Gems Of Choral Music

Giuseppe Verdi - Messa Solenne (World Premiere Recording) - Download Lame mp3 320 kbit/sec

2010-07-30T13:10:00.004+02:00

Here you can download Giuseppe Verdi's Messa Solenne for evaluation purposes only. The best quality however provides the Compact Disc, so buy it if you like the music. The mp3 files (Lame 320 kbit/sec) were created from my Cd. For further information read blogpost: Giuseppe Verdi - Messa Solenne.

You have to install the tool WINRAR first to extract the files!

The password for the rar file is: gemsofchoralmusic

Download Link: Giuseppe Verdi - Messa Solenne (157 mb)

Herbert Howells - Stabat Mater - Download Lame mp3 320 kbit/sec

2010-07-29T22:32:00.002+02:00

Here you can download Herbert Howells' Stabat Mater for evaluation purposes only. The best quality however provides the Compact Disc, so buy it if you like the music. The mp3 files (Lame 320 kbit/sec) were created from my Cd. For further information read blogpost: Herbert Howells - Stabat Mater.

You have to install the tool WINRAR first to extract the files!

The password for the rar file is: gemsofchoralmusic

Download Link: Herbert Howells - Stabat Mater (117 mb)

Robert Schumann - Requiem, opus p.m. - Download Lame mp3 320 kbit/sec

2010-07-29T10:23:00.004+02:00

Here you can download Robert Schumann's Requiem, opus p.m. 148, for evaluation purposes only. The best quality however provides the Compact Disc, so buy it if you like the music. The mp3 files (Lame 320 kbit/sec) were created from my Cd. For further information read blogpost: Robert Schumann - Requiem, opus post mortem 148/Requiem für Mignon, opus 98b.

You have to install the tool WINRAR first to extract the files!

The password for the rar file is: gemsofchoralmusic

Download Link: Robert Schumann - Requiem post mortem (115 mb)

Samuel Barber - Prayers of Kierkegaard - Download Lame mp3 320 kbit/sec

2010-07-28T14:33:00.005+02:00

Here you can download Samuel Barber's Prayers of Kierkegaard for evaluation purposes only. The best quality however provides the Compact Disc, so buy it if you like the music. The mp3 files (Lame 320 kbit/sec) were created from my Cd. For further information read blogpost: Samuel Barber - Prayers of Kierkegaard.

You have to install the tool WINRAR first to extract the files!

The password for the rar file is: gemsofchoralmusic

Download Link: Samuel Barber - Prayers of Kierkegaard (119 mb)

Anton Bruckner: Missa Solemnis - Download Lame mp3 320 kbit/sec

2010-07-27T20:50:00.009+02:00

Here you can download Anton Bruckner's Missa Solemnis for evaluation purposes only, a Mass almost unknown to listeners of classical music. The best quality however provides the Compact Disc, so buy it if you like the music. The mp3 files (Lame 320 kbit/sec) were created from my Cd. For further information read blogpost: Anton Bruckner - Missa Solemnis.

You have to install the tool WINRAR first to extract the files!

The password for the rar file is: gemsofchoralmusic

Download Link: Anton Bruckner - Missa Solemnis (112 mb)

Hector Berlioz: Messe Solennelle (North American Premiere Performance) - Download Lame mp3 320 kbit/sec

2010-07-27T09:44:00.006+02:00

Here you can download Berlioz' Messe Solennelle for evaluation purposes only. The best quality however provides the Compact Disc, so buy it if you like the music. The mp3 files (Lame 320 kbit/sec) were created from my Cd. For further information read blogpost: Hector Berlioz - Messe Solennelle (North American Premiere Performance).

You have to install the tool WINRAR first to extract the files!

The password for the rar file is: gemsofchoralmusic

Download Link: Hector Berlioz - Messe Solennelle (127 mb)

Gaetano Donizetti: Messa da Requiem - Download Lame mp3 320 kbit/sec

2010-07-27T09:11:00.013+02:00

Here you can download Donizetti's Messa da Requiem for evaluation purposes only. The best quality however provides the Compact Disc, so buy it if you like the music. The mp3 files (Lame 320 kbit/sec) were created from my Cd. For further information read blogpost: Gaetano Donizetti - Messa da Requiem.

You have to install the tool WINRAR first to extract the files!

The password for the rar file is: gemsofchoralmusic

Download Link: Gaetano Donizetti - Messa da Requiem (142 mb)

Max Reger - Requiem/Hebbel Requiem - Download lame mp3 320 kbit/sec:

2010-07-25T18:45:00.012+02:00

Here you can download the extremely rare music of both Max Reger's Requiems: a) the Hebbel Requiem (op. 144 b) and the Latin Requiem (op. 145 a) with the fragmentary Dies Irae for evaluation purposes only. The best quality however provides the Compact Disc. The mp3 files (Lame 320 kbit/sec) were created from my Cd. For further information read blogpost: Max Reger.

You have to install the tool WINRAR first to extract the files!

The password for the rar file is: gemsofchoralmusic

Download Link: Max Reger - Latin Requiem & Hebbel Requiem (116 mb)

Carl Maria von Weber - Missa Sancta no. 2 in G Major (Jubilation Mass 1819) (1786-1826) with Offertory "In Die Solemnitatis"

2009-11-10T18:43:00.008+01:00

Full title of the Mass: Missa Sancta Quatuor Vocibus Constans, Pleno Et Solemni Choro Celebranda

The autograph of Weber's E flat major Mass, dedicated to the Archbishop of Salzburg and discovered only in 1925, provides early evidence of the fact that Weber was a born dramatist. He produced this astonishing proof of his talent when he was fifteen, and many years would pass before he followed it up with the two settings of the Ordinarium Missae he wrote in Dresden.

Given to appending the words Soli Dei Gloria to most of his major scores in accordance with an old tradition, Carl Maria von Weber saw in the writing of his Jubelmesse for the King of Saxony (Missa Sancta no. 2, opus 76) in Dresden in 1818 more than just the fulfilment of an official duty. "When you hear my Mass, think fondly of me, for it came from the very depths of my heart and is the best I can give." One passage in a letter to his Berlin friend Hinrich Lichtenstein it to be taken altogether literally. Weber wrote that he composed his Masses overcome by the "most profound sense of the immensity of the thing".

The golden wedding of the royal couple was celebrated in Dresden on MArch 17, 1819, a festive event that explains the name Jubelmesse (Jubilation Mass). Weber himself was hardly in a jubilant mood whilst writing it however. Indeed, the unfair treatment he was receiving at the hands of his superior and competitor Francesco Morlacchi, Kapellmeister at the Italian Opera in Dresden, adversely affected his already bad state of health.

It should be mentioned that the Dresden Hofkirche produced what was tantamount to an absolute "caterwaul", as Weber put it, whenever the often fast-modulating sacred music of Luigi Cherubini and Beethoven was performed there. In a sense, therefore, the architect Gaetano Chiaveri indirectly exerted influence on the style of Weber's two Masses, for the composer was at pains to tailor them to the church's acoustics by keeping them comparatively simple and songful.

DOWNLOAD: Track 1 Kyrie from Jubilation Mass (VBR 176kbit/sec WMA)

The CD was released by Capriccio, 2002, (DDD). Capriccio 67001.

Soprano: Anke Hoffmann
Contralto: Mechthild Georg
Tenor: Andreas Wagner
Bass: Yoo-Chang Nah

WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln, Conductor: Helmuth Froschauer

Track List:

Kyrie (3'58")
Gloria (4'59")
Credo (6'14")
Offertorium (2'38")
Sanctus (1'10")
Hosanna (0'59"9
Benedictus (2'11")
Hosanna (0'58")
Agnus Dei (1'38")
Dona nobis pacem (1'46")

Zbigniew Preisner - Lacrimosa (Day Of Tears) from "Requiem for my friend"

2009-11-09T22:02:00.006+01:00

Here you can download the wonderful track Lacrimosa - Day of tears by Zbigniew Preisner.

For all those who face a "Day in Tears".

download: Track17 Lacrimosa - Day of tears (Lame mp3 - 227kbit/sec, VBR)

For further information: www.preisner.com and post May 2009 Preisner/Requiem for my friend.

Latin Text & rhyming Translation:

Lacrimosa Dies Illa (That Day Of Tears And Mourning)
Qua Resurget Ex Favilla (From The Dust Of Earth Returning)
Judicandus Homo Reus (Man For Judgement Must Prepare Him)
Huic Ergo Parce, Deus (Spare, O God, In Mercy Spare Him)
Pie Jesu Domine (Lord, All Pitying, Jesu Blest)
Dona Eis Requiem (Grant Them Thine Eternal Rest)

Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) - The Dettingen Te Deum/The Dettingen Anthem

2009-10-29T17:39:00.007+01:00

To celebrate the victory won by the combined Austrian and British armies over the French at Dettingen in Lower Franconia on 27 June 1743, George Friedrich Händel - who had been court composer in London since 1723 - composed a festive Te Deum and the Anthem The King shall rejoice. These works were completed during July/August, and on 27 November, after at least three public rehearsals, they were performed at St. James's Palace in the presence of King George II. An official victory celebration which may originally have been planned for St. Paul's Cathedral did not take place; nevertheless during later years the Dettingen Te Deum received many large-scale performances.

The Hymn "Te Deum Laudamus" has its appointed place in the daily office of Matins in the Roman Catholic Church, and - To English words - in the Morning Service of the Anglican Church. SInce the century the Te Deum has also often figured in state services of celebration and thanksgiving.

For such an occasion, St. Cecilia's Day in 1694, Henry Prucell wrote a festive Te Deum and Jubilate, and these settings were widely used until 1713, when they were partially supplanted by Händel's Te Deum and Jubilate written to celebrate the Peace of Utrecht. This Utrecht Te Deum was, in turn, superseded in 1743 by Händel's Dettingen Te Deum. All three settings have, however, continued to be used on St. Cecilia's Day and on other occasions such as the Festival Service of the Songs of the Clergy.

The text of the anthem The King shall rejoice was chosen from verses of Psalms 20 and 21, its first section corresponding to the first coronation anthem which Händel had composed in 1727. The psalmist's words are followed by an Alleluia. The second section, His honour is great, shows in such features as its prelude in the trio sonata style and bravura violin figuration the extent to which the 18th-century anthem had absorbed concertante elements from the Baroque cantata. The works concludes with a choral fugue. The lively principal subject is joined at the words Alleluia by a second subject, with a prominent downward leap of a seventh, of a kind vera often to be met with in Baroque music. Sufficient to mention here the chorus And with his stripes in Messiah. Händel used this entire number, with the same words, as the concluding chorus of his oratorio Joseph and his Brethren (1744).

The CD was released by Archiv Produktion, 1984, (DDD). 410647-2.

Altus: Christopher Tipping (Te Deum, Anthem)
Bass: Stephen Varcoe (Te Deum)
Tenor: Harry Christophers (Te Deum)
Bass: Michael Pearce (Te Deum, Anthem)

Choir Of Westminster Abbey, The English Concert, Conductor: Simon Preston

Track List:

We praise Thee, O God (4'09)
All the earth doth worship Thee (2'35")
To Thee all Angels cry aloud (2'17")
To Thee Cherubim and Seraphim (3'11)
The glorious company of apostles (1'36")
Thine honourable, true, and only Son (0'39")
Thou art the King of Glory (2'35")
When thou tookest upon Thee (3'36")
When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death (0'27")
Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven (1'35")
Thou sittest at the right hand of God (3'40")
(Adagio) (0'40")
We therefore pray Thee (1'30")
Make them to be number'd (1'42")
Day by day we magnify Thee (1'23")
And we worship Thy name (2'03")
Vouchsafe, O Lord (2'20")
O Lord, in Thee have I trusted (3'46")
The Dettingen Anthem: The King shall rejoice (2'14")
His honour is great (4'17")
Thou shalt give him everlasting felicity (2'28")
And why ? Because the King putteth his trust in the Lord (2'58")
We will rejoice in Thy salvation (2'15")

Paco Pena - Misa Flamenca

2009-10-24T17:02:00.003+02:00

The Flamenco Mass adapts melodic and rhythmic nuances from the flamenco heritage to the texts of the Liturgy which are in turn transcribed into rhyming songs with simple, direct language. It is introduced by a siguiriya.

Heard in the open spaces of the street or the public square the siguiriya sounds like a song of the Islamic muezzin. It is a particularly fitiing comparison in the context of this Flamenco Mass, and a close association can be made with the 'call to prayer' that used to fly through the air from the minarets of the mosques of Córdoba, Málaga and Granada in broken and wavering guttural voices, rough-edged and strong, with melancholic turns that later, in flamenco, become an expression of suffering. The voice of the muezzin or the pealing of church bells, both represent the call to a universal rite, one which in times past would have seemed appropriate within the enironment of an Andalucían mosque, where Moslems, Christian and Jews once prayed together.

The CD was released by Nimbus Record, 1991, (DDD). NI 5288.

Flamenco Singers: La Susi, Rafael Montilla "El Chaparro", Dieguito, Antonio Suarez "Guadiana"
Guitarists: Paco Pena, Tito Losada, José Losada, Diego Losada
Percussion: José Losada, César Victoriano

The Academy of St. Martin in the Fileds, Chorus conducted by: Laszlo Heltay

Track List:

Canto De Entrada: El Chaparro (3'50")
Canto Penitencial - Tientos (3'01")
Kyrie - Granainas: El Chaparro (3'05")
Gloria - Fandangos: Dieguito, Guardiana (4'15")
Credo - Peteneras - Jaleos: La Susi, Dieguito (8'12")
Santo - Tanguillos: Dieguito (2'55")
Padre Nuestro - Martinete: El Chaparro (3'20)
Cordero De Dios - Bulerìas (4'03")
Canto Eucaristico Y Despedida (8'14")

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) - Te Deum, Opus 22

2009-10-23T01:36:00.008+02:00

Berlioz's Te Deum is the most mature of his great 'architectural' works, following the Requiem (1837) and Symphonie funèbre et triomphale (1840). It was completed in 1849, but its origins are earlier; it is probably the crystallization of a long-standing intention to write a militaristic piece in celebration of the great Napoleon, planned in the early 1830s.

The conception was precisely enough formed for Berlioz to announce it, in a catalogue dated 1846, as an 'unpublished work', for 'two choruses and large orchestra'. It was ready in plenty of time for the second Empire, but 'Napoléon le petit' consistently ignored the greatest composer of his realm, and the ideal occasion, his Coronation, passed it by.

The Te Deum had to wait until 1855 for the only complete performance Berlioz heard. The splendid setting was the Paris church of St. Eustache; the more prosaic excuse the opening of the Industrial Exhibition.

At the 1855 performance, which was a huge success (except financially), there were 950 performers, Berlioz told Liszt it was colossal, Babylonian, Ninivite.

There were originally two instrumental movements. Berlioz omitted the 'Prelude' to 'Dignare Domine' before 1855. The 'Marche for the presentation of flags' which follows the 'Judex Crederis' in the score is more suited to military pageantry than modern oratorio-like performance.

'Judex Crederis' is surely Berlioz's most colossal movement, a fugue with entries rising a semitone, ambiguous in key, magnificently developed, and alternating with a tender prayer (Salvum Fac Populum) which settles into an impressive ostinato. The vision of Judgement seems more terrible at every reprise, but finally confidence in redemption is restored and the movement ends in a blaze of light.

The CD was released by Deutsche Grammophone, P 1982, (Digital Recording). Deutsche Grammophon 410696-2.

Tenor: Francisco Araiza

London Symphony Chorus, London Philharmonic Choir, Wooburn Singers, St. Alban's School Choir, Haberdasher's School Choir, The Southend Boys's Choir, Desborough School Choir, The Choir of Forest School Winnersh, The Choirboys of High Wycombe Parish Church

European Community Youth Orchestra

Conductor: Claudio Abbado

Track List:

Te Deum (Hymne) (7'23")
Tibi Omnes (Hymne) (9'20")
Dignare (Prière) (7'09")
Christe, Rex Gloriae (Hymne) (5'17")
Te Ergo Quaesumus (Prière) (7'00")
Judex Crederis (Hymne et Prière) (10'29")

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) - Prayers of Kierkegaard, Opus 30

2009-10-22T16:00:00.007+02:00

In 1953 Barber turned to the writings of the nineteenth-century philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, whose works he had long known and studied. When Barber accepted Koussevitzky's comission, Kierkegaard's religious views, presaging modern existentialism, were very much in the spirit of the times, Barber remarked: "His name was practically unknown in our country until the late 1930s, even though a Kierekgaard renaissance had been in full swing in Europe during the previous quarter of a century. Then in the decade after 1936 almost entire body of his writings appeared here. American readers soon became aware of Kierkegaard as a major literary figure and an exciting but enigmatic intellectual force. Interest in him was further stimulated after World War II by reports about his influence upon the leading Existentialists. Indeed the contemporary philosophers, Satre, Jaspers and Heidegger, have all paid tribute to the 'autumnal man'. Thus Kierkegaard's thought bacame a great force in our religious life even as it had become in Europe. It became the father of both the 'crisis theology' in Protestantism as well as of 'atheistic' Existentialism."

Barber selected prayers interpolated through Kierkegaard's writings and sermons written between 1847 and 1855. The music is rich and varied, beginning with a single thread of chant-like melody, that gives way to the full orchestra and chorus. A slow prayer for soprano solo over a square accompaniment - like the gentle rocking music from Knoxville: Summer of 1915 - also grows into music of contrapuntal richness. At the climax the orchestra continues alone with an almost savage intensity, then dissolves into a final broad chorale. The Prayers of Kierkegaard is one of the chief glories of Barber in his prime.

The CD was released by Koch International Classics, 1991, (DDD). Koch 3-7125-2H1.

Soprano: Sarah Reese
Baritone: Dale Duesing

The Chicago Symphony Chorus, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Conductor: Andrew Schenk

Track List:

Prayers of Kierkegaard, Opus 30 for Soprano Solo and Orchestra, with incidental Tenor Solo, Alto Solo Ad Libitum

O Thou who art unchangeable (grave and remote) (5'15")
Lord Jesus Christ who suffer'd (andante con moto tranquillo) (3'14")
Father in Heaven ( un poco mosso) (5'17")
Allegro molto (1'56")
Father in Heaven! (quietly) (3'34")

The Lovers (World Premiere Recording)

Body of a Woman (4'39")
Little girl, brown girl (2'00")
In the hot depth of this summer (2'44")
Close your eyes (4'05")
The Fortunate Isles (3'32")
Sometimes (0'38")
We have lost even this twilight (3'41")
Tonight I can write (5'38")
Cemetery of kisses (4'44")

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) - Missa Solemnis, Opus 123

2009-10-21T20:48:00.007+02:00

The Missa Solemnis is Beethoven's second Mass, which he began 1817 and shaped into a monumental work that threatened to break out of the traditional dimensions of liturgical ceremony.

The outward occasion for the composition of the work was the enthronement of his illustrious pupil, Archduke Rudolph, as Archbishop of Olmütz (Olomouc). "The day on which as High Mass of mine is performed at the celebrations for Your Royal Highness will be the finest day of my life," he wrote to the Archduke in June 1819, "and God will give meHis light, so that my feeble powers contribute to the glorification of this festive day." But the work cast such a spell over Beethoven that it was not finished until two years after the enthronement, which took place on 20 March 1820.

