for both Catholic and Anglican liturgies, the juxtaposition of the English Benedictus followed by the Latin Magnificat must be a conscious effort to make the point. If this is indeed a new complete works in the making, it will be worthy of careful comparisons with Dixon’s set. Highly recommended.

The second disc consists of chant for Passiontide along with three polyphonic works: the two Lamentations of Thomas Tallis and the respond In manus tuas (I) by John Sheppard, all familiar on records, the last in Harry Christophers’s latest disc herewith. I have 21 recordings of the Lamentations dating back to the early 1950s, but the two Lamentations have never been coupled with chant responsories on record as here, though this practice has been adopted in settings of Lamentations by other Renaissance composers. Tallis made two Lamentations out of the text used in modern editions for the first Lamentation for Holy Thursday, the beginning of the Old Testament book.

This disc offers 40 minutes of chant to 25 minutes of polyphony, so the main interest is in Medieval Holy Week observances. The hymn Pange lingua for Good Friday (not the familiar text for Corpus Christi) begins the program—just four strophes and a doxology—followed by a complete Office of Compline because Sheppard’s responsory belongs to this Office, though it is placed further on. The responsories that follow the two Lamentations are In monte Oliveti and Tristis est anima mea ; the latter is from the familiar Tenebrae service but the former, oddly enough, is the variant version for Palm Sunday. The final track is a Holy Week chant that I have indexed on many recordings as Kyrie ... Qui passurus , found in several uses. Here it is titled a litany after Lauds of Holy Thursday, and may be a version from the Sarum use. Like many Holy Week chants, it is uniquely touching. The Tallis Lamentations, of course, are the featured tracks, as the disc title indicates, and they are sung elegantly. Nigel Short has given us some adroitly programmed discs, and this one is an original approach. You will know by now if this is for you, but I urge you to give it a chance.

FANFARE: J. F. Weber

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Medieval Chant, Tallis Lamentations / Nigel Short, Tenebrae Consort
Signum Classics Mar 2014
CD
$19.99

Berlioz: Beatrice et Benedict / Manacorda, London Philharmonic

Opus Arte

DVD

$34.99 Jul 28, 2017

Through the eye of French director Laurent Pelly this expression of Berlioz's undying admiration for the Bard - his adaptation of Much Ado about Nothing as an opera comique - becomes ''an elegant treatise on love and music designed in shades of grey with 50's-era costumes'' (Sunday Express). Housed by designer Barbara de Limburg in a series of oversized boxes, it's ''terribly chic, terribly pretty'' (The Spectator). Soaring over the ''warmly graceful playing of the London Philharmonic'', Paul Appleby sings ''attractively'' as Benedict and Stephanie d'Oustrac ''makes a marvellously wiry and fiery Beatrice, singing with charm and acting with gusto'' (The Telegraph).

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REVIEW:

Antonello Manacorda is a natural-sounding guide to the stage events shown here. His cast sound and work together naturally. Stéphanie D’Oustrac (an expressive face to enjoy in close-up) and Paul Appleby (carefully less histrionic in duet) spar well. The Ursule of Katarina Bradic´ is quite a find, more comfortable with notes and character than Sophie Karthäuser’s Héro, accurate but less ethereal than ideal. The men do well, although Lionel Lhote’s effortful Somarone the music-master, falling everywhere on a sliding table in Act 2, will not be to everyone’s comic taste—but that may be Berlioz’s fault in falling (for once) for the cliché that audiences have always seemed to find onstage musical jokes especially hysterical.

Despite some reservations, this only official DVD to date of such an important opera, well recorded and filmed in a slick modern production, deserves a place in the catalogue and on your shelves.

– Gramophone

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Berlioz: Beatrice et Benedict / Manacorda, London Philharmonic
Opus Arte Jul 2017
DVD
$34.99

Liszt: Benediction De Dieu / Feltsman

Nimbus

$20.99 Jan 01, 2013

Vladimir Feltsman, one of the most versatile and interesting musicians of our time, presents an insightful recital of famous and rarely heard works by Franz Liszt:

1 Liebesträume, No. 3 in A flat major (1850) 4.53
2 Ballade No. 2 in B minor (1853) 14.47
Six Consolations (1850) 16.20
3 I Andante con moto 1.11
4 II Un poco piu mosso 3.08
5 III Lento placido 4.01
6 IV Quasi adagio 2.31
7 V Andantino 2.37
8 VI Allegretto sempre cantabile 2.52
9 Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude (1853) 17.26
10 Berceuse in F sharp major (1876) 3.34
11 Elegia (1874) 5.19
12 La lugubre gondola (2nd version) (1885) 8.34
13 En rêve, nocturne (1886) 2.25

Total playing time 73.16

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Liszt: Benediction De Dieu / Feltsman
Nimbus Jan 2013
CD
$20.99

The Pope Benedict Organ

Tyxart

$18.99 Mar 26, 2013

This CD presents the first recording of the new Pope Benedict Organ, which was built in 2006 by the Swiss organ building firm Mathis. The recording took place in September/October 2006, during the week of celebrations surrounding the consecration of the new Instrument by Pope Benedict XVI.

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The Pope Benedict Organ
Tyxart Mar 2013
CD
$18.99

La Rocca: Mass of the Americas / Sparks, Benedict XVI Choir and Orchestra

Cappella Records

SACD

$21.99 Sep 23, 2022

Frank La Rocca extends the genre of the festal Missa solemnis in his Mass of the Americas, a sublime setting of the Traditional Latin Mass for choir and orchestra. La Rocca weaves a rich tapestry with serene Gregorian chants, folk melodies from 18th-century regions of México, and florid praises in Nahuatl, the language spoken by Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego in 1531. Cultures past and present are joined musically as a witness to faith, hope, and reconciliation in this masterpiece of liturgical art.

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La Rocca: Mass of the Americas / Sparks, Benedict XVI Choir and Orchestra
Cappella Records Sep 2022
SACD
$21.99