The early sketches go back to the spring of 1890 and possibly even further, and are often to be found alongside sketches for the "Diabelli" Variations - about the time in which the last three piano sonatas were composed. Yet the finished work no longer shows any trace of the struggle which its composer had even over the smallest details - of the many attempts necessary, for example, to find the incomparable, lapidary final form in the four notes of the call in the Credo which could satisfy Beethoven's conception.

In his musical interpretation he not only followed the meaning of the individual sentences in the text of the Mass but even made a constant search for the most appropriate way of expressing individual words.

Ludwig van Beethoven

The following note, in his own hand, shows how Beethoven himself took his bearings: "To write church music, go through all the church chorales of the monks, etc., work out the sections in the most accurate translation with the perfect prosody of all the Christian psalms and hymns." There is, in fact, a whole series of notebooks in which Beethoven wrote out the German translation of the Latin text of the Mass word for word, partly with exact marks of scansion, i.e. noting the emphasised and unemphasised syllables for the correct declamation of the text. Writing to the Bonn publisher Simrock on 19 March 1821 about a translator who was to prepare a printed edition with German texts of the Mass, Beethoven remarked: " The translator is himself a musician, he is familiar with my own concepts of the Latin texts, and as a ready writer is capable, thank God, of producing a model." To be able to present a personal standpoint so decisively could only be the result of an intensive struggle over the problems of the text.

The first full performance of this Mass took place not in Vienna, but in St. Petersburg. It was arranged with the help of the friendly Prince Galitzin and the performance was given on 6 April 1824 by the Philharmonic Society there. During Beethoven's lifetime only three movements were performed in Vienna, the Kyrie, the Credo and the Agnus Dei. They were presented under the title of "Hymns" (in view of the severe regulations about the concert performances of church works) at the great Beethoven Academy on 7 May 1824.

The length of the work should not lead to the false conclusion that it was conceived for the concert hall rather than for the church. The Missa Solemnis was originally intended for the lengthy ceremony of the enthronement of a bishop, and in addition the extensive movements, the Gloria and Credo, belong in the setting of a full liturgical service, where they would have a less disruptive effect. Besides, unusual length is not a peculiarity of this Mass only: even earlier Beethoven had shortened his piano sonatas by whole movements on the advice of his friends, and later he was to do the same to his string quartets.

In a letter to Andreas Streicher of 16 September 1824 he makes clear that, in working on this great Mass, his deepest concern and chief intention had been "to arouse and establish permanent religious feeling in both the singers and the audience."

Anyone who has heard with attentive ears Beethoven's musical confession, on the texts of the Mass, in a work which he himself described as his greatest, will also understand the simple greatness of the words which stand at the head of the first page of the manuscript: "From the heart - may it go into the heart again".

The DCD was released by Philips, P 1971/C 1990, (ADD). Philips 426648-2.

Soprano: Agnes Giebel
Contralto: Marga Höffgen
Tenor: Ernst Haefliger
Bass: Karl Ridderbusch

Netherlands Radio Chorus, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, Conductor: Eugen Jochum

Track List CD 1:

Kyrie Eleison (4'02")
Christe Eleison (1'45")
Kyrie Eleison (4'29")
Gloria in excelsis Deo (5'05")
Qui tollis peccata mundi (5'50")
Quoniam tu solus sanctus (1'24")
In gloria Dei Patris, Amen (5'19")
Credo in unum Deum (4'43")
Et incarnatus est (6'08")
Et ascendit in coelum (2'46")
Et vitam venturi saeculi (2'26")
Amen (4'37")

Track List CD 2:

Sanctus (3'03")
Pleni sunt couli (1'12")
Praeludium (2'01")
Benedictus (10'01")
Agnus Dei (6'28")
Dona nobis pacem (2'19")
Agnus Dei (6'58")

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) - Johannes-Passion, BWV 245 (St. John Passion), sung in German

2009-10-20T18:37:00.007+02:00

Bach's St John Passion, one of Christendom's most venerated works of art, initially had the function of an "audition piece", a sort of musical visiting-card, as it were.

It was with this work that Bach presented his credentials to the Leipzig public on Good Friday, 1723: after a good deal of humiliating to-ing and fro-ing, he had just been appointed Kantor of St Thomas's Church. The composer then made changes and additions to the Passion for four more performances, which he directed himself.

With the St John Passion, Bach placed colossal and unaccustomed demands on his Leipzig audience, on his colleagues and superiors alike. He broke away from the ranks of reputable, traditionally-minded Kantors and aspired to the status of a fifth Evangelist.

Who knows whether the countless disagreements and squabbles that Bach - in no way an easy going or compliant man - was involved in during his years in Leipzig may not have been the result of this alarming first impression.

It is certainly no surprise that the new Thomaskantor was officially requested right at the outset of his employment in Leipzig not to make his church music "theatrical" in character. Curiously enough, this condition was even included in an agreement that the Leipzig city fathers signed with one of the greatest composers in the history of music - naturally without the least idea of what they were doing.

"Theatrical"? The entirely inappropriate word was surely the helpless attempt of some worried Leipzig councillor to rationalise the terror that Bach's immense expressive power struck into his contemporaries. For the St John Passion is certainly no meek and modest "handmaid of theology"; it is no restrained illustration of the Gospel account of the Passion, narrating the holy story with its eyes closed and piously underling important points. All this in undoubtedly part of the Musical setting of the Passion according to the Gospel of St. John.

But the music goes far beyond this, reproducing the immensity of the Passion anew from its own resources. Right at the beginning, in the first eighteen bars of the G minor introduction, the events of the Passion assume musical form, embodying all the pain and suffering of mankind. The chromatic lines of the oboes and flutes give eloquent voice to distress and grief, as does the oppressive onward surge of the semiquavers in the strings. In the course of the harmonic development, which unfolds with a dark urgency, menacing chasms appear, and even the clear G minor of the choral entry, finally reached after long-drawn-out torment, is unable to overcome these grim overtones. The original meaning of the word "passion" is evident in every note.

What's more, Bach does not adhere to the text "God our Lord, whose glory is resplendent in all lands" by composing a radiant glorification of our Lord God. On the contrary, a brooding melancholy pervades the entire movement, and the music seems to point less to specific emotions than to point the way across the abyss. Only reading between the lines do we find the self-assured mastery of the great composer who summoned up all his powers to do justice to the Passion of Our Lord and to show the people of Leipzig what he was capable of.

The St John Passion is split into two parts. The first of these comes to an end with the chorale "Petrus, der nicht denkt zurück". After this, the sermon was given in St Thomas's Church, Leipzig, and then followed the second part of the oratorio. The text follows the Gospel according to St John for the most part, but at a number of points of particular musical or dramatic significance, the Gospel according to St. Matthew is cited instead. To the Gospel texts are added the arias, in which the individual soul reflects on the account of the Evangelist, sung by a tenor. The chorales can be understood as the reaction of the Christian congregation. In accordance with an age-old tradition, the words of Jesus are not, as one might suppose, sung by a tenor, but by a bass. As far as the aria texts and the choice of chorales is concerned, Bach stuck to the Brockes Passion: Jesus, Who was martyred and died for the sins of mankind, which was very well-known in the 18th century. It is not possible to ascertain the precise extent of Bach's own contribution of the texts.

The St John Passion is about great events and great feelings: the modern-day listener who is prepared to listen attentively, who has the courage to open both mind and heart to Bach's sublime work, will benefit from it time and time again.

The DCD was released by Emi Classics, P 1962/C 1992, (ADD). Emi Classics CMS 7642342.

Evangelist: Fritz Wunderlich
Jesus: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Soprano Arias: Elisabeth Grümmer
Contralto Arias: Christa Ludwig
Tenor Arias: Josef Traxel
Bass Arias: Karl Christian Kohn
Pontius Pilatus: Karl Christian Kohn
Maid: Lisa Otto
Servant: Horst Schäfertöns

Chor der St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale Berlin, Berliner Symphoniker, Conductor: Karl Forster

Track List CD 1:

Part One: Chor: Herr, unser Herrscher (10'19")
Rezitativ: Jesus ging mit seinen Jüngern (1'16")
Chor: Jesum von Nazareth (0'12")
Rezitativ: Jesus spricht mit ihnen (0'43")
Chor: Jesum von Nazareth (0'11)
Rezitativ: Jesus antwortete (0'31")
Choral: O große Lieb (0'57")
Rezitativ: Auf dass das Wort erfüllet würde (1'25")
Choral: Dein Will gescheh (0'52")
Rezitativ: Die Schar aber und der Oberhauptmann (0'51")
Arie (Alto): Von den STricken meiner Sünden (5'36")
Rezitativ: Simon Petrus aber folgete (0'18")
Arie (Soprano): Ich folge dir gleichfalls (3'58")
Rezitativ: Derselbige Jünger (3'53")
Choral: Wer hat dich so geschlagen (1'53")
Rezitativ: Und Hannas sandte ihn gebunden (0'19")
Chor: Bist du nicht seiner Jünger einer? (0'29")
Rezitativ: Er leugnete aber (1'44")
Arie (Tenor): Ach, mein Sinn (3'18")
Choral: Petrus, der nicht denkt zurück (1'22")
Part Two: Choral: Christus, der uns selig macht (1'06")
Rezitativ: Da führeten sie Jesum (0'42")
Chor: Wäre dieser nicht ein Übeltäter (1'01")
Rezitativ: Da sprach Pilatus zu ihnen (0'14")
Chor: Wir dürfen niemanden töten (0'39")
Rezitativ: Auf dass erfüllet würde (2'15")
Choral: Ach, großer König (1'26")
Rezitativ: Da sprach Pilatus zu ihm (1'38")
Chor: Nicht diesen, sondern Barrabam (0'11")
Rezitativ: Barrabas aber war ein Mörder (0'29")
Arioso (Bass): Erwäge, wie sein blutgefärbter Rücken (8'11")

Track List CD 2:

Rezitativ: Und die Kriegsknechte flochten (0'18")
Chor: Sei gegrüßet, lieber Judenkönig (0'37")
Rezitativ: Und gaben ihm Backenstreiche (1'00")
Chor: Kreizige, kreuzige (0'53")
Rezitativ: Pilatus sprach zu ihnen (0'18")
Chor: Wir haben ein Gesetz (1'21")
Rezitativ: Da Pilatus das Wort (1'31")
Choral: Durch dein Gefängnis (0'58")
Rezitativ: Die Juden aber schrieen (0'05")
Chor: Lässest du diesen los (1'10")
Rezitativ: Da Pilatus das Wort hörete (0'48")
Chor: Weg, weg mit dem, kreuzige ihn (0'57")
Rezitativ: Spricht Pilatus zu ihnen (0'16")
Chor: Wir haben keinen König (0'13")
Rezitativ: Da überantwortete er ihn ((0'56")
Arie (Bass): Eilet, ihr angefocht'nen Seelen (4'46")
Rezitativ: Allda kreuzigten sie ihn (1'27")
Chor: Schreibe nicht: der Juden König (0'36")
Rezitativ: Pilatus antwortet (0'17")
Choral: In meines Herzens Grunde (0'57")
Rezitativ: Die Kriegsknechte (0'36")
Chor:Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen (2'00")
Rezitativ: Auf dass erfüllet würde (1'52")
Choral: Er nahm alles wohl in acht (1'07")
Rezitativ: Und von Stund an (1'30")
Arie (Alto): Es ist vollbracht - der Held aus Juda (6'13")
Rezitativ: Und neigte das Haupt und verschied (0'29")
Arie (Bass): Mein teurer Heiland (4'35")
Rezitativ: Und siehe da, der Vorhang im Tempel (0'30")
Arioso (Tenor): Mein Herz, in dem die ganze Welt (1'04")
Arie (Soprano): Zerfließe, meine Herze (6'32")
Rezitativ: Die Juden aber (2'26")
Choral: O hilf, Christe, Gottes Sohn (1'08")
Rezitativ: Darnach bat Pilatum (2'36")
Chor: Ruht wohl, ihr heiligen Gebeine (7'26")
Choral: Ach Herr, lass dein lieb' Engelein (2'13")

Bach/Gounod - Ave Maria; Bizet - Agnus Dei sung by Benjamino Gigli

2009-10-17T21:35:00.007+02:00

Beniamino Gigli, (March 20, 1890 - November 30, 1957) was an Italian opera singer. The most famous tenor of his generation, he was renowned internationally for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique. Critics sometimes took him to task, however, for what was perceived to be the over-emotionalism of his interpretations. Nevertheless, such was Gigli's talent that he is considered to be one of the very finest tenors in the recorded history of music. (from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamino_Gigli)

Here are two sacred songs sung by the Italian opera singer Benjamino Gigli: a-side: Ave Maria (by Bach/Gounod), b-side: Agnus Dei (by Georges Bizet).

The rare shellac record (78 rpm) was ripped and digitally restored using a 192 kbit/sec mp3 encoding.

download a-side: Ave Maria/Benjamino Gigli
download b-side: Agnus Dei/Benjamino Gigli

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) - Mass in F Minor

2009-10-17T14:34:00.003+02:00

Anton Bruckner way already forty years of age when the premiere of his D minor Mass at the Cathedral of Linz in 1864 marked his rise to a fame which would grow further. Taking two years for each, Bruckner composed other masses, the second in E minor of 1866 and then the third in F minor, which was commissioned by the Imperial court following a successful performance of the D minor Mass at the chapel of the Hofburg in Vienna on February 10, 1867. Bruckner began work on the F minor Mass on September 14 (against the advice of doctors treating his emotional disturbance) and completed it on September 9, 1868.

Important events in Bruckner's life coincided with its composition. His beloved teacher Simon Sechter died on September 10, 1867. For all his grief, Bruckner had the presence of mind to apply for the position at the Imperial court that had fallen vacant at Sechter's death. He was appointed professor for organ, thoroughbass and counterpoint at the Vienna Conservatory as of October 1, 1868, and during that same September for the post of organist at the Imperial chapel.

These events finally made his move from Linz to Vienna necessary. As choirmaster of the Vienna choral society "Frohsinn", he conducted the concert premiere of the closing scene of "Meistersinger" on April 4, 1868 and attended the premiere of the opera at the Hoftheater in Munich on June 21. In between all this he premiered his First Symphony in Linz on May 9.

For Bruckner things were moving slowly but steadily forward. Bruckner felt no further inclination to go on composing masses since his creative energies were increasingly directed toward symphonic writing, a field in which he found he could more meaningfully express his own view of the world in terms of absolute music. All three masses were radically revised by Bruckner in hte summer of 1876; the F minor Mass was also subjected to further corrections during a period stretching between at least 1890 and 1893 in preparation for its publication by Josef Eberle & Co.

The succesful premiere under the baton of the composer on June 16, 1872 at the Augustinerkirche inVienna ensured at least half a dozen repeat performances in the ensuing twelve years, among which was the second performance at the Hofburg on December 3, 1873 - an event of particular importance for the composer - and the performance on April 27, 1879 at the garrison church of the fort of Ofen, which was one of the few early Bruckner performances during the 1870s to be given outside Linz and Vienna, where the composer was a known quantity.

The F minor Mass follows the customary six-part structure necessitated by the liturgy. The Credo is however disproportionately lengthy, making it comparable with the thundering Te Deum of 1883, while the ensuing Sanctus lasts but two minutes.

The CD was released by Berlin Classics, 1997, (DDD). Berlin Classics 0092472BC.

Soprano: Magdalena Hajossyova
Alto: Rosemarie Lang
Tenor: Andreas Schmidt
Bass: Hermann Christian Polster

Rundfunkchor Berlin, Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, Conductor: Heinz Rögner

Track List:

Kyrie (8'49")
Gloria in excelsis (3'09")
Qui tollis (3'06")
Quoniam tu solus sanctus (2'13")
In Gloria Dei Patris (3'14")
Credo in unum Deum (2'11)
Et incarnatus est (2'55")
Crucifixus (2'41")
Et resurrexit (4'24")
Et in spiritum sanctum (2'28")
Et expecto (0'40")
Et vitam venturi (2'49")
Sanctus (1'16")
Hosanna in excelsis (0'40")
Benedictus (5'52")
Hosanna in excelsis (0'43")
Agnus Dei (4'421")
Dona nobis pacem (3'52")

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - Davidde Penitente, KV 469/Missa Solemnis, KV 337

2009-10-17T01:40:00.005+02:00

In 1785 Mozart was at the very pinnacle of his fame. He was weighed down with comissions for new compositions and in constant demand to appear at countless concerts.

When the Viennese Tonkünstler-Societät (founded in 1771 to assist the widows and orphans of musicians) invited him to compose an anthem for one of its benefit concerts, he was obliged to decline through lack of time.

Anxious, however, to maintain the good relations that he had enjoyed with the Society, he suddenly hit on the brilliant idea of using music written for the Kyrie and Gloria of his Mass in C minor (KV 427), turing them into the opening sections of an impressive oratorio and providing a perfect answer to the comission that had been offered to him. Thus Viennese audiences were able to make the aquaintance of a new masterpiece and hear the magisterial music of an unfinished Mass which - had circumstances been different - Mozart would probably never have written for the city.

In composing Davidde Penitente, Mozart used an Italian text adapted to fit the original music of the Kyrie and Gloria. It is believed, albeit without certainty, that the author of these words (which paraphrase the Psalms of David) was Leonardo Da Ponte. Mozart evidently worked at some speed, not even having time to prepare a new copy of the score for himself; one of the tasks that the copyists had to undertake was to add the text at various points beneath the exisiting notes.

In order to ensure that this large-scale oratorio would be worthy of his name, Mozart added two arias (No 6 and 8), together with the famous cadenza for the three soloists in the final chorus. Each of the soloists thus had his or her own aria, and the work acquired the minimum length required by the Tonkünstler-Societät. The four-, five- and eigth-part choruses are of a beauty already amply attested by the earlier Mass in C Minor. Since the orchestral parts had still to be copied, it must be a matter of some speculation how this performance actually went.

Gossec's influence - he was Mozart's great friend during the 1760s - is clearly discernible in the C minor Mass and hence also in Davidde Penitente. In his comparative study of Mozart's Requiem and Gossec's Messe des Morts, the Viennese musicologist Hartmut Krones has shown how many of Gossec's musical ideas have found their way into Mozart's C minor Mass. Thus, for example, the opening theme of the fugal "Et lux perpetua" from Gossec's Mass recurs, note for note, in the "Kyrie Eleison" of Mozart's Mass (and also to the words "Alzai le flebili voci" in Davidde Penitente), while another of Gossec's themes, "Cum Sanctis tui in aeternam", is rediscovered intact supporting the words "Cum sancto spiritu" in the C minor Mass, only to be heard again in the large-scale chorus "Di tai pericoli non ha timor" that brings Davidde Pentitente to its fitting conclusion.

The Missa Solemnis is a typical example of the kind of Missa Brevis that Haydn, Mozart and other composers were writing at this time.

The Mass is cheerful and light-hearted, but the "Benedictus" remains a mystery: built around an austere, academic, even refractory fugue, the music is in flagrant opposition to the words "Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord". Was Mozart trying to express his discontent at the behaviour of his employer Archbishop Colloredo? Mozart quarreled with his patron Colloredo in 1780 and decided to turn his back on him.

The CD was released by Erato, 1990, (DDD). Erato 2292-45498-2.

Soprano: Bernadette Degelin
Soprano: Jennifer Smith
Countertenor: Peter Ickx
Tenor: Guy de Mey
Baritone: Jan Vandercrabben

Choeur De Chambre De Namur, Musica Polyphonica, Conductor: Louis Devos

Track List:

Davidde Penitente, KV 469

Coro: Alzai le flebili voci Signor (6'03")
Coro: Cantiam le glorie (2'16")
Aria Soprano II: Lungi le cure ingrate (4'58")
Coro: Sii pur sempre benigno (1'58")
Duetto soprani I&II: Sorgi, o Signore (2'47")
Aria tenore: A te, fra tanti affani (6'27")
Coro: Se vuoi, puniscimi (3'34")
Aria Soprano I: Tra l'oscure ombre funeste (6'18")
Terzetto Soprani I&II: Tutte le mie speranze (4'23")
Coro: Chi in Dio sol spera (5'31")

Missa Solemnis, KV 337

Kyrie (2'22)
Gloria (3'29")
Credo (5'04")
Sanctus (1'43")
Benedictus (2'33")
Agnus Dei (5'07")

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) - Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien (The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian)

2009-10-14T12:17:00.010+02:00

In 1884, the 22-year-old Debussy had won the Prix de Rome with his cantata L'Enfant prodigue, and among the official works which he produced during his four sponsored years, La Damoiselle élue was the most original, bringing the name of Debussy clearly to the notice of the musical public in Paris when it was performed at the Société Nationale in April 1893.

Much later , in 1911, the influence of Parsifal returned - but this time closely assimilated into the real Debussy style - when at short notice he wrote incidental music for Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien. This was an extravagant five-hour theatrical production - a Mystère or miracle play, combining drama, dancing, elaborate stage effects, and music (soloists, chorus, and orchestra).

The play was by the exiled Italian author Gabriele D'Annunzio; and, controversially, the Jewish dancer Ida Rubinstein took the role of the Saint - a young officer of the Praetorian guards in the third century, ordered by Diocletian to be killed by his own archers because of his sympathy for persecuted Christians. Christian and pagan images come together in vivid scenes which range from tenderness to extreme violence.

In its original form it was not a success when produced in Paris in 1911; but attempts have been made to revive it in various modified forms - in particular, a version using Debussy's incidental music linked by narration has proved successful in the concert hall. Also, with the collaboration of Debussy's friend André Caplet, a suite of four "Symphonic Fragments" was made.

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

The first of these is from Act I, "The Court of Lilies": after a solemn liturgical-sounding prelude, the scene is set in rich and sad melodic style, for the torture and martyrdom of two young Christians. The next, also from Act I, is the "Ecstatic Dance" of Sebastian on live coals, as (after a sign from heaven) he is inspired to help the persecuted Christians - a section both fierce and sensitive, orchestrated with much colour and variety, ending with music accompanying a miracle and a heavenly vision. The third fragment is the poignant music of "The Passion" from Act IV - Sebastian's masochistic expectation of martyrdom, welcoming the arrows from his own archers. And in the final excerpt, the atmospheric music accompanies a scene among the ancient laurels of Apollo's Grove, the place of Sebastian's martyrdom, when the saint has a brief vision of "The Good Shepherd" and the sacrificial lamb.

The CD was released by Sony Classical, 1994, (DDD). SK 58952.

Soprano: Dawn Upshaw
Mezzo-Soprano: Paula Rasmussen

Women of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen

Track List:

NOCTURNES: 1. Nuages (7'09")
Fetes (&'29")
Sirènes (10'14")
La Damoiselle élue (poème lyrique d'après Dante Gabriele Rossetti) (20'14")
LE MARTYRE DE SAINT SÉBASTIEN: I. La Cour des Lys. Prélude. (3'51")
II. Danse extatique et Finale du 1er Acte (5'52")
III. La Passion (5'52")
IV. Le Bon Pasteur (6'52")

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - Requiem in D Minor, KV 626

2009-10-13T11:30:00.004+02:00

Mozart's famous Requiem is well known. A lot of background information is available on the internet, for example, http://www.carringbush.net/~pml/music/mozart/requiem/mozart.html.

It was believed for a very long time that Mozart composed the Requiem as a presentiment of his own death, although there is no evidence of this, nor did Mozart make any suggestions of the kind. Mozart set down the above thoughts about death (in his letter to his father) more than four years before his own decease.

Mozart to his father: Vienna, 4 April 1787,

"As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind, that his image is not only no longer terrifying me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling! And I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity (you know what I mean) of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness. I never lie down at night without reflecting - young as I am - I may not live to see another day. Yet no one of all my aquaintances could say that in company I am morose ordisgruntled. For this blessing I daily thank my Creator and wish with all my heart that each one of my fellow-creatures could enjoy it."

The CD was released by Deutsche Grammophon, 1987, (DDD). 431288-2 G MD.

Soprano: Anna Tomowa-Sintow
Contralto: Helga Müller-Molinari
Tenor: Vinson Cole
Bass: Paata Burchuladze

Wiener Singverein, Wiener Philharmoniker, Conductor: Herbert von Karajan

Track List:

Introitus - Requiem (5'25")
Kyrie (2'40")
Dies Irae (1'51")
Tuba Mirum (3'51")
Rex Tremendae (2'21")
Recordare (5'11")
Confutatis (2'23")
Lacrimosa (3'08")
Domine Jesu (3'50")
Hostias (4'30")
Sanctus (1'48")
Benedictus (5'25")
Agnus Dei (3'39")
Lux Aeterna (5'50")

This consummate performance on CD leaves nothing to be desired !

Leopold Mozart (1719-1787) - Missa Solemnis in C (World Premiere Recording)

2009-10-12T17:08:00.004+02:00

Only a handful of works by Leopold Mozart are available in reprints. The vast majority are housed in the manuscript collection of South German and Austrian libraries. It is therefore still no easy task to assess his importance.

His son Wolfgang Amadeus had a high regard for him as a composer and even in his later years in Vienna chose to perform several of his works. Moreover, during the last few decades a number of items in the Köchel catalogue have been identified on sound documentary evidence as being by Leopold.

The Mass in C is a case in point. In the old Köchel catalogue it figures as K 115 with a reference to a long-vanished autograph score, but in 1975 the manuscript turned up at an auction and it was in Leopold's own hand. It contains only the vocal parts and a keyboard accompaniment (organ) and breaks off after the first nine bars of the Sanctus. Comparison with the two complete manuscript sources of the work reveals that this autograph is in fact a concentrated sketch for the final score; several of its vocal sections were preserved intact, while others were considerably expanded.

Two sets of parts were produced in the Salzburg area, probably during the 1760s; the more valuable is still preserved in the archives of St. Peter's Abbey in Salzburg. The orchestration is the same in both: two clarino trumpets, two horns, strings and organ, and one of them has a part for solo flute. This suggests that the Mass was not in fact intended for Salzburg Cathedral, since, the latter has no violas. It is possible that the Mass was written for St. Peter's Church. An extract date cannot be postulated.

The Mass in C contains a number of long solo arias, and the the score suggests that Leopold Mozart could reckon with the participation of at least two highly accomplished singers: a soprano and a tenor. The arias culminate in pauses indicating the start of solo cadenzas: in one instance there are no fewer than three.

But despite the presence of such innovations the work clearly belongs to the transitional period between the late baroque and early classicism, and harks back to the stylized emotions and musical symbolism of the baroque era.

Leopold's attitude to Latin prosody was not as strict as his son's. His approach was very much in the spirit of the 18th-century motet, with priority given to the working out of thematic material.

Very characteristic of him are the occasional homely touches: he was not ashamed of sharing the popular taste and indeed considered it as necessary part of music.

The CD was released by Koch-Records International, P 1982/1989, (ADD). 313028 H1.

Soprano: Arleen Augér
Alto: Gabriele Schreckenbach
Tenor: Horst Laubenthal
Baritone: Barry McDaniel

Chor der St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale Berlin, Domkapelle Berlin, Conductor: Roland Bader

Track List:

Kyrie (4'29")
Gloria (17'03")
Credo (16'39")
Sanctus (1'54")
Benedictus (5'12")
Agnus Dei (6'35")

Voices from Heaven

2009-10-12T16:12:00.003+02:00

This is a beautiful anthology of sacred liturgical music. Chung coordinates his forces in larger choral pieces with power and vertical balance. Contributions by Cecilia Bartoli find the mezzo in top form, and Bryn Terfel brings charismatic presence to “Pie Jesu” from the Fauré Requiem. Also included are the interminable "Song for Athene" by John Taverner and a great performance by Andrea Bocelli in Eric Levi's hymn for the world, "I Believe".

The CD was released by Deutsche Grammophon, 1998, (DDD). Deutsche Grammophon 459720-2.

Soprano: Cecilia Bartoli
Tenor: Andrea Bocelli
Bass Baritone: Bryn Terfel

Coro e Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Conductor: Myung-Whun Chung

Track List:

I Believe - Andrea Bocelli (4'10")
Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod) - Cecilia Bartoli (2'42")
Va Pensiero Sull'ali Dorate (From Nabucco/Verdi) (4'51")
Deus In Adjutorium (from Vespro della Beata (Monteverdi) (1'37")
Qui Sedes Ad Dexteram Patris (from Bach/Mass BWV 232) - Cecilia Bartoli (5'05")
Laudate Dominum (from Vesperae Solemnes De Confessore - Mozart) - Cecilia Bartoli
Lacrimosa (from Requiem/Mozart) (3'41")
Stimmt an die Seiten (from Die Schöpfung/Haydn) (1'49")
Sanctus (from Mass D 950/Schubert) (3'18")
Locus Iste (Bruckner) (3'44")
Pie Jesu (from Requiem op.48/Fauré) - Cecilia Bartoli (3'42")
Libera Me (from Requiem op.48/Fauré) - Bryn Terfel (4'47")
Sanctus (from Requiem op.09/Duruflé) (2'37")
Gloria In Excelsis (from Gloria/Poulenc) (2'49)
Song for Athene (John Taverner) /7'36")
I Believe (Instrumental) (4'10")

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) - Mass No 2 in G Minor/Giuseppe Geremia (1732-1814) - Missa Pro Defunctis, Tantum Ergo

2009-10-06T22:02:00.005+02:00

Mass in G Minor by Vincenzo Bellini: Bellini's sacred works do not seem few, or of little interest, as there are more than thirty such compositions, thanks to the unique conditions in which the Catanese composer worked. Not only was his contact with sacred music early and long-lasting, as he was the son and relative of musicians employed by the Church, but the inevitable spirit of emulation made it so that his first efforts were destined for this area.

While the Mass in A Major, in all probability composed in 1821 and published in 1843 by Ricordi, has been familiar for a long time, the G Minor Mass was made accessible by Francesco Pastura, who, in 1959, edited a reconstruction based on autographs held in Catania and Naples, published by Edizioni Drago de Magenta.

According to a Catanese scholar's supposition, the second Mass ought to be associated with the occasion when Bellini, after his diploma was brilliantly signed and crowned with a performance of Adelson e Salvini in the small theatre of the Collego, "was invited to compose (...) for the church of Gragnano", where a cornerstone, unveiled in 1881, cites the composer's having led the work in July of 1825 for the Feast of the Madonnadel Carmine. In fact it is a Mass in which the persistent agogic of the Allegro, with varied shadings and with a unique exception is entirely appropriate for the Marian festivity.

Giuseppe Geremia has almost been completely forgotten, as there are but few references attesting to his existence (Catania, 1732 - Catania, 1814), yet a substantial musical output still speaks for him.

The Missa was most likely conceived for the Benedictine church where Geremia was engaged. The practice of the day used elements of the melodramatic style and of the Cantata to modify the form and character of Roman liturgy, becoming an alternating sequence of choruses, arias, duets and recitatives, supported by an instrumental accompaniment.

The year Tantum Ergo was composed is not known but the style adopted vy Geremia, which resembles early Classicism through its reference to the lesser sacred works of Haydn and Mozart, leads one to suppose that it was in all probability composed around 1770.

The CD was released by Scandinavian Classics, 2002, (DDD).

Soprano: Katia Ricciarelli
Alto: Francesca Aparo
Tenor: Salvatore Fisichella
Baritone: Furio Zanasi

Camerata Polifonica Siciliana, Conductor: Douglas Bostock

Track List: V. Bellini - Mass No 2 G Minor

Kyrie Eleison (5'08")
Gloria In Excelsis Deo (5'01")
Laudamus Te (%'53")
Domine Deus (6'34")
Qui Tollis (3'20")
Qui Sedes (5'33")
Quoniam, Cum Sancto Spiritu (4'22")

Track List: Giuseppe Geremia - Missa Pro Defunctis

8. Tantum Ergo (3'22")
9. Requiem - Kyrie (2'29")
10. Kyrie (0'42")
11. Dies Irae (0'42")
12. Quantus Tremor (1'03")
13. Mors Stupebit (1'31")
14. Quid Sum Miser (0'59")
15. Rex Tremendae (0'52")
16. Recordare (0'43")
17. Quaerens Me ((1'06")
18. Iuste Iudex (1'41")
19. Preces Meae (1'00")
20. Confutatis (0'42")
21. Oro Supplex (1'36")
22. Qua Resurget (0'36")
23. Huic Ergo (1'15")
24. Amen (1'24")

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) - A German Requiem (Ein Deutsches Requiem)

2009-10-04T14:58:00.003+02:00

Johannes Brahms was born on 7th May 1833 in the Gängeviertel district of Hamburg, the son of a double-bass player and his wife, a seamstress seventeen years her husband's senior. It was intended that the boy should follow the father's trade and to this end he was taught the violin and cello, but his interest in the piano prevailed, enabling him to supplement the family income by playing the dockside taverns, while taking valuable lessons from Eduard Marxen.

In 1853 Brahms embarked on a concert tour with the Hunagrian violonist Eduard Reményi, during the course of which he visited Liszt in Weimar, to no effect, and struck up a friendship with the violinist Joseph Joachim, through whose agency he met the Schumanns, established now in Düsseldorf. The connection was an important one. Schumann was impressed enough by the composition that Brahms played to him to hail him as the long-awaited successor to Beethoven. Schumann's subsequent break-down in February 1854 and ensuing insanity brought Brahms back to Düsseldorf to help Clara Schumann and her young family. The relationship with Clara Schumann, one of the most distinguished pianists of the time, lasted until her death in 1896.

It was not until 1862, after a happy period that had brought him a temporary position at the court of Detmold as a conductor and piano teacher, that Brahms visited Vienna, giving concerts there and meeting the important critic Eduard Hanslick, who was to prove a doughty champion, pitting Brahms against Wagner and Liszt as a composer of abstract music, as opposed to the music-drama of Wagner and the symphonic poems of Liszt, with their extra-musical associations. Brahms finally took up permanent residence in Vienna in 1869, greeted by many as the real successor to Beethoven, particularly after the first of his four symphonies, and winning a similar position in popular esteem and similar tolerance for his notorious lack of tact. He dies in 1897.

There seems little doubt that the death of his mother in January 1865 was the immediate reason for the composition of A German Requiem, a large scale work that developed gradually over the years immediately following, but may well have been under consideration for some years. The second movement, at least, makes use of material from the slow Scherzo of the composer's rejected symphony of 1854 and 1855, the period of Schumann's final illness. Three of six completed movements were performed in Vienna in 1867 by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde under the direction of Johann Herbeck, but was badly received.

Brahms, as a North German Protestant, had chosen to make use of texts from the Lutheran Bible, drawing on the Old and New Testaments and on the Apocrypha, and such a work might well have been seemed strange to Catholic Vienna, even had it been properly rehearsed for the occasion.

Albert Dietrich, a young composer and conductor and a pupil of Schumann, whom Brahms had first met in Düsseldorf in 1853, sent a copy of the work to the organist and director of music of Bremen Cathedral, Karl Martin Reinthaler, who arranged the first performance of all six movements on Good Friday 1868, under the direction of the composer. On this occasion the Requiem was very successful and with the addition of a seventh movement, placed fifth in the whole work, became in the following years a valuable and esteemed element in choral repertoire both in Germany and abroad, establishing the wider reputation of Brahms.

The texts chosen avoid overt Christian reference, and the composer himself suggested in private correspondence that he would have liked to substitute the word "human" for "German" in the title. It has its roots above all in Bach and it has been suggested that Brahms may have drawn some inspiration from the much earlier work of Schütz. It is clearly vastly different in character from the liturgical Latin Requiem of Catholic tradition with its evocation of the Day Of Judgement and its prayers for mercy on the souls of the dead.

The CD was released by Naxos, 1993, (DDD). Naxos 8.550213.

Soprano: Miriam Gauci
Baritone: Eduard Tumagian

Slovak Philharmonic Choir, Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Conductor: Alexander Rahbari

Track List:

Selig Sind, Die Da Leid Tragen (Blessed Are They That Mourn) (9'18")
Denn Alles Fleisch Ist Wie Gras (For All Flesh Is As Grass) (1456")
Herr, Lehre Mich Doch (Lord, Make Me To Know My End) (10'02")
Wie Lieblich Sind Deine Wohnungen (How Amiable Are Thy Tabernacles) (4'47")
Ihr Habt Nun Traurigkeit (And Ye Now Therefore Have Sorrow) (7'11")
Denn Wir Haben Hie Keine Bleibende Stadt (For Here Have We No Continuing City) (10'35")
Selig Sind Die Toten (Blessed Are The Dead) (10'08")

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) - Requiem (World Premiere Recording)

2009-10-02T16:17:00.007+02:00

A towering figure of the English musical establishment, whilst remaining an Irishman in his blood and bones until his dying days, Stanford wrote more than thirty works for chorus and orchestra as well as seven symphonies.

The Requiem Mass was composed in memory of the painter Lord Leighton, a figure of enormous stature in English culture and society. Although in scale the Requiem almost equals that of the great Requiems of Berlioz and Verdi, the orchestral style is largely content with economical underpinning of the vocal forces and telling use of instrumental solos, a reminder that Stanford was a highly-regarded symphonist.

Charles Stanford was born in Dublin on 30th September 1852 as the son of a prosperous Irish lawyer. Both his parents were extremely musical. The young Charles learnt the piano and organ and gained a first-class classical grounding at what was said to be the finest school in Dublin.

In 1870 he went to Cambridge as a choral scholar, he took over the conductorship of the Cambridge University Musical Society when he was twenty. At the same time he became the Trinity College organist. He graduated in 1874 and spent much of that year and the next two studying in Germany, first (and unfruitfully) with Karl Reinecke in Leipzig and then, at the instigation of Joseph Joachim, in Berlin with Friedrich Kiel, a rare man and a rare master.

Stanford's career rapidly developed. In 1875 he received a commision for incidental music to his play Queen Mary; his First Symphony of 1976 gained second prize in a competition, a Festival Overture (1870) was a success at the 1877 Gloucester Three Choirs Festival. He took on the London Bach Choir in 1885; Oxford awarded him the honorary degree of Mus.D. in 1883, as did Cambridge in 1887, where he was also appointed Professor of Music in the same year. He was able to introduce several of the greatest composers to England for important performances.

Stanford died on 20th March 1924. His body was interred in Westminster Abbey under a stone inscribed A Great Musician, close to the remains of Purcell.

The Requiem is, in fact, a central work of Stanford's output and the scale of the Requiem equals that of the great Requiems of Berlioz and Verdi.

The DCD was released by Naxos, 2004, (DDD). Naxos 8.555201-02.

Soprano: Frances Lucey
Mezzo-Soprano: Colette McGahon
Tenor: Peter Kerr
Bass: Nigel Leeson-Williams

RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Conductor: Adrian Leaper

Track List CD 1:

Introit: Adagio (8'03")
Kyrie: Allegro tranquillo ed espressivo (4'40")
Gradual: Larghetto (4'38")
Sequence - Dies Irae: Allegro moderato ma energico (30'21")
Offertorium: Allegro (11'37")

Track List CD 2:

Excerpts from the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan (Opera); Soprano: Virginia Kerr, Conductor: Colman Pearce

Sanctus: Allegro non troppo (10'07")
Agnus Dei et Lux Aeterna: Tempo di marcia funèbre (7'20")
Excerpts from the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan (Opera): Overture (7'53")
Ballet Music No. 1 (7'20")
There's a Bower of Roses (5'05")
Ballet Music No. 2 (3'17")

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) - Mass in C Major

2009-09-29T18:26:00.005+02:00

The Mass in C Major, opus 86, is the earliest of a number of works by Beethoven which are both vocal and symphonic. Written in 1807, just after "Fidelio" and several important instrumental and chamber music compositions, the Mass coincides with the period when Beethoven was working on the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies.

The first performance was on 13 September 1807 in Vienna, but it was afterwards seldom performed in concerts although Beethoven held the work in high regard. The credit for its real discovery is due to the later Romantics.

Like all compositions of the kind based on the Latin text of the Sunday Mass, strictly determined and consecrated by tradition, Beethoven's Mass is in five parts.

The Kyrie Eleison is distinguished by the spacious magnificence of its epic style. The alternation of the four soloists with the choir recalls certain features of antiphonal singing.

The Gloria In Excelsis pulsates with great impetus and brio; the various sections of the text dictate changes in the character, the tempo, and the dynamics of the music, resulting in a number of individual parts within the framework of the movement.

The Credo incarnates, in a certain sense, the vast amplitude and the splendour of the two preceding movements. It is the central and the largest movement of the entire work, for which reason its development is the most complex. It contains independent episodes which are different in character and mode of expression.

The Sanctus begins with a marvellously lyrical passage immediately followed by a more brilliant section.

The Benedictus, the text of which forms a separate section, re-introduces a more peaceful mood before the powerful and radiant finale.

The Agnus Dei is marked by its quality of inwardness and ends with the theme with which the work began, thus conferring a sense of unity on the whole.

The Mass in C has a clear and powerful structure. More than once there is a free use of elaborate polyphonic combinations evolving out of brilliant and massive chords. Beethoven thoroughly understood the expressiveness and the possibilities of the human voice he used extensively in his compositions. His interpretation of the text is profoundly philosophic and humanistic. Some of the features of this relatively early work prefigure the Missa Solemnis, the monumental contemporary of the Ninth Symphony.

The CD was released by harmonia mundi, CD 1988/P 1972, (AAD). HMA 190109.

Soprano: Emilija Markova
Alto: Lilijana Parachikova
Tenor: Christo Kamenev
Bass: Ivan Petrov

Choeurs Rodina, Orchestre Philharmonique d'Etat de Sofia, Conductor: Constantin Iliev

Track List:

Kyrie (4'50")
Gloria (9'51")
Credo (11'51")
Sanctus (12'53")
Agnus Dei (7'59")

Herbert Howells (1892-1983) - Stabat Mater (Premier Recording)

2009-08-26T23:53:00.006+02:00

The Stabat Mater was completed and first performed in 1965. It was the last of a Holy Trinity of large-scale choral works - the others being Hymnus Paradisi and Missa Sabrinensis, the "Mass of the Severn" - which have established Howells as one of the great twentieth-century masters of vocal-instrumental polyphony.

Herbert Howells (1892-1983), composer of the rather unknown masterwork Stabat Mater

The Stabat Mater was his last major work. He was seventy-three, and though he went on producing anthems, motets and canticles for another thirteen years, he never exceeded the stylistic boundaries established by this most complex, concentrated and ambiguous piece.

Unusually for Howells, the inspiration of the Stabat Mater was partially visual: the Pietà of Michelangelo in St. Peter's, Rome (the published vocal score reproduces it on the front cover).
Howells also made a close study of other composer's settings of the text, particularly Stanford's, which he greatly admired (his copy of the vocal score is full of admiring annotations), and kept by him a number of translations.

The Stabat Mater has been rarely performed and is still almost unknown. On a first hearing it can sound unvaried, which could be the reason for its lack of popularity. This impression, however, is misleading: in fact within the obligatory oneness of mood Howells achieves a subtle range of treatments, and marvellous inventions abound:

1) The very opening - two-part counterpoint: austere and severe as can be
2) The start of the second movement, a via dolorosa, the cuius animan gementem: Howells makes the cellos and double basses tune down to the low B, so flodding the scene with a lurid light. The solo tenors enters for the first time "O quam tristis", as if introducing speaking for, even protecting the Mother and rebuking the turba.
3) Moments of supreme choral glory: no other composer makes quite these sounds, as in "vidit Jesum in tormentis" in the "Quis est homo"; at "fac me tecum vere flere" in the "Sancta Mater"; and, assai fervido, the great apotheosis of "Juxta crucem tecum stare" in the same movement.
4) The suggestions of great turbulence, gathering storm, threatening crowds, which lead up to that conflagration in the "Sancta Mater".
5) The crippled march - complete with desultory funeral chimes - which begets the finale. The end is resigned extinction of all light and life.

The Stabat Mater was composed against a background of political and personal stress and distress - the Russians' testing of nuclear weapons in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the Kennedy assassination in 1963, Sir Winston Churchill's death and state funeral in 1965, the death of Howell's son 25 years ago, was also a powerful presence. All this surely played its part in exacerbating the tension and anguish which pervades the Stabat Mater. It is music of extraordinary desolation and dereliction of spirit. Yet, as all in Howells, agony is ecstacy: sense of loss on the one hand, Beatific Vision on the other.

The CD was released by Chandos, 1994, (DDD). Chandos Chan 9314.

Tenor: Neill Archer

London Symphony Chorus, Stephen Westrop (Chorus Master), The London Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Gennady Rozhdestvensky

Track List:

Stabat Mater for tenor solo, chorus & orchestra

1) Chorus: Stabat Mater Doloroisa (7'54")
2) Chorus, Semi-Chorus, Tenor Solo: Cuius Animan Gementem (10'02")
3) Chorus: Quis Est Homo ? (4'36")
4) Tenor Solo, Chorus: Eia, Mater (4'51")
5) Chorus, Tenor Solo: Sancta Mater (5'51")
6) Chorus, Tenor Solo: Fac Ut Portem (7'43")
7) Chorus: Tenor Solo, Semi-Chorus: Christe, Cum Sit Hunc Exire (10'19")

Jean Gilles (1668-1705) - Messe Des Morts

2009-07-31T10:42:00.011+02:00

I'm deeply shocked by the news that a powerful bomb attack occured in Palmanova, Balearic Islands. Police believe the attack was carried out by an ETA cell that came to the island specifically to carry it out and was not based there, it is said.

Please, let there be no harm to the Islands - no terror, no anger, no fear, no hatred, no sorrow. Mallorca is Europe's favourable tourist desination. And please do no harm to the Spanish monarchy. Please no damage to the Holy Cathedral of Mallorca !

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Jean Gilles' Messe des morts may be regarded as the best of all (French) requiem masses.
When the Messe des morts was completed, however, the patrons refused to pay him the agreed sum of ten louis d'or, claiming that the work had grown too elaborate and a performance would be far too expensive. "Gilles was so incensed by this that he claimed: all right ! Then it shall be performed by no one, and I shall be the first for whom it is given !" He would not have long to wait: the composer, sickly since childhood, died on 5 February 1705, barely a month after his 37 birthday, and the Requiem indeed seems to have had its first perfomance at his own funeral.

Probably Gilles and his Messe des morts would then have been forgotten had not André Campra, eight years his senior, whom Gilles had known in their student days, conducted the work and later taken it with him to Paris. There he performed it at the Concert Spirituel, where he became incredibly popular and was given at least 15 more times until well into the 1770s.

With its thouroughly "theatrical" expressive gestures, modelled after Lully's tragédies lyriques, Gilles' Requiem correspondes exactly to the taste and requirements of Parisian musical life. Here and there are passages of "learned" counterpoint, as in the "Domine Jesu Christe" fugue of the Offertorium, but in spite of all the work's depth and loftiness, the predominant mood is one of cheerful lightness. This can be heard in the many passages in triple metre, but even at the very beginning of the Introit, in which the tenor intones his"Requiem" recitative, wholly operatic in style, over a dotted march rhythm. In the Communio, at the end of the requiem, the sorrow predominates again.

After two final, particularly grand performances - in September 1764 in Paris at the memorial service for Jean-Phillipe Rameau, with 180 musicians of the Académie Royale de Musique, and in May 1774 at the funeral of King Louis XV at Versailles - Gilles Requiem went unheard for nearly 200 years. But the work was mentioned and praised in so many sources that it was rediscovered relatively early by the recording medium: in 1958 Louis Frémaux conducted its first appearance on record with the Orchestre de Chambre Jean-Francois Paillard. Philippe Herreweghe's recording for Archiv Produktion was made in January 1981 at the Church of the Carmelites in Ghent and was the first to reflect historical practice , in the musical text itself as well in the performance. Herreweghe used for the recording an older, handwritten copy of the score in the Bibliothèque National de Paris, which presumably represents Gilles' original.

Thus the work, previously known only in Corrette's extravagant orchestration, with the addition of oboes, horns, trumpets, timpani and drum, and the thick, saturated sound of modern instruments, suddenly appeared in an entirely new sonoric garb - lean and taut, sharply accented, transparent and with intensely brilliant colours.

The CD was released by Archiv Produktion, 1981, (ADD). 471722-2 ABL.

Soprano: Anne-Marie Rodde
Altus: Jean Nirouet
Tenor: Martyn Hill
Bass I: Ulrich Studer
BASS II: Peter Kooy

Collegium Vocale Gent, Musica Antiqua Köln, conductor: Phillipe Herreweghe, played on period instruments.

"Herreweghe has accomplished a profoundly moving performance"

Track List:

Introitus (14'12")
Kyrie (2'21")
Graduale (5'12")
Offertorium (9'43")
Sanctus (3'57")
Agnus Dei (4'00")
Communio (4'33")
Michelle Corrette (1709-1795): Carillons des morts (4'46")

Charles Gounod (1818-1893) - Requiem (1893) in the version for 4 soloists/Mass No. 2 in G major, op. 1

2009-07-25T13:44:00.010+02:00

Despite all appearances, Camille Saint-Saens was perhaps correct when he said that Charles Gounod would be remembered principally for his religious music. True, Gounod is currently known almost solely for his operas: Romeo and Juliet, Mireille and the marvelous Faust ... Yet the composer also wrote a considerable number of religious works: masses oratorios, motets, sacred songs as well as numerous sundry compositions in Latin, French and even English !

The composer himself explained the reasons why he felt compelled to compose sacred music in a letter to Charles Bordes: "Palestrina and Bach are church fathers for us, it is important that we remain their sons." In fact, Gounod never ceased to write sacred music, from his early days at the consevatory until his last, dying days. Like Liszt, Gounod was a devout Catholic. Also like Liszt, he was constantly torn between the spirit and the flesh, between the sacred and the profane.

Berlioz, was quick to notice and praise Gounod's early composition "Agnus Dei", predicting a brilliant future for the young student at the Paris Conservatory. Winner of the Grand Prix de Rome at the early age of 21, Gounod described his youth in one word: tenderness. During his stay in Rome he assisted at the religious services at the Sistine Chapel, his first introduction - not without difficulties - to Palestrina's music. Gounod wrote: "(Palestrina's music) is strict, ascetic, horizontal, and calm like the line of the ocean"; he soon could not do without it. The composer's appetite for sacred music soon became insatiable. In Rome he wrote his first mass and an a cappela requiem which he orchestrated later.

Charles Gounod (17 June 1818 - 18 October 1893)

Upon his retun to Paris, Gounod became the music director at the Paroisse des Missions Chapel "on the condition", he emphasized, "that I could follow my ideas: Bach and Palestrina." He was on the verge of being ordained (he already signed his letters "Abbé Gounod"), but, like Liszt, he was able to realize the error of his ways in time. The five years that he spent at the Paroisse des Missions taught him the virtues of a contemplative life, of meditation and prayer. In fact, Gounod composed only sacred music until 1850.

In 1846 he composed a Missa brevis and O salutaris hostia for male voices for a friend; these works became the Mass no. 2 in G major, op. 1 for male chorus and organ. Dedicated to the Sociétés de Paris et du Département de la Seine, the mass was a response to the composer's deep-seated desire to restore the spirit of the liturgy in sacred music. He paly a decisive role toward reaching this goual by regularly personally directing his singers at the end of the Orphéon in Paris as of 1852. His energetic engagement was accompanied by a faith that could move mountains. The Mass in G major already manifests the power of a higher ideal accompanied by occasional Sulpician reverences, their appearance throughout Gounod's works reflecting his times.

Deeply moved by the death of his grandson Maurice, Gounod took up his pen once again in his old age. He wrote the first measures of his Requiem for soloists, chorus and orchestra on 21 March 1891 and completed the work at the beginning of 1893. The aged composer did not live to hear the Requiem's premiere during Holy Week in 1894. The work was performed again in October of the same year in a ceremony which served as a sort of official tribute in the presence of Gounod's family, representatives from politics and numerous well-known musicians including Ambroise Thomas and Giuseppe Verdi.

Henri Büsser, Gounod's devoted and zealous student, prepared a number of different version of the posthumous Requiem. Büssers's last edition is the version that is used for the CD: the four soloists and chorus are accompanied by a string quartet, harp and organ.

On the morning of 15 October 1893, Gounod, although feeling fatigued, went to church with his faithful companion Henri Büsser. After lunch he sat down to put the finishing touches on the piano arrangement of the exquisite Benedictus .... his wife found him with is head, "held up by his pipe resting on the table," bent over the open score of the Requiem. Gounod never regained consciousness; he died three days later on the morning of 10 October witha crucifix in his hands.

The CD was released by claves digital, 1993 (DDD). Claves CD 50-9326.

Soprano: Eva Buffoni
Alto: Irène Friedli
Tenor: Ruben Amoretti
Bass: Alain Clément

Quatuor Sine Nomine, Organ: Francois Margot, Choeur de Chambre Romand, conductor: André Charlet

Mass no. 2: Chorale du Brassus, organ: Francois Margot, conductor: André Charlet

Track List:

Introit and Kyrie (6'00")
Dies Irae (14'30")
Sanctus (1'28")
Benedictus (3'46")
Pie Jesu (3'34")
Agnus Dei (6'38")

Mass no. 2 for male chorus & organ in G major, op. 1:

7. Kyrie eleison (5'47")
8. Gloria (5'52")
9. Credo (8'44")
10. Sanctus (1'39")
11. O Salutaris (2'51")
12. Agnus Dei (4'50")

Giuseppe Verdi - Ave Maria, sung in Italian

2009-06-11T01:32:00.000+02:00

The Ave Maria for female voice and strings was performed at La Scala 1880. The words are attributed to Dante.

Download: Verdi - Ave Maria (WMA VBR 176 kbit/sec) from the CD "Sacred Works - Messa Solenne"

Lyrics: Ave Maria (in Dante's translation)

Ave Regina Vergine Maria (Hail Queen, Virgin Mary)
Piena Di Grazia: Iddio È Sempre Teco: (Full Of Grace: The Lord Is Always With You:)
Sopra Ogni Donna Benedetta Sia. (Above All Women, May You Be Blessed.)
E'l Frutto Del Tuo Ventre, (And Blessed Be The Fruit Of Your Womb,)
Il Qual Io Preco Che Ci Guardi Dal Mal, Cristo Gesù, (Christ Jesus, To Whom I Pray, That He May Keep Us From Evil,)
Sia Benedetto, E Noi Tiri Con Seco. (And Draw Us After Him.)
Vergine Benedetta, Sempre Tu (Blessed Virgin, Always)
Ora Per Noi A Dio, Che Ci Perdoni, (Pray For Us To God, That He Might Forgive Us,)
E Diaci Grazia A Viver Sì quaggiù, (And Give Us Grace So To Live Here Below)
Che'l Paradiso Al Nostro Fin Ci Doni. (That He May At The Last Welcome Us Into Paradise.)
Ave Maria, Ora Per Noi A Dio, Ora Per Noi. (Hail Mary, Pray For Us To God, Pray For Us.)

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) - Mass in E-Flat Major, D 950

2009-05-06T21:21:00.007+02:00

Prior to 1825, Schubert's forays into the field of the Latin Mass had been more or less conventional affairs, but in his sixth and final Mass, written during the last months of his life in 1828, he struck out in a totally novel direction in setting the Latin text to music.

In none of his Masses, including the four early settings of 1814 to 1816, was he willing to exclude the idea of a wholly personal profession of faith in spite of his debt to traditional models, but opted instead for solutions that strike the modern listener as more than a little surprising and suggest a critical attitude to the articles of faith.

Displays of mere magnificence were never an end in themselves even in the Mass in A-flat major, which he wrote between 1819 and 1822, and revised in 1825. Although this last-named work was also designed to impress the imperial court, where he hoped to obtain the position of deputy Kapellmeister, there is no denying the very real sense of consternation that Schubert must have felt when working out the musical material, while the emphasis given to certain textual details is utterly individual and far removed from the everyday practices of the period, at least as they affected sacred music.

The E-flat major Mass is meant to inspire fear rather than prepare its listeners spiritually and, in keeping with tradition, put them in the right frame of mind for the Sacrifice of the Mass.

The CD was released by Sony, 1995 (DDD). SK 66255.

Soprano: Benjamin Schmidinger (Wiener Sängerknaben)
Alto: Albin Lenzer (Wiener Sängerknaben)
Tenor: Kurt Azesberger
Tenor: Jörg Hering
Bass: Harry van der Kamp

Organ: Arno Hartmann

Wiener Sängerknaben, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Conductor: Bruno Weil

Track List:

Kyrie (5'13")
Gloria (12'17")
Credo (13'53")
Sanctus (2'54")
Benedictus (4'51")
Agnus Dei (8'15")

Zbigniew Preisner (b. 1955) - Requiem For My Friend (Requiem Dla Mojego Przyjaciela)

2009-05-06T20:39:00.013+02:00

Zbigniew Preisner is Poland's leading film music composer and is considered to be one of the most outstanding film composers of his generations.

Among many recent awards and citations Preisner received the Silver Bear from the Berlin Festival in 1997, two Césars from the French Film Academy - one in 1996 for Jean Becker's Elisa, and one in 1995 for Three Colours Red - and three consecutive citations as the year's most outstanding composer of film music in The Los Angeles Critics Association Awards of 1991, 1992 and 1993. Preisner is a member of the French Film Academy and in 1992 he received the Award from the Minister of Foreign Affairs for outstanding achievements in the presentation of Polish Culture abroad.

Requiem for my friend is Preisner's first large-scale work specially written for recording and live performance.

"Once we had a joint conception to create a concert telling a life story. The premiere was planned to take place on the Acropolis in Athens. It was intended to be a large event, a hybrid of a mystery play and opera. Krzysztof Kieslowski would be the director, Krzysztof Piesiewicz was responsible for the script, and I was planning to compose the music. Once, we thought it might be the first of a series of musical performances, to be developed in various interesting places around the world in the next few years. But it was life that authored a different ending: Krzysztof Kieslowski died on 13th March 1996.

The first part of the Requiem for my friend is meant as a farewell to Krzysztof Kieslowski. I dedicate this music to him." Zbigniew Preisner

(The text is taken from the booklet of the CD)

The Requiem for my friend is one of my favourite Requiems. Thank you for this masterwork.

The CD was released by ERATO, 1998 (DDD). 3984-24146-2.

Soprano: Elzbieta Towarnicka
Countertenors: Dariusz Paradowski, Piotr Lykowski
Tenor: Piotr Kusiewicz
Bass: Grzegorz Zychowicz
Additional Tenor: Mariusz Koluch
Voice: Dorota Slezak

Varsov Chamber Choir, Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra, Organ: Jan Szypowski, Conductor: Part One - Roman Rewakowicz, Part Two - Jacek Kaspszyk

Part One recorded in Warsaw Cathedral and the Emaus Church in Cracow (Dec 1997), Part Two recorded and mixed in Studio S2/S4, Polish Radio, Warsaw (Feb. 1998) and in the Emaus Church in Cracow (Dec 1997 and Feb 1998)

Track List:

PART ONE: REQUIEM - Officium (3'46")
Kyrie Eleison (6'12")
Dies Irae (4'51")
Offertorium (3'19")
Sanctus (2'51")
Agnus Dei (1'49")
Lux Aeterna (1'56")
Lacrimosa (3'24")
Epitaphium (3'03")
PART TWO: LIFE - The Beginning - Meeting (5'18")
Discovering the world (2'50")
Love (2'24")
Destiny - Kai Kairos (9'43")
Apocalypse - Ascende huc (2'18")
Veni et vidi (2'45")
Qui erat et qui est (4'26")
Lacrimosa - Day of tears (4'03")
Postscriptum - Prayer (3'16")

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) - Grandes Oeuvres Chorales (Choral Works)

2009-05-02T15:11:00.008+02:00

Berlioz's large choral works such as the Requiem and the Te Deum are well known for their immensity, and he also wrote extended dramatic choral works for the concert stage, such as Roméo et Juliette, La damnation de Faust, and L'Enfance du Christ. In addition he wrote smaller choral works throuhgout his life for every kind of group and every kind of purpose.

In Berlioz's time purely orchestral concerts with no chorus participation - the kind of concert that is normal today - was the exception rather than the rule, for a chorus was very often to be seen and heard taking part in mixed concerts which included many solo items as well as choruses, symphonic works and concertos.

In addition it was an age when social philanthropists believed strongly in the moral benefits of choral singing, choral societies sprang up everywhere in great numbers so that in the later part of the nineteenth century a city like Paris could boast dozens of active choral bodies. For grand festive occasions huge choruses with over a thousand singers were sometimes assembled, as for axample in November 1855 when Berlioz mounted some immense concerts to mark the close of the Paris Exposition Universelle of that year.

He also composed choral chamber music, evidently intended for very small groups with a piano accompaniment or none at all. Some of these exist with piano or orchestral accompaniments as alternatives. There was a ready market for such pieces, and although we have few records of performances, since they were usually unreported by the press, publishers were willing to meet the evident demand of a growing circle of choral amateurs.

Of the works in the present selection with orchestral accompaniment, the earliest is the Scène Héroique, also known as La Révolution Greque, composed in 1825-26 to a text by his lifelong friend Humbert Ferrand. Both text and music have an old-fashioned ring, with echoes of the popular style of the 1790s with solid rhythms and vigorous cries of "victoire" and "triomphe". It was inspired by the Greeks' fight for independence from the Turks, a campaign that aroused Europe's passions and drew Byron himself to the action. The central Prière for woman's voice is especially effective, and also the relentless galopping rhythms of the finale, summoning heroes to action.

In the following year, 1827, Berlioz competed for the Prix de Rome, awarded annually to young artists and carrying a period of study in Rome as its prize. He was not to win it until 1830, but La Mort d'Orphée, the first cantata he wrote for the competiton, is strikingly original.
It was never performed in his lifetime. After some evocative forest murmurs a solo viola and two flutes give out a long placid theme which symbolizes the enchantement of Orpheus's lyre. Orpheus himself enters to some forceful recitative and sings rapturously of his love and his art. But he is doomed, and the wild Bacchantes tear him to pieces in a movement of relentless fury. The most poetic moment is heard at the end, when the strings of his broken lyre are caressed by the breeze while a solo clarinet poetically recalls the opening theme of the cantata.

In 1829 Berlioz set a group of poems by the Irishmen Thomas Moore, translated into French by Thomas Gounet. Six of the nine pieces are solo songs with piano accompaniment while the remaining three combine solo voices and chorus. In the Chant Guerrier reflective solos for tenor and bass are heard between bursts of patriotic enthusiasm for the chorus, while the Chanson à boire naturally diverts that enthusiasm to the pleasures of the bottle. But we are reminded by the tenor soloist in a melody of characteristically broad span, that tears and laughter are never far apart.

The Chant Sacré is a six-part devotional setting for chorus with solos for soprano and tenor voices. In the first of these solos the evocation of the starry night draws suggestive tremolos high in the piano. When the piece was orchestrated in 1843 the tremolos convey a magical atmosphere, and Berlioz omitted the two other solo verses since the accompaniment is strictly inappropriate for their words. The score has a heavy complement of clarinets, giving a marked solemnity to the piece entirely in keeping with the awestruck tone of the poem.

1829 is also the year of the Ballet des Ombres, a brilliant exercise in spooky fantasy. Based on a poem by Herder, it echoes the satanic elements of Faust and Hamlet, Berlioz's favourite reading at that time, as the Shades intone their ghostly sing. The ending is particularly graphic as the chorus holds on to a D flat major chord and the piano disappears to nothing in C minor. The Sopranos sing an octave above the tenors throughout, a sonority of haunting strangeness.

Sara la baigneuse, one of Berlioz's most beautiful pieces, started life in 1834 as a simple song for male-voice quartet and orchestra, a version now lost, but he later elaborated it for three choruses - one of women only, one of men only, and one mixed.This gives no weight but intricacy, and the orchestration is particularly delicate. Hugo's poem describes Sara dallying in a pool in an oriental setting. When it was performed in Leipzig in 1854 German sensibilities were shocked by the description of Sara slipping naked from the water, but they could hardly accuse Berlioz of treading roughly on delicate ground; his handling of the text could not be more skilful and apt, and his light touch with the orchestra, especially the woodwind, is something we must recognize as entirely characteristic. Berlioz could and did roar like a lion; in such refined choruses as these he sings like a nightingale.

In a quite different tone Berlioz set Béranger's poem Le Cinq Mai as a homage to Napoleon, whose memory Berlioz greatly revered. During his stay in Italy and for several years afterwards he planned a huge and ambitious work to celebrate Napoleon's campaigns in Italy, of which Le Cinq Mai was probably intended to be a part. It is a work that Berlioz himself performed often, featuring a bass soloist and some remarkable orchestration: double basses divided into four parts, galloping strings, brass fanfares and distant cannon effects. Although there is a recurrent refrain, each verse is separately set, and the refrain itself, "Pauvre Soldat", is strikingly intensified at each return, with new details in the accompaniment, and finally growing from the tenderest treatment on muted strings to an immense clamorous tutti at the top of the final phrase, then dying away to nothing.

Patriotic pride is also to be heard in the Chant des chemins de fer, composed in 1846 for the formal opening of the railway line from Paris to Lille, in the north of France. Jules Janin's text invokes the glories of progress, the pride of the workers, the monarchy, and the wonders of science, to be sung out of doors and received by hats flung high in the air and bursts of cannon fire in Lille's main square. Berlioz was given very little time to compose it, and he was careful not to make the orchestration too subtle for the occasion. The main refrain is heard six times, with a tenor soloist leading the male chorus. The fifth refrain ist curtailed, leading into a strange devotional hymn of thanksgiving where the women's voices join in. The best passage in the cantata is the third verse section, telling of the old men's pride in the new railway, a beautifully moulded melody with rich string support.

Tristia is a compilation of three works written at different times and published as a set in 1852. Berlioz assembled them in London in 1848 under a title borrowed from Ovid meaning "sad things". Like Ovid exiled from Rome, Berlioz felt exiled from Paris by the 1948 riots and by his disenchantment with all musical affairs in his home city.

The Méditation religieuse was one of the few pieces he composed in Rome during his stay in 1831. It is a setting of a poem by Thomas Moore for six-part chorus and small orchestra which makes particularly telling use of a solo horn at the end against fading strings.

La mort d'Ophélie is a setting of a poem by Berlioz's friend Ernest Legouvé. It was originally composed in 1842 as a song for solo voice and piano. In February 1848 he announced a Shakspearean concert to be given at Covent Garden to include this new version for women's chorus and orchestra, but the concert was not given. For the first time in his life Berlioz wrote for the low contralto voices which he admired in English choruses but had never encountered in France. The poem is a free paraphrase of Gertrude's account of Ophelia's death in Act IV of Hamlet. Ophelia was the role that Harriet Smithson, later Berlioz's wife, had played in 1827, when he discovered Shakespeare for the first time.

The Marche funèbre for the final scene of Hamlet was probably composed in 1844, when there was some prospect, never realised, of a production of the play in Paris with music by Berlioz. This solemn funeral march, one of Berlioz's finest pieces, enacts Fortinbras's command "Go, bid the soldiers shoot" with a volley of musketry at the climax. The piece ends with a few bars of cavernous silence and some drooping phrases of infinite sadness. The chorus, intoning "AH!" from time to time, hold on long after the orchestra has disappeared into silence.

Three late choral works complete the collection. The Hymne pour la consécration du nouveau tabernacle was Berlioz's thank-offering to a curious individual named J.H.Vries, widely known as Docteur Noir, for attending him in 1859 when he was critically ill. Vries dreamed of a universal religion that would unite all nations, to be sanctified in a new temple to be built on the Champs-Elysées. The hymn consists of eight repeated verses.

Toward the end of his life Berlioz composed two sacred pieces on Latin texts for women's voices. The Tantum Ergo displays some elegant chromatic part-writing, while the Veni Creator Spiritus is simple and affecting, although less obviously revealing its composer's style. There is no record of these pieces being performed in his lifetime.

The 2 CD set was released by Emi Classics, 2003 (DDD). 7243 5 57633 2 7.

Tenor: Rolando Villazon
Baritone: Nicolas Rivenq
Bass: Laureent Naouri

Piano: David Bismuth
Harmonium Frank Vilars

Choeur 'Les Elements', Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Conductor: Michel Plasson

Track List CD 1 (Copy Protected):

Sara la baigneuse, Ballade op. 11 - mixed chorus & orchestra - Victor Hugo "sara, belle d'indolence" (6'55")
Méditation religieuse - mixed chorus & orchestra, Berlioz after Thomas Moore "Ce monde entier n'est qu'une ombre fugitive" (4'54")
La mort d'Ophélie, Ballade - female chorus & orchestra, Ernest Legouvé after Shakespeare "Auprès d'un torrent Ophélie" (6'10")
Marche funèbre pour la dernière scène d'Hamlet - mixed chorus & orchestra (7'31")
Le ballet des ombres, ronde nocturne op. 2 - mixed chorus & piano, A. Duboys after Wilhelm Herder "Formez vos rangs, entrez en danse !" (3'00")
Chant sacré (Version 1) op. 2 no. 6 - tenor, mixed chorus & orchestra, Thomas Gounet after Thomas Moore "Dieu tout-puissant, Dieu de l'aurore" (5'16")
Veni Creator Spiritus - female chorus (4'49")
Tantum Ergo Sacramentum - female chorus & harmonium (6'24")
Scène héroique (La Révolution Greque), 2 basses, mixed chorus & orchestra - Humbert Ferrand - Récit & air: Lève-toi, fils de Sparte! (Héros grec) (3'13")
Scène héroique, Choeur: Mais la voix du Dieu des armées (Héros grec, Pretre grec) (5'18")
Scène héroique, Prière: Astre terrible et saint, guide les pas du brave ! (4'24")
Scène héroique, Final: Des sommets de l'Olype (Héros grec, Pretre grec) (4'50")

Track List CD 2 (Copy Protected):

Le Cinq mai, chant sur la mort de l'Empereur Napoléon, op. 6 - bass, mixed chorus & orchestra - Pierre-Jean de Béranger "Des Espagnols m'ont pris sur leur navire" (13'25")
La Mort d'Orphée, monologue et bacchanale, tenor, female chorus & orchestra - Berton "Introduction" (2'24")
Récit & air: Pretresses de Bacchus ... O seul bien qui me reste ! (4'18")
Récit: Quels cris affreux se font entendre (1'05")
Bacchanale: O Dieu puissant, fils de Latone ... O Bacchus Evoé ! (3'16")
Tableau musical (orchestra) (2'45")
Chant guerrier op 2, no. 3 - tenor, bass male chorus & piano, Thomas Gounet after Thomas Moore "N'oublions pas ces champs, dont la poussière" (4'02")
Chanson à boire op 2, no. 5 - tenor, male chorus & piano - Thomas Gounet after Thomas Moore "Amis, la coupe écum" (3'38")
Chant des chemins de fer op. 19, no. 3 - tenor, mixed chorus & orchestra, Jules Janin "C'est le grand jour, le jour de fete" (8'32")
Chant sacré (version 2) op. 2, no. 6 - tenor, mixed chorus & piano, Thomas Gounet after Thomas Moore "Dieu tout-puissant, Dieu de l'aurore" (9'05")
Hymne pour la consécration du nouveau tabernacle - mixed chorus & piano, Jan Hendricks Vries "Bien que le ciel parfois se couvre d'un nuage" (7'15")

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) - Missa In Angustiis (Nelson Mass)

2009-04-12T18:30:00.008+02:00

On 28 June 1798, Lord Horatio Nelson arrived at Alexandria in hot pursuit of Napoleon's troops for Egypt. On 1 August 1798, he cornered the French fleet at Abukir and blew them to bits in one of the most brilliant victories for the Allies in the long and seemingly hopeless war.

Far away, in the Austrian town of Eisenstadt, Joseph Haydn, Princely Kapellmeister to His Serene Highness, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, was in the middle of the new Mass. As Haydn was writing the last pages, news of the great victory at Abukir reached Naples. The fastest couriers rode breakneck northwards.

On the very day of the first performance - 15 September - Count Zinzendorf, a Viennese aristocrat close to court circles, noted in his diary. "Thugut a fait assurer à Saurau que l'admiral Nelson a brulé la flotte de Buonap. dans le port d'Alexandre".

Haydn could not have known of the battle as he was writing the Mass, but from the first performance, everyone referred to the Missa In Angustiis (Mass in time of fear, which Haydn gave to the work in his own catalogue) as the "Nelson Mass".

The "Nelson Mass" is arguably Haydn's greatest single composition. The scoring is in itself most curious: three trumpet parts, timpani, solo organ, which Haydn himself played, strings, and the usual soli and tutti vocal parts. The key, D minor, is most unusual, too. But its outward layout scarcely prepares us for the ferocious power of the beginning, with its insistent trumpet and drum parts and the stately splendour with which this vast, almost mediaeval pageant unfolds.

Haydn's Nelson Mass became very famous in the years following. In this recording Haydn's authentic text as established by the autograph and two sets of contemporary and authentic parts was used: the original performance material at Eisenstadt and an early set of parts by Haydn's copyist, Johann Elssler, in Klosterneuburg Monastery. Further early sets of parts in the Monastery of St Paul, in the Cathedral Church of Oradea Mare (Romania), and a score in the British Museum were also collated for this recording !

Sylvia Stahlman outside King's College

The performance (of the Nelson Mass) is very fine indeed ... Sylvia Stahlman's firm and fresh voice rings out clearly in the dramatic and florid passages allotted to her and is beautifully expressive in the few softer passages.

The CD was released by DECCA, P 1962/1963/1966 C 2000 (ADD). DECCA 458 623-2 DM.

Soprano: Sylvia Stahlman
Contralto: Helen Watts
Tenor: Wilfred Brown
Baritone: Tom Krause

The Choir of King's College, Camebridge, London Symphony Orchestra, Conductor: Sir David Willcocks

Track List:

Joseph Haydn: Missa In Angustiis, Hob. XXII: 11

Kyrie (5'05")
Gloria In Excelsis Deo (3'30")
Qui Tollis Peccata Mundi (4'30")
Quoniam Tu Solus Sanctus (2'46")
Credo In Unum Deum (1'53")
Et Incarnatus Est (4'18")
Et Resurrexit (3'47")
Sanctus (2'24")
Benedictus (6'01")
Agnus Dei (3'29")
Dona Nobis Pacem (2'50")

Antonio Vivaldi: Gloria in D major, RV 589

12. Gloria in excelsis Deo (2'33")
13. Et in terra pax (4'36")
14. Laudamus Te (2'19")
15. Gratias agimus tibi (0'31")
16. Propter magnam gloraim tuam (1'01")
17. Domine Deus, Res Coelestis (3'57")
18. Domine Fili Unigenite ((2'22")
19. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei (3'25")
20. Qui tollis peccata mundi (1'13")
21. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris (2'51")
22. Quoniam tu solus Sanctus (0'50")
23. Cum Sancto Spiritu (3'08")

George Frideric Handel, Zadok The Priest, HWV 258

24. Zadok the priest (5'48")

Jules Massenet (1842-1912) - Ève (Mysterium In 3 Parts) (World Premiere Recording)

2009-04-11T17:18:00.005+02:00

Eve - Song In Praise Of Love: After God created Adam, He saw that it was not good for Man to be alone. Thus He gave him Eve, the first woman, as a companion. The mystic-romantic oratory "Eve" describes the story from the creation of Eve to the Fall of man in dramatic musical pictures.

Who doesn't know the story from Genesis (1st Book of Moses) with which all patriarchal, monotheistic believers have been influenced since time immemorial, that with Woman, doom had entered into a once immaculate creation.

Massenet's "Mystère en 3 Parties", with a text from Louis Gallet, uses all of the dramatic possibilities for dramatising the temptation to sin: a voice from heaven.

A speaker (tenor), voices of the night, spirits of hell, and the voices of nature (choir) accompany an event in which all reality is laid bare through its allegorising.

While Adam fundamentally remains a henpecked husband in paradise, Eve is perfectly aware of erotic power, which irresistibly lures her to the tree of knowledge on which the fatal apples grow.
It is unavoidable that the only thing forbidden to those in paradise must be tasted. Adam bites, lured by desire for the fateful fruit. What results is known to all: this vale of tears, the world.
We carry sin as a burden of guilt, as original sin, as cosmic bad conscious around with us.

But Massenet and his librettist, Galet, were no Frenchmen who viewed this fall from grace with a finger raised in accusation, as was undoubtedly the Germanic tendency. Adam and Eve were banished from paradise because they had given heed to the spirits of hell.

In concluding song they accept all divine punishment, but there is one thing they do not wish to relinquish: "Punish us but leave us the joy of love. Let us remain united." Thus with Massenet the power of love triumphs - and musically most vividly - over divine retribution because love is subjet only to its own law.

Jules Massenet, born in 1842 in Montaud, Loire, was the last of twenty-one children (!). He studied in Paris under Ambroise Thomas ("Mignon") and soon received the much sought after "Prix de Rome", which in France was always a springboard to success.

With the operas "Le grand´tante" (1867) and "Don César de Bazan" b(1872), Massenet quickly made an excellent name for himself in Paris, and from a motive unknown suddenly wrote an oratorio in 1873: "Marie Magdeleine." With this religious work Massenet entered a terrain that captivated him forever, and from many points of view pointed the way for the nation with three further works in this genre.

The "Mysterium" (= oratorium) Ève followed in 1875. This composition, in all of its simplicity, the well-known story of original sin in paradise, is much more full of fantasy and decidedly more intensive in its dramatic means of expression, and is in better taste than "Magdeleine."

The master of the parlante (patter song) was able to dress the opera in spiritual clothing from within the severe and basic Catholic tenet of his country.

After 1878 Massenet was a professor at the famous Conservertoire and became a musical institution in Paris - uncontested until his death in 1912. This fame was naturally supported by further operas, such as "Werther", "Thais", and "Don Quichotte". His influence on the works of Claude Debussy and Giacomo Puccini is not to be underestimated.

The CD was released by Arte Nova Classics, 1998 (DDD). Arte Nova 74321 58964 2.

Soprano: Susanne Geb
Baritone: Armin Kolarczyk
Tenor: Angelo Simos

Three Nation Choir, Euregio Symphony Orchestra, Conductor: Jeanpierre Faber

Track List:

Première Partie - 1. Prologue - La Naissance de la femme: Introduction et choeurs (05'07")
2. Adam et Eve: Prélude (02'36")
Scène et duo (08'11")
Récit (00'54")
Choeur (03'51")
Deuxième Partie - 3. Eve dans la solitude: Choeur - Prélude (02'57")
Air (03'28")
Scène et choeur (08'38")
Troisième Partie - 4. La Faute: Prélude (02'18")
Air (02'34")
Duo (08'26")
5. Epilogue - La Malédiction: Récit (03'02")
Choeur (05'18")

César Franck (1822-1890) - The Seven Words Of Christ On The Cross (sung in Latin)

2009-04-05T15:41:00.006+02:00

The fact that Franck's liturgical and religious music in the widest sense of the term has become to be dismissed as second-rate in the consciousness of the generations which succeeded him is probably to be attributed to the fact that during the last 15 years of his life - uncontestedly the period of his mature work - he completely turned his back to religiously motivated music of this kind for the sake of chamber and orchestral music, whereas church music was the dominant element in the early and most of all the middle period of his life.

One of the most striking compositions of the middle period is The Seven Words Of Christ On The Cross. Completed on August 14, 1859 and without an opus number, the work is puzzling: although a product of care and craftsmanship, it was not performed during the composer's lifetime. In fact, even the writers of music history were unaware of the existence. It was performed for the first time in 1977, i.e. almost 120 years after being written, after Armin Landgraf discovered the autograph in the University Library of Liège while doing research of Franck's church music, it having come into the possession of the library in 1955 after having been in private hands previously.

In the course of the music history, the dignity of the text has inspired a number of composers to put these biblical words to music (Schütz, Haydn); yet this did not actually result in the establishment of a genre tradition, i.e. a type of music with a precisely definable function and equally definable demands to be made on the composer.

Thus Franck selects a Latin version of the text in which he combines the words of Christ with additional biblical texts and liturgical texts not deriving from the Bible to form larger, self-contained units which are premised by a prologue.

Unpretentious in terms of harmonization and intended to be meditative rather than dramatic, the work is nevertheless very powerful, with the composer careful to make sure that the eight movements are combined to form a cyclical structure.

In doing so he employs hiw own key symbolism, i.e. he foregoes the use of sharp keys which for him represent light and joy and favours the minor keys. Twice - in the first and the fifth Word - the meditative atmosphere which dominates the piece is interrupted by dramatic elements, whereby elements of the grand-opéra shine trough.

The CD was released by AUDITE, 1993 (ADD). audite 95.432.

Soprano: Edith Wiens
Tenor: Raimundo Mettre
Bariton: Thomas Pfeiffer
Bass: Ivo Ingram

Choir & Orchestra Philharmonie Schwäbisch Gmünd, Conductor: Hubert Beck

Live recording 21 November 1979 in Heilig-Kreuz-Münster Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany.

Track List:

Prolog: O Vos Omnes, Qui Transitis Per Viam (4'49)
(1) Pater, Dimitte Illis (5'39"
(2) Amen, Dico Tibi (4'17")
(3) Mulier, Ecce Filius Tuus (6'55")
(4) Deus Meus, Ut Quid Dereliquisti Me ? (3'45")
(5) Sitio ! (6'42")
(6) Consummatum Est (5'30")
(7) Pater, In Manus Tuas (3'33")

Barbra Streisand - Classical Barbra

2009-04-04T18:43:00.008+02:00

Songs and Arias sung by Barbra Streisand: Claude Debussy, Joseph Canteloube, Hugo Wolf, Gabriel Fauré, Carl Orff, Georg Friedrich Händel, Robert Schumann, Claus Ogerman.

When one of the greatest popular singers of our time records an album of classical songs, the result has to be something unique. What Barbra has done here will come as a surprise and revelation.

Barbra is one of the most versatile talents in the business, but this recording reveals that her versatility and her gifts are even greater than anyone has ever guessed.

On "Dank Sei Dir, Herr": This great religious song came to light early in this century, and although its exact source is still unknown, the style and manner of the music leave little doubt that Händel, indeed, composed it.

As in "Lascia Ch'io Pianga, there are to be found traits that characterize all that Händel wrote - greatness achieved with a minimum of melodic and harmonic complexity.

The CD was released by Sony, P 1976 C 1993 (ADD). Sony Masterworks SK 33452.

Barbra Streisand, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Conductor/Piano: Claus Ogerman

Track List:

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) - Beau Soir (2'37")
Joseph Canteloube (1879-1957) - Brezairola (3'44")
Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) - Verschwiegene Liebe (2'55)
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) - Pavane (Vocalise) (5'29")
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) - Après Un Reve (3'22)
Carl Orff (1895 - 1982) - In Trutina (2'08")
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) - Lascia Ch'io Pianga from Rinaldo (3'38")
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) - Mondnacht (3'55")
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) - Dank Sei Dir, Herr (3'42")
Claus Ogerman (b. 1930) - I Loved You (2'16")

A big "Thank You" to Barbra Streisand for these great arias !

Anton(in) Dvorak (1841-1904) - Mass op. 64/Te Deum op. 103

2009-04-03T18:13:00.004+02:00

The Mass in D Major comes along in two versions: the original with organ accompaniment and the later version with orchestra. It is one of the works which Dvorak composed through the active support and encouragement of a Prague architect, Josef Hlàvka, who was the founder, patron and first president of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts. The Mass was not intended for a great public occasion but for the conscration of the private chapel at Hlàvka's castle on his country estate at Luzany on 11 September 1887. Therefore, in its frist version, this Mass had an accompaniment only for organ, the version with orchestra coming five years later.

Equally it is a Mass for the Bohemian country Baroque parish churches, so central a feature of every Czech town and village, rather than one requiring the splendour of the ritual in a city cathedral.

Dvorak conducted the first performance at the consecration of the chapel and the first concert performance was given in Plzen on 15 April 1888, when the accompaniment was for two harmoniums, violoncello and two double basses.

Dvorak's main publisher, Simrock in Berlin, refused the work but Novello's in London, with whom the composer had such a happy relationship, accepted the work on the condition that he provided an orchestrated version as well. Thus, between 24 March and 15 June 1892, Dvorak completed the orchestration of the Mass in D Major and this version received its first performance at the Crystal Palace. London on 11 March 1893.

Dvorak received an invitation to take up the post of Director of the new National Conservatory in New York in 1892. He remained there for three years. Dvorak's arrival was to coincide with the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.

For this reason the founder of the new Conservatory asked Dvorak for a work to be performed on 12 October 1892. When Dvorak didn't receive a suitable text for the work from the Conservatory, he decided to chose the text of Te Deum Laudamus that took one month to be composed.

Dvorak had a choir of two hundred and fifty in New York when the work was first performed in the New York Music Hall on 21 October 1892.

The CD was released by Chandos, 1996 (DDD). CHANDOS CHAN 9505.

Soprano: Marina Meshcheriakova
Bass: Sergei Miasnikov

Russian State Symphonic Capella, Russian State Symphony Orchestra, Conductor: Valéry Polyansky

Track List:

Mass in D Major, Op. 86 (B. 175)

Kyrie (8'44")
Gloria (9'20")
Credo (12'05")
Sanctus (2'19")
Benedictus (7'23")
Agnus Dei (5'23")

Te Deum. Op. 103 (B. 176)

7. Te Deum Laudamus (6'13")
8. Tu Rex Gloriae, Christe (4'38")
9. Aeterna Fac Cum Sanctis Tuis In Gloria Numerari (2'58")
10. Dignare, Domine, Die Isto Sine Peccato Nos Custodire (5'32")

Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921) - Messe de Requiem, Opus 54

2009-04-03T17:23:00.005+02:00

The Requiem Mass occupies a special place in Saint-Saens's religious choral works. Its dedicatee was a friend named Albert Libon, who had made a bequest to the composer of 100.000 Francs on condition that Saint-Saens should write a Requiem to be performed after Libon's death. This occured in 1877 and early the following spring. Saint-Saens travelled to Switzerland where he composed the Mass in its entirety within the space of eight days.

Unlike Berlioz and Verdi, whose respective Requiems were conceived in grandiose and quasi-operatic styles, Saint-Saens's compositions never loses sight of the church.

As in the Requiem of Fauré, a lifelong friend of the older composer, the vocal writing throughout is both devotional and entreating, with soloists and chorus echoing each other in urgent supplication. The scoring is discreet and lucid, the harps in particular making notable contributions to the accompaniment with filigrees of sound.

The organ too has an important part, and is often used with striking effect, as in the Tuba Mirum section of the Dies Irae, where it is joined by four unison trombones.

The sorrow in the music, particularly in the opening pages of the Requiem, and again in the Agnus Dei, takes on an added poignancy when we learn that not long after Saint-Saens returned from Switzerland, his young son fell to his death from the fourth floor of the family's Paris home. This tragedy was compounded even more horribly when his other child died of an illness only a few weeks later. One can almost hear in Saint-Saens's deeply-felt music a premonition of the pain that was to come.

The CD 'Saint-Saens Volume I' was released by Cala Records, 1993 (DDD). CACD 1015.

Soprano: Tinuke Olafimihan
Contralto: Catherine Wyn-Rogers
Tenor: Anthony Roden
Bass: Simon Kirkbride

The Hertfordshire Chorus, Harlow Chorus, East London Chorus, The London Philharmonic, Conductor: Geoffrey Simon

Track List:

1.-4.: Parysatis 'Airs de Ballet' (World Premiere Recording)
5.-6.: Sarabande et Rigaudon, Op. 93 (World Premiere Recording)
7.: Tarantelle for Flute, Clarinet & Orchestra, Op. 6
8.: Marche militaire francaise from Suite algérienne, Op. 60
9.: Africa - Fantasy for Piano & Orchestra, Op.89
10.: Valse - finale from Ascanio (World Premiere Recording)

Messe de Requiem, Op. 54

11. Requiem - Kyrie (5'56")
12. Dies Irae (7'25")
13. Rex Tremendae (3'04")
14. Oro Supplex (5'10")
15. Hostias (2'33")
16. Sanctus (1'24")
17. Benedictus (1'47")
18. Agnus Dei (8'20")

George Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) - Chandos Te Deum (World Premiere Recording)/Chandos Anthem "Let God Arise"

2009-03-31T20:32:00.004+02:00

When Georg Friedrich Händel was born in Halle on 23 February 1685, the same year as Bach and Scarlatti, Europe was largely a geographic term, and one could hardly speak of a feeling of supranational unity.

Händel was one of the few who represented a cosmopolitan form of musical artistry. He was, of course, shaped - albeit in varying intensity - by the music centres of Europe. Italy provided him with a variety of forms and the technique of musical diction, while France's influence centered around the stylistic peculiarities of overtures, suites and opera compositions.

England - his residence of choice - provided the artistic foundation for his oratories, with which he set new standards in the history of music composition.

When Händel settled in the English capital in 1717, after George I was named king, he not only encountered a myriad of possibilities for the development of his music but also forward-looking intellectual stimulation.

Thus he came to know John Locke and his empirical-rationalistic philosophy, and he also met numerous librettists for his oratories. Händel did not turn to the oratory until after he completed his extensive opera oeuvre.

To date Händel owes his fame to his oratories, which clearly show in their scenic conception that throughout his life the theatre was the focal point of his artistic inspiration.

The unmistakable style of his vocal and vocal-instrumental work was made possible by the existence of large choirs in England that had been established by the musical culture of the rising middle class.

When Händel entered the service of the Duke of Chandos in Cannons, he was primarily involved in composing anthems - church music compositions with English texts that were not part of the liturgy. At this time Händel composed Chandos Te Deum HWV 281, commissioned by the Duke, as well as the Chandos anthem "Let God Arise" HWV 256a.

Both compositions rely on older instrumental and vocal works by Händel and are characterized by the most varied harmonic figures and contrasts in tone. The cantata-like arrangement of the verses is achieved by alternating transparent counterpoint in the choirs with airs and accompagnatos in the solo parts, which in stylistic terms is also reminiscent of the cantata form.

The CD was released by Arte Nova, 1998 (DDD). Arte Nova 74321 59228 2.

Vocalsolisten Frankfurt, Drottningholms Baroque Ensemble, Conductor: Gerhard Jenemann

Track List:

Chandos Te Deum HWV 281 (World Premiere Recording)

We Praise Thee, O God (3'12")
All The Earth (3'22")
The Glorious Company (3'03")
Thou Art The King (2'56")
When Thou Tookest (2'11")
When Thou Hadst Overcome (00'36")
Thou Didst Open The Kingdom (00'43")
Thou Sittest Of The Right Hand (3'58")
We Believe That Thou Shalt Come (3'12")
Day By Day (2'02")
And We Worship Thy Name Ever (1'27")
Vouchsafe, O Lord (3'31")
O Lord, In Thee We Have Trust (4'09")

Chandos Anthem "Let God Arise" HWV 256a

14. Symphony (3'42")
15. Let God Arise (2'38")
16. Like As A Smoke (2'44")
17. Let The Righteous Be Glad (3'24")
18. O Sing Unto God (4'28")
19. Praised By the Lord (1'20")
20. At Thy Rebuke, O God (2'03")
21. Blessed Be God, Alleluja (2'01")

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) - Messa sopra l'Aria di Fiorenza

2009-03-31T19:44:00.006+02:00

Girolamo Frescobaldi "had all his brains in his fingertips" wrote the Florentine Giovanni Batista Dona. This discharging comment has its roots in the fact that the composer was during his lifetime known mainly as an organist and harpsichordist.

His teacher, the Ferrarese musician Luzzasco Luzzaschi, was regarded as a great organ virtuoso, and Frescobaldi was relatively young when appointed organist to St. Peter's in Rome. Small wonder, then, that his printed works include only music for keyboard instruments and secular vocal music.

That Frescobaldi was also a composer of sacred music can only be deduced from a few remaing manuscripts. Among them, the most remarkable are two masses, the Messa sopra l'aria di Monica and the Messa sopra l'aria di Fiorenza. Both are based on borrowed models, the Monica on a melody with bass, known in the German-speaking world as 'Von Gott will ich nicht lassen', the Fiorenza on a bass part only. This comes originally from a five-part madrigal by Emilio de' Cavalieri, first performed at the Florentine wedding of 1589 - hence its name.

Frescobaldi uses this bass part in his mass as the foundation for the continuo: its memorable opening g-d-e-B-c-d-G is recognizable in all parts. From it is derived the theme for the upper voices, it sets the harmonic framework, and adds spice to many a variation. In this way a straightforward inner coherence is maintained, which pulls together the irregular entries of the various voices in the two choirs, the polyphonic interplay of the vocal parts and the many-layered rhythms. The resultant sound never threatens to become opaque, promotes the intelligibility of the text, and uses the performing space to best advantage - all apparently without effort. The choice of the Fiorentina bass suggests that the composer wrote the work during his Florentine period, 1628-1634.

The CD was released by Arte Nova, 2000 (DDD). Arte Nova 74321 75500 2.

Soprano: Siri Thornhill
Altus: Rainer Seifert
Tenor: Henning Kaiser
Bass: Marcus Niedermeyr

Orpheus Chor München, Lyra Ensemble, Conductor: Gerd Guglhör

Track List:

Girolamo Frescobaldi - Messa sopra l'aria di Fiorenza

Kyrie (2'43")
Gloria (3'04")
Credo (3'15")
Crucifixus (00'39")
Et resurrexit (00'42")
Et iterum (1'02")
Et in spiritum (1'57")
Sanctus (1'00")
Agnus Dei (1'15")

Franceso Cavalli - Vesperi 1675

10. Dixit Dominus (5'20")
11. Laudate Pueri Dominum (2'37")
12. Laetatus Sum (Psalm 122) (3'14")
13. O Quam Suavis Es (Hymnus) (3'52")
14. Nisi Dominus (Psalm 127) (2'41")
15. Beatus Vir (Psalm 112) (6'20")
16. Ave Regina (Hymnus) (5'30")
17. Confitebor (Psalm 111) (5'13")
18. Lauda Jerusalem (Psalm 148) (3'13")
19. In Exitu (Psalm 114, 115) (6'53")

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) - Unpublished Verdi

2009-03-30T00:41:00.003+02:00

Of Verdi's innumerable youthful works, the manuscripts of only a few have been found and are known. Some of Verdi's utterances, with which he sharply criticised his production before turning towards opera ("Oh dear! I admit that I wrote this Tantum Ergo some sixty years ago! I recommend that the owner of this unhappy work throw it into the flames...") have contributed to the conviction that a large portion of these valuable autographs was destroyed in accordance with the composer's whishes.

It is difficult to understand how it could happen that the works of Verdi's youth were dispersed so far and in so many directions.

The source of the music introduced on this recording (the Fondo Cocchi-Cavalli, the name of which comes from two Busseto families who inherited the manuscripts) represents an important element in the reconstruction of the puzzle of Verdi's youthful instrumental works and is an important contribution to a better understanding of Italian instrumental music of the nineteenth century.

The CD was released by ARTS, 2001 (DDD 24bit/96khz). ARTS 47574-2.

Tenor: Fausto Tenzi
Bass: Antonio Abete

Basson: Rino Vernizzi
Oboe: Alberto Negroni

Coro e Orchestra "G. Verdi" di Busseto, Conductor: Fausto Pedretti

Track List:

Credo for Tenor, Bass, male chorus and orchestra: Credo In Unum Deum (2'22)
Credo for Tenor, Bass, male chorus and orchestra: Et Incarnatus Est (4'36")
Credo for Tenor, Bass, male chorus and orchestra: Et Resurrexit (3'20")
Capriccio per fagotto con accompagnamento di grande orchestra (12'53")
Introduzione, Andante e Tema con variazioni per oboe solo sopra un motivo della Straniera di Bellini con accompagnamento di grande orchestra: Introduzione (2'35")
Andante (5'11)
Tema con Variazioni (9'34")
Un Giorn di Regno, sinfonia (5'15")
Attila: Cavatina (5'36")
Attila: Scena, Romanza e Terzetto dall'Atto Terzo: Scena (2'15")
Romanza (2'11)
Terzetto (5'44")

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) - St. Stanislaus (World Premiere Recording)

2009-03-29T19:42:00.005+02:00

This is the first complete recording of the two scenes Liszt finished for his last great project: an oratorio on the matyrdom in 1079 of Poland's patron saint. It was, Liszt said, his "Nunc dimittis", by which he meant a hymn for the close of day, a valedictory prayer, like the Canticle of Simeon.

He composed the music scene I in 1874. He returned to the music in 1882, after an eight-year hiatus during which various poets helped him improve the libretto.

Liszt sent the finished score of Scene IV to his publisher just weeks before he died in 1886.

No music exists for scenes II and III. In this recording scenes I and IV are performed just as he left them, with one exception: at the end of scene I, the bishop's mother's area, which Liszt left in piano-vocal score, has been orchestrated in a manner consistent with his other orchestral works from the 1870s.

The CD was released by Telarc, 2004 (DDD). Telarc CD-80607.

Mezzo-Soprano: Kristine Jepson
Baritone: Donnie Ray Albert
Organ: Michael Chertock
Mezzo-Soprano: Teresa Bucholz
Mezzo-Soprano: Liza Forrester
Mezzo-Soprano: Stacey Rishoi
Baritone: William McGraw
Bass: Gustav Andreassen

May Festival Chorus, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Conductor: James Conlon

Track List:

Scene I: Introduction - Chorus "Qual und Leid", Recitative "Kindlein! Was weinet ihr?", Chorus "Beschütz uns" (18'27")
Scene I: Aria "Mein Sohn, O still des Volkes Not" (8'27")
Scene IV: Orchestral Interlude: "Salve Polonia" (9'57")
Scene IV: Orchestral Interlude II: "Salve Polonia" (6'21")
Scene IV: Psalm 129: "De Profundis" (12'16")
Scene IV: "Salve Polonia" (4'16")

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) - Christus

2009-03-29T16:22:00.008+02:00

An Oratorio to Latin texts from the Holy Scriptures and the Catholic Liturgy for soloists, choir, organ and orchestra.

The work was first planned in 1853 and composed bewteen 1862 and 1866. Father Theiner, archivist at the Vatican, offered him the chance of accomodation in the convent of the Madonna of the Rosary on Monte Mario, which at that time still lay outside Rome.

Liszt moved in on 20 June 1863 and was installed amongst the Oratorians with his piano, harmonium and a few items of furniture in two small cells.

There Pope Pius IX paid him half an hour's visit on 11 July and insisted on hearing him play.

By the end of 1863 Parts I and II of Christus were complete. Liszt wrote the following details on the score: 'Completed on St Michael's Day, 29 September 1866 - Madonna del Rosario; revised between 22 November and 4 December - Santa Francesca Romana.'

When composing this work Liszt was able to draw on earlier works: one of these was the Seligpreisung of 1859 (possibly begun in 1855) written in Weimar to a German text and performed on 2 October 1859 in the main church of the town. The other was the Pater Noster I, written in or before 1860 and published in 1860 and 1864 on its own. He had begun work in 1860 on a Stabat Mater, a composition which he was to use again in 1878-79 for the Good Friday composition Via Crucis for choir and organ.

The complete work was first performed on 29 May 1873 in the Protestant church in Weimar, known as the Herderkirche after one of its distinguished preachers, under the direction of the composer and in the presence of, among others, Liszt's daughter Cosima and her second husband, Richard Wagner.

The performers numbered three hundred and were drawn from Weimar, Erfurt , Jena and Sondershausen.

Shortly after the Weimar premiere it was also heard in Budapest, in the assembly rooms in Pest, on 9 Nevember, conducted by Hans Richter, who was Hungarian by birth.

Some sections had already been performed in Rome in 1866: the first part, the 'Christmas oratorio', was conducted by Giovanni Sgambati on 6 July 1867 and by Anton Rubinstein on New Year's Eve, 1871, a successful performance with none other than Anton Bruckner on the organ (!).

During Liszt's lifetime it was performed ten more times, mainly in Germany, for instance in Berlin in 1881 under Alexis Holländer, but also further afield, in England and Hungary.

But after 1914 it virtually disappeared from the repertoire. The first recording was made as late as 1970, with Hungarian performers. In 1986 large sections of the oratorio were arranged choreographically together with the 'Chorus mysticus' from the Faust Symphony, and performed as a ballet in Györ, Hungary, under the title 'Jesus the Son of Man'.

The 3 CD Set was released by Hänssler Classic, 1998 (DDD). hänssler CD 98.121.

Soprano: Henriette Bonde-Hansen
Mezzosoprano: Iris Vermillion
Tenor: Michael Schade
Bass: Andreas Schmidt

Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, Krakauer Kammerchor, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Conductor: Helmuth Rilling

Track List CD 1 (Oratorium in Nativitate Domini - Christmas Oratorio)

Introduction (14'18")
Pastorale and Herald Angel's Song(6'55")
Stabat Mater Speciosa (10'43")
Pastoral Music in the Manger (13'21")
March of the Three Magi (14'31")

Track List CD 2 (Post Epiphaniam -After Epiphany)

The Beatitudes (10'57")
The Lord's Prayer (7'44")
The Founding of the church (5'28")
The Miracle (8'49")
Ride into Jerusalem (13'58")

Track List CD 3 (Passio et Resurrectio - Passion and Resurrection)

Tristis Est Anima Mea (14'02")
Stabat Mater Dolorosa (32'40")
O Filii Et Filiae (1'41")
Resurrexit (5'25")

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) - Te Deum/Mass in D Minor

2009-03-28T11:19:00.006+01:00

The quality which most powerfully characterizes Bruckner's music is its religious mysticism. Not only the sacred works, but also the symphonies which form the bulk of his output, display a religiosity which is not grafted on but deeply ingrained.

The D Minor Mass is a natural successor to the classical settings of Haydn and Mozart, conceived symphonically and with the orchestra allotted a prominet role.

It was from Haydn and Mozart that Bruckner learned the cyclic principle in which the final Agnus Dei recalls material from earlier movements. From his beloved Schubert he acquired lyricism and lush harmony, while his innate sense of the monumental and his grounding in the counterpoint of J.S. Bach equipped him perfectly to write music on the grandest scale.

Liszt and Wagner, also, were influences, the one chiefly in matters of thematic development, the other in melodic and harmonic innovations and in the size and use of the orchestra.

It was not until the age of forty, when he wrote the D Minor Mass, that Bruckner showed the first real signs of artistic maturity.

The composer himself conducted the premiere of the D Minor Mass in Linz Cathedral on 20 November 1864, and its favourable reception ensured its repeat at the Redoutensaal, also in Linz, on the 18 December 1864. After the November performance the critic of the Linzer Abendbote had proounced it "the best work of its type to be created for a long time."

Bruckner had begun work on the Te Deum in May 1881, almost contemporaneously with the sketches for his Seventh Symphony, but it was not until September 1883 that he gave it his full attention. The Te Deum calls for soprano, contralto, tenor and bass soloists, four-part choir, organ and orchestra, though the organ is optional.

Bruckner completed the Te Deum in March 1884 and it was first performed, accompanied by two pianos, on 2 May 1885. Hans Richter conducted the first performance with orchestra in Vienna on 10 January 1886. Even the normally vicious Hanslick, who never forgave Bruckner's espousal of Wagner, was uncharacteristically polite.

The CD was released by HYPERION, 1993 (DDD). Hyperion CDA 66650.

Soprano: Joan Rodgers
Alto: Catherine Wyn-Rogers
Tenor: Keith Lewis
Bass: Alastair Miles
Organ (!): James O'Donnell

Corydon Singers, Corydon Orchestra, Organ in the Te Deum WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL (!), Conductor: Matthew Best

Thank You, Matthew Best, for this unbelievable recording !

Track List:

Te Deum Laudamus (6'28")
Te Ergo (2'57")
Aeterna Fac (1'35")
Salvum Fac (6'55")
In Te, Domine (5'18")
Mass D Minor: Kyrie (6'58")
Gloria (6'00")
Credo (12'57")
Sanctus (1'47")
Benedictus (7'12")
Agnus Dei (8'31")

Charles Gounod (1818-1893) - Mors Et Vita

2009-03-25T21:01:00.024+01:00

The oratorio "Mors et Vita" ("Death and Life") was first performed at the Birmingham Festival, August 26, 1885. Gounod wrote this oratorium for 4 soloists, chorus, organ and large orchestra.

It is divided into three parts:

1. Mors ("Death")
2. Judicium ("Judgement")
3. Vita ("Life")

The first part "Mors" is actually a Requiem:

- Prologus
- Introitus & Kyrie
- A Custodia
- Sequentia (Dies Irae)
- Offertorium
- Sanctus
- Pie Jesu Domine
- Agnus Dei / Lux Aeterna
- Epilogus

This oratorium was dedicated to Pope Leo XIII (1810 - 1903), several years before his funeral.

Unfortunately this 2 CD set lacks a booklet with further information about the work and the track list.

Obviously it is difficult to find the libretto in the internet, so I managed to find the lyrics in Latin. Those having learned Latin at school will deal well with the text:

CD 1

Pars Prima - Mors

Prolog

Choir

(Track 1) Horrendum Est Incidere In Manus Dei Viventis.

Solo (Baritone), Jesus

Ego Sum Resurrectio Et Vita. Qui Credit In Me, Etsiamsi Mortuus Fuerit, Vivet. Et Ego Resuscitabo Eum In Novissimo Die.

Choir

Ego Sum Resurrectio Et Vita. Qui Credit In Me, Etsiamsi Mortuus Fuerit, Vivet. Et Ego Resuscitabo Eum In Novissimo Die.

Requiem

Introit & Kyrie

Choir

(Track 2) Requiem Aeternam Dona Eis, Domine, Et Lux Perpetua Luceat Eis.

Quartet & Choir

Te Decet Hymnus, Deus, In Sion, Et Tibi Reddetur Votum In Jerusalem. Exaudi Orationem Meam. Ad Te Omnis Caro Veniet. Requiem Aeternam Dona Eis, Domine, Et Lux Perpetua Luceat Eis. Kyrie Eleison.

Double Choir

(Track 3) A Custodia Matutina Usque Ad Noctem, Speret Israel In Domino. Quia Apud Dominum Misericordia. Et Copiosa Apud Eum Redemptio. Et Ipse Redimet Israel Ex Omnibus Iniquitatibus Eius.

Choir

(Track 4) Dies Irae, Dies Illa, Solvet Saeclum In Favilla, Teste David Cum Sibylla.
Quantus Tremor Est Futurus, Quando Judex Est Venturus, Cuncta Stricte Discussurus.
Tuba Mirum Spargens Sonum Per Sepulchra Regionum, Coget Omnes Ante Thronum.
Mors Stupebit Et Natura, Cum Resurget Creatura, Judicanti Responsura.
Liber Scriptus Proferetur, In Quo Totum Continetur, Unde Mundus judicetur.
Judex Ergo Cum Sedebit, Quidquid Latet Apparebit, Nil Inultum Remanebit.

Quartet & Choir

(Track 5) Quid Sum Miser Tunc Dicturus, Quem Patronum Rogaturus, Cum Vix Justus Sit securus ?
Rex Tremendae Majestatis, Qui Salvandos Salvas Gratis, Salva Me Fons Pietatis.
Recordare Jesu Pie, Quod Sum Causa Tuae Viae, Ne Me Perdas Illa Die.

Solo (Soprano) & Choir

(Track 6) Felix Culpa, Quae Talem Meruit Habere Redemptorem.

Duet & Choir

(Track 7) Quaerens Me, Sedisti Lassus, Redemisti Crucem Passus, Tantus Labor Non Sit Cassus. Juste Judex Ultionis, Donum Fac Remissionis, Ante Diem Rationis.

Quartet & Choir

(Track 8) Ingemisco Tamquam Reus, Culpa Rubet Vultus Meus, Supplicanti Parce, Deus.
Qui Mariam Absolvisti, Et Latronem Exaudisti, Mihi Quoque Spem Dedisti.
Preces Meae Non Sunt Dignae, Sed Tu Bonus Fac Benigne, Ne Perenni Cremer Igne.

Solo (Tenor)

(Track 9) Inter Oves Locum Praesta, Et Ab Haedis Me Sequestra, Statuens In Parte Dextra.

Choir & Quartett

(Track 10) Confutatis Maledictis, Flammis Acribus Addictis, Voca Me Cum Benedictis.
Oro Supplex Et Acclinis, Cor Contritum Quasi Cinis, Gere Curam Mei Finis.

Choir & Soli

(Track 11) Lacrymosa Dies Illa, Qua Resurget Ex Favilla, Judicandus Homo Reus.
Huic Ergo Parce, Deus.
Pie Jesu Domine, Dona Eis Requiem Sempiternam.

Choir

(Track 12) Domine Jesu Christe, Rex Gloriae, Libera Animas Omnium Fidelium Defunctorum De Poenis Infernis et De Profundo Lacu:
Libera Eas De Ore Leonis, Ne Absorbeat Eas Tartarus, Ne cadant In Obscurum.

Solo (Soprano)

Sed Signifer Sanctus Michael Repraesentet Eas In Lucem Sanctam.

Choir

Quam Olim Abrahae Promisisti, Et semini Eius.

Choir

Hostias Et Preces Tibi, Domine, Laudis Offerimus: Tu Suscipe Pro Animabus Illis, quarum Hodie Memoriam Facimus. Fac Eas, Domine, De Morte Transire Ad Vitam, Quam Olim Abrahae Promisisti, Et Semini Eius.

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Cd 2

Solo (Tenor) & Choir

(Track 1) Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni Sunt Coeli Et Terra Gloria Tua. Hosanna In Excelsis.

Quartet

(Track 2) Pie Jesu, Domine, Dona Eis Requiem Sempiternam. Amen.

Solo (Soprano) & Choir

(Track 3) Agnus Dei, Qui Tollis Peccata Mundi, Dona Eis Requiem.

Choir

Lux Aeterna Luceat Eis, Domine, Cum Sanctis Tuis In Aeternum, Quia Pius Es.
Requiem Aeternam Dona Eis, Domine, Et Lux Perpetua Luceat Eis.

(Track 4) Epilogus

Pars Secunda - Judicium

(Track 5) Somnus Mortuorum

Preludio

(Track 6) Tubae Ad Ultimum Judicium

Solo (Baritone)

(Track 7) Cum Autem Venerit Filius Hominis In Majestate Sua, Et Omnes Angeli Cum Eo, Tunc Sedebit Super Sedem Majestatis Suae.

Choir

(Track 8) Sedenti In Throno, Et Agno Benedicto, Et Honor Et Gloria Et Potestas, In Saecula Saeculorum.

Judicium Electorum, Solo (Baritone)

(Track 9) Et Congregabuntur Ante Eum Omnes Gentes. Et Separabit Eos Ab Invicem, Sicut Pastor Segregat Oves Ab Haedis. Et Statuet Oves Quidem A Dextris, Haedos Autem A Sinistris.
Tunc Dicet Rex His Qui A Dextris Eius Sunt: Venite, Benedicti Patris Mei, Possidete Paratum Vobis Regnum A Constitutione Mundi.

Solo (Soprano) & Choir

Beati Qui Lavant Stolas Suas In Sanguine Agni.

Choral

(Track 10) In Memoria Aeterna Erit Justus, ab Auditione Mala Non Timebit.

Judicium Rejectaneorum

Solo (Baritone)

(Track 11) Tunc Dicet His Qui A Sinistris Eius Sunt.

Choir

Discedite A Me, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternam, Qui Paratus Est Diabolo Et Angelis Eius. Nescio Vos, Unde Sitis.

Solo (Baritone)

Et Dicent Intra Se:

Choir

Ergo Erravimus A Via Veritatis.

Pars Tertia - Vita

Visio Sancti Joannis
Solo (Baritone)

(Track 12) Et Vidi Coelum Novum Et Terram Novam, Primum Enim Coelum Et Prima Terra abierunt. Et Mare Jam Non Est.

Solo (Baritone)

(Track 13) Et Ego Joannes Vidi Sanctam Civitatem, Jerusalem Novam, Descendentem De Coelo A Deo, Paratam Sicut Sponsam Ornatam Viro Suo.

Choir

(Track 14) Sanctus Dominus Deus Omnipotens, Qui Erat, Et Qui Est, Et Qui Venturus Est.
Vox Magna In Coelo.

Solo (Baritone)

(Track 15) Et Audivi Vocem Manam De Throno, Dicentem:

Choir

Ecce, Tabernaculum Dei Cum Hominibus, Et Habitabit Cum Eis, Et Ipsi Populus Eius Erunt, Et Ipse Deus Cum Eis Erit Eorum Deus.
Lacrymae, Dolor, Mors, Amplius Non Exstabunt.

Quartet

(Track 16) Et Absterget Deus Omnem Lacrymam Ab Oculis Eorum. Et Mors Ultra Non Erit, Neque Luctus Neque Clamor, Neque Dolor Erit Ultra, Quia Prima Abierunt.

Solo (Baritone)

(Track 17) Et Dixit Qui Sedebat In Throno:

Choir

Ecce, Nova Facio Omnia.

Solo (Baritone)

Et Dixit Mihi: Scribe, Quia Haec Verba Fidelissima Sunt Et Vera.

Choir

Et Dixit Mihi: Factum Est.

Heavenly Choir

(Track 18) Ego Sum Alpha Et Omega, Initium Et Finis. Ego Sitienti Dabo De Fonte Aquae Vivae Gratis. Qui Vicerit, possidebit Hae. Et Ero Illi Deus, Et Erit Mihi Filius. Ecce, Tabernaculum Dei Cum Hominibus, Et Habitabit Cum Eis.

Big Choir

Ecce, Tabernaculum Dei Cum Hominibus, Et Habitabit Cum Eis, Et Ipsi Populus Eius Erunt, Et Ipse Deus Cum Eis Erit Eorum Deus.

Choir

(Track 19) Hosanna In Excelsis Deo !

The 2 CD Set was released by Emi Classics, 1992 (DDD). EMI CLASSICS CDS 7544592.

Soprano: Barbara Hendricks
Alto: Nadine Denize
Tenor: John Aler
Baritone: José van Dam

Orféon Donostiarra, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Conductor: Michel Plasson

Track List CD 1:

Pars Prima - Mors: Prologus
Requiem: Introitus et Kyrie
Requiem: A Custodia Matutina Usque Ad Noctem
Requiem: Dies Irae
Requiem: Quid Sum Miser
Requiem: Felix Culpa
Requiem: Quaerens Me, Sedisti Lassus
Requiem: Ingemisco Tamquam Reus
Requiem: Inter Oves Locum Praesta
Requiem: Confutatis Maledictis
Requiem: Lacrymosa
Requiem: Offertorium - Domine Jesu Christe

Track List CD 2:

Requiem: Sanctus
Requiem: Pie Jesu
Requiem: Agnus Dei
Requiem: Epilogus
Pars Secunda - Judicium: Somnus Mortuorum - Preludio
Somnus Mortuorum - Tubae Ad Ultimum Judicium
Ressurectio Mortuorum - Cum Autem Venerit Filius
Judex: Sedenti In Throno
Judicium Electorum - Et Congregabuntur
Judicium Electorum - In Memoria Aeterna
Judicium Rejectaneorum - Tunc Dicet
Pars Tertia - Vita: Visio Sancti Joannis - Et Vidi Coelum Novum
Jerusalem Coelestis - Et Ego Joannis
Jerusalem Coelestis -Sanctus
Vox Magna In Coelo - Et Audivi Vocem Magnam
Lacrymae, Dolor, Mors Amplius Non Extabunt - Et Absterget
Ecce, Omnia Novata ! - Et Dixit: Qui Sedebat In Throno
Ecce, Omnia Novata ! - Ego Sum Alpha Et Omega
Ecce, Omnia Novata ! - Hosanna In Excelsis

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) - Requiem D Flat Major for Soli, Choir and Orchestra op. 148

2009-03-11T15:05:00.008+01:00

Preface: A school massacre took place today on 11.03.2009 at Albertville School in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. A 17-year-old gunman killed at least 9 students and 3 teachers. What a tragedy !

May the dead rest in peace !

Schumann's Requiem: compassionate and heartfelt emotions

It has supposedly been said by Schumann that Requiems are "written for one's self". Schumann wrote his Requiem in 1849, could this have been a premonition of his suicide five years later ? It is known that longing for death was an obsession for Schumann.

His Requiem für Mignon is composed to Goethe`s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, the piece is a literary masque which Schumann puts on to create a unification of words and music. It was composed for the centenary of Goethe's birth.

The CD was released by BMG, P 1988, C 1996, (DDD). BMG 74321 40507 2.

Soprano: Helen Donath
Soprano op. 98b: Julie Kaufman
Contralto: Marjana Lipovsek
Contralto op. 98b: Birgit Calm
Tenor: Thomas Moser
Bass: Jan Hendrik Rootering

Chorus of the Bavarian Radio, Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio, Conductor: Wolfgang Sawallisch

Track List:

Requiem Aeternam (3'41")
Te Decet Hymnus (5'07")
Dies Irae (2'45")
Liber Scriptus (5'58")
Qui Mariam Absolvisti (4'43")
Domine Jesu Christi (3'03")
Hostias et Preces Tibi (1'24")
Sanctus (3'50")
Benedictus - Agnus Dei (6'57")

Requiem für Mignon for Soli, Choir and Orchestra op. 98b

Wen bringt Ihr uns zur stillen Gesellschaft (2'26")
Ach ! Wie ungern brachten wir Ihn her (0'36")
Seht die mächtigen Flügel doch an ! (2'53")
In Euch lebe die bildende Kraft (2'42")
Kinder, kehret ins Leben zurück (1'43")
Kinder, eilet ins Leben hinein ! (2'40")

Sigurd Islandsmoen (1881-1964) - Requiem

2009-02-17T15:10:00.005+01:00

"Sigurd Islandsmoen's Requiem for soloists, choir and orchestra is a unique flower in the Norwegian music flora. Throughout the 1940s and 50s the work enjoyed huge success both in Norway and abroad thanks to its beautiful and accessible latin and folk music based musical language. And then, mysteriously, the music disappeared and the work was buried in the dust of oblivion for several decades. BUT NOW IT HAS BEEN REVIVED AND RESTORED TO ITS FORMER GLORY, A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION TO FUTURE GENERATIONS."

Islandsmoen's Requiem was composed in 1936-37 and performed several times both during and after the war, and in 1949 a performance in Bergen was broadcast by NRK, but it has seldom been performed since.

Islandsmoen received his most important musical training from Max Reger, and his music belongs to the style of late romanticism, the Requiem being no exception.

From the 1950s onwards there was a much stronger demand for modernism in Norwegian music; Islandsmoen's works were considered out-of-date and inappropriate.

One main special characteristic of his Requiem is that it builds to a certain extent on folk tunes from Valdres. He had himself been there in 1934 to collect folk tunes. Folk music material was an important source of inspiration to the composer, but it is clear that most of the thematic material in the Requiem is Islandsmoen's own.

The SACD was released by 2L, 2006, (DDD) . 2L 36SACD.

Soprano: Hilde Haraldsen Sveen
Alto: Marianne Beate Kielland
Tenor: Ulf Oien
Bass: Trond Halstein Moe

Det Norske Solistkor, Kristiansand Symfoniorkester, Conductor: Terje Boye Hansen

Track List:

Canto funèbre (4'08")
Introitus (4'00")
Graduale (2'26")
Dies Irae (4'21")
Kyrie Eleison (3'33")
Recordare (2'48")
Preces Meae (2'29")
Confutatis (2'14")
Oro supplex (1'49")
Lacrymosa (4'50")
Domine, Jesu Christe (1'50")
Sanctus (1'51")
Benedictus - Sanctus (4'26")
Pie Jesu (5'13")
Agnus Dei (4'58")

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) - Missa Solemnis in B flat minor

2009-02-17T14:31:00.004+01:00

Anton Bruckner, a devout Catholic, played a great role in the history of sacred music in the 19th century, a genre whose revival he tried to assure by founding his religious works on a traditional basis and taking his inspiration notable from the Viennese classical composers, particularly Haydn and Schubert.

He went so far as to quote entire themes by these composers in his Missa Solemnis in B flat minor, completed in August 1854, which shows an evident taste for fugal writing and the dramatic use of chromaticism.

Bruckner set several psalm-texts to music of a profound and moving spirituality. Psalm 112, written in 1863, was rediscovered only at the beginning of the 20th century, whilst the Psalm 150, his last piece of religious music, was composed 1892, four years before his death. It is a dynamic, jubilant piece with strong contrasts, based on themes deriving from plainchant, showing Bruckner's interest in early polyphony and Gregorian chant.

The 2 CD set was released by Virgin Classics, 1991, (DDD). Virgin Classics 724356150126.

Soprano: Christian Oelze
Alto: Claudia Schubert
Tenor: Jörg Dürmüller
Bass: Reinhart Hagen

Chor der Bamberger Symphoniker, Bamberger Symphoniker, Conductor: Anton Rickenbacher

Track List CD 2:

Kyrie (2'54")
Gloria in excelsis Deo (2'29")
Qui tollis peccata (1'57")
Quoniam tu solus (3'00")
Credo in unum Deo (1'42")
Et incarnatus est (3'50")
Et resurrexit (2'08")
Et vitam venturi seaculi (1'38")
Sanctus (1'38")
Benedictus (3'23")
Agnus Dei (1'52")
Dona nobis pacem (1'52")
Psalm 112 in B flat major (9'10")
Psalm 150 in C major (8'26")

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) - Mass in A minor, Credo, Te Deum

2009-02-17T13:13:00.009+01:00

The Mass in A minor is for solo voices, four part chorus and orchestra. Scholars believe that it is almost certainly the Messa di Gloria composed in 1821 whilst Bellini was studying at the San Sebastinano under the guidance of Giovanni Furno and Giacomo Tritto. The manuscript is held in Catania in the library of the Civic Bellini Museum.

The Mass, according to Anonymous, was reserved for a solemn occasion: the name day of Emperor Francis I, whose troops were in Sicily. The first performance in fact was held on 4th October 1821 in Catania at the church of San Francesco d'Assisi, the big church set on the square of its own name opposite Palazzo Gravina Cruyllas, the very house were Vincenzo Bellini had been born on the night of 2nd-3rd November 1801.

The score belongs to his "juvenile" compositions yet there is nothing scholastic about it, for the Sicilian musician had wholly absorbed both his grandgather's precious lessons and the counterpoint teaching of Giacomo Tritto's strict school. The composer demonstrates that he is fully cognisant of all the secrets of the art of composition and applies them to his extraordinary musical and artistic talent. Though apparently simple, the harmonic and instrumental weave constantly offers us tokens of the musician's genius.

The Mass alternates solo and choral vocal pieces in which monophonic plainsong alternates with polyphonic, contrapuntal form in clear, calm scoring.

The CD was released by Nuova Era, 2002, (DDD). Nuova Era 7375.

Soprano: Monica Tarone
Mezzo-Soprano: Galina Tchernova
Tenor: Hyun-Jae Park
Bass: Alessandro Bianchini

Coro e Orchestra dell'Accademia Stefano Tempia, Conductor: Massimo Peiretti

Track List:

Kyrie (9'27")
Gloria (6'26")
Laudamus (8'14")
Domine Deus (9'38")
Qui Tollis (5'06")
Qui Sedes (8'22)
Cum Sancto Spiritu (6'13")
Credo (a quattro voci) (6'13"9
Te Deum Laudamus (7'40")

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) - Missa Coronationalis (Hungarian Coronation Mass) R 487

2009-02-15T22:27:00.004+01:00

To a listener today the Missa Coronationalis seems to be the most concise and concentrated of all the composer's masterpieces.

The Mass was first performed on June 8, 1867 at the coronation ceremony in the Matthias Church by Buda Castle in a six-section form. After the first performance the Offertory was added, and two years later the Gradual.

On April 23, 1867, Liszt wrote to his friend and fellow composer Mihály Mosonyi in Pest, whom he regarded as highly as Richard Wagner did, about the music he had written for the mass:

"First of all I must apologize from a musical point of view for the unusual simplicity of the mass; it was impossible for me to evade my prior instructions to keep it as short as possible and so abandoned a larger scale work. Despite that, I hope the work's two main characteristics - its ecclesiastical and its Hungarian national aspect - can plainly be seen. You will, by the way, see how careful I have been to make sure that the performance should under all circumstances be exceptionally light and smooth. The vocal parts are kept within their most comfortable registers and the instruments accompanying them also play in their most comfortable positions. I have renounced enharmonice so as to prevent all dissonance, I have restricted myself to the customary devices and forsworn all offensive instruments, various percussion effects, bass clarinets or other innovations; I was not able even to include a single harp. In short, the mass is built up in such a way that it can be well sung and performed at sight ..."

The CD was released by Hungaroton Classic, 1994, (DDD). Hungaroton Classic HCD 12148.

Soprano: Veronika Kincses
Contralto: Klára Takács
Tenor: Dénes Gulyás
Bass: Lászlo Polgár

Hungarian Radio and Television Chorus, Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Conductor: György Lehel

Track List:

Kyrie (5'21")
Gloria (7'23")
Gradual (5'23")
Credo (7'10")
Offertorium (5'12")
Sanctus (3'35")
Benedictus (7'21")
Agnus Dei (6'52")

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1836) - Mass in E flat op. 80

2009-02-15T15:47:00.010+01:00

The Mass in E flat was most likely composed for the 1804 Marienfest in Eisenstadt, an annual event celebrated with great pomp and splendor to honor the Fürstin Maria's name day, usually on the weekend following the Mariä Geburt observance (September 8). For the Marienfest, the Fürst usually hosted a banquet, a ball, and a concert, in addition to a military parade and fireworks. He also commissioned a new Mass each year (the late masses of Haydn and the Mass in C of Beethoven owe their existence to the Marienfest). The recently-appointed Hummel would have been a logical choice for such a commission in 1804, the Marienfest providing a perfect opportunity to showcase his abilities as a composer.

A review of the Mass in E flat in an 1820 issue of the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, Leipzig, lauded the work as "exquisite" and "composed in the spirit and manner of J. Haydn, yet without sacrificing originality".

Hummel's Mass was widely performed in the composer's days; the work was published twice in Vienna (c.1819 and c. 1830), in Paris (1830) and late, in London (c. 1845 and c. 1874).

Unfortunately the mass had fallen into disuse by the end of the century (maybe forgotten ?), and it was not until 1993 that the first modern edition, published by Doblinger Verlag, Vienna, was used for this recording.

Two outstanding examples of Hummel's smaller symphonic sacred works composed for the Esterhazys are the Graduale Quod, quod in orbe and the Offertorium Alma Virgo, both dating from 1805.

Like the Mass in E flat, both works were published in Vienna and in London and both were widely performed until the turn of the century. The first modern editions of these two pieces, after more than 100 years, were published in 1995 by Cantate Music Press (USA).

The CD was released by Koch Schwann, 1996, (DDD). Koch Schwann 3-1779-2.

Soprano: Amanda Halgrimson
Alto: Susan McAdoo
Tenor: Helmut Wildhaber
Bass: Petr Mikulàs

Tschechischer Philharmonischer Chor Brünn, Orchester der Wiener Akademie, Conductor: Martin Haselböck

Track List:

Kyrie (5'22"9
Gloria (9'47")
Credo (13'43")
Sanctus (2'04")
Benedictus (6'51")
Agnus Dei (7'36")
Quod, quod in orbe (4'10")
Alma Virgo (6'45")

Gloria Bruni - Requiem a Roma

2009-02-14T17:11:00.009+01:00

Gloria Bruni writes about her Requiem a Roma:

"I had laid before Monsignore Pablo Colino, the Director of Music at St. Peter's, Rome, a few already completed sections of the Requiem a Roma. As a result he gave me his placet, although with the provisio that the Requiem a Roma must not exceed an hour's duration.

Subsequently, each section of the Requiem was checked by Monsignore Colino and also by Monsignore Valentino Miserachs, president of the Papal Conservatoire. I was therefore quite amazed that ideas like, for example, the accompaniment of the last verse of the Liber scriptus by congregational singing should be welcomed by the Vatican.

My Requiem presents death as a transition to an existence freed from care. The music must be gripping, but not mournful; it must give hope of the beyond, and thus reflect my present conception of death.

New in this Requiem is the fact that it begins, not with low voices, but with an innocent child soprano. New also is that it end with an inward prayer by the boys' choir and a boy soloist. Altogether a Circulus vitiosus, for it end as it began - with the innocent voice of a child."

The first performance took place on 5 November 2000 as a benefit concert in aid of the Salesian Order for the "Street Children of the World", at St. Ignazio's church in Rome.

On the previous evening, the Kyrie and Sanctus were given a prior performance before Pope John Paull II in the great audience chamber of the Vatican, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the singing of the European Convention on Hman Rights. The Holy Father said that he was "deeply moved" by the music.

As well as the Pope, parliamentarians and statesmen from all over Europe heard this performance of excerpts - among them Michail Gorbachev.

The CD was released by Arte Nova, 2001, (DDD). Arte Nova 74321870662.

Soprano: Gloria Bruni
Bass: Nicolò Rigano
Boys' Soprano: Rafal Sekulak

Hamburger Symphoniker, Boys' and Men's Choir of the Cathedral of Poznan, Conductor: Boguslaw Dawidow

Track List:

Applause (00'18")
Requiem (5'42")
Kyrie (4'36") (Gloria Bruni, Thank You For This !)
Offertorium (4'48")
Sanctus (6'27")
Agnus Dei (2'55")
Lux Aeterna (5'49")
Dies Irae (2'28")
Tuba Mirum (2'34")
Liber Scriptus (3'30")
Recordare (4'30")
Confutatis (2'26")
Lacrimosea (4'29")
Pie Jesu (5'25")

César Franck (1822-1890) - Mass in A Major op.12

2009-02-14T16:26:00.010+01:00

César Franck was famous as a composer of instrumental music. In contratst to this he also composed church music, but unfortunately his work as a church musician has fallen into oblivion.

The mass, which was completed by Franck in 1860 and performed for the first time on Easter Tuesday of 1861 in Ste. Clotilde, was revised by him time and again until 1872.

In its arrangement for the choir and the soloists, the mass dispenses with the alto part, in keeping with a custom often to be observed in France. The role of the vocal solists is of absolutely secondary importance in comparison to that of the choir. Only for the Qui tollis of the Gloria is a solo tenor prescribed, whereas the Et incanatus est of the Credo and the beginning of the Agnus Dei can be performed by soloists ad libitum. And yet musically speaking there are good reasons for delegating larger portions of the composition to the soloists so as to reach a higher degree on tonal differentiation as well as to make its formal structure come out more clearly. This attempt was made here in the recording of the work.

The CD was released by AUDITE, 1993, (ADD). Audite 95.431.

Soprano: Edith Wiens
Tenor: Raimundo Mettre
Bass: Ivo Ingram

Philharmonie Schwäbisch Gmünd (Choir & Orchestra), Conductor: Hubert Beck

Recording fom 21th November 1979 in Heilig-Kreuz-Münster, Schwäbisch Gmünd.

Track List:

Kyrie (5'39")
Gloria (11'38")
Credo (15'31")
Sanctus (3'16")
Agnus Dei (5'16")

Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) - Mass in D

2009-02-14T14:49:00.007+01:00

Ethel Smyth was born in 1858. Being a child of the Victorian age she received a strict education at home and at a boarding school against which she revolted again and again. She studied in Leipzig - strength of will and persistence were her strongest characteristics.

She composed chamber- and piano music. A serenade for orchestra was her first success in England. The Mass remained her only religious work.

In 1910 she was active in the English suffragette Movement which fought for woman's right to vote. She then composed the "March of the Woman", she took part in activities and demonstrations and was arrested. More and more often she conducted her compositions and her reputation as a composer increased.

In 1922 she was ennobled "Dame of the Empire". In spite of advancing deafness her spirit remained unbroken, writing and journalism were added to her composatory work.

Reaching the age 0f 85 she died in 1944.

In January 1893 the première was held with about 1000 performers in the enormous Albert Hall in front of an audience of 12000 people. It was reveiced with enthusiasm. The "Gloria" was performed as festive finale at the end of the Mass being the composer's utmost wish.

In spite of this great masterpiece the work vanished from sight to reappear again 30 years later.

For a re-performance in 1924 the work was revised by her. The changes refer to a small improvement in the choir- and orchestral parts and a reduction of the metronome beat most considerably in the fast movements. The changes are surely due to the remembrance of the première with its gigantic number of performers.

George Bernard Shaw's critique which had been published in "the World":

"Dear Dame Ethel, - Thank you for bullying me into going to hear that Mass. The originality and beauty of the voice parts are as striking today as they were 30 years ago, and the rest will stand up in the biggest company. Magnificent ! You are totally and diametrically wrong in imagining that you have suffered from a prejudice against feminine music. On the contrary you have been almost extinguished by the dread of masculine music. It was your music that cured me for ever of the old delusion that momen could not do men's work in art and other things. (That was years ago, when I knew nothing about you, and heard an overture - The Wreckers or something - in which you kicked a big orchestra all around the platform.) But for you I might not have been able to tackle St. Joan, who has floored in every way playwright. Your music is more masculine than Haendel's ... Your dear big brother, G. Bernard Shaw".

The CD was released by AUDITE, 1997, (DDD). Audite 97.448.

Soprano: Catriona Smith
Alto: Helene Schneiderman
Tenor: Scott Mac Allister
Bass: Andreas Macco
Organ: Hermann Trefz

Philharmonia Chor Stuttgart, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Conductor: Helmut Wolf

Track List:

Kyrie (9'29")
Credo (16'07")
Sanctus (4'44")
Benedictus (5'41")
Agnus Dei (8'39")
Gloria (16'17")

Andrew Lloyd Webber (b. 1948) - Requiem

2009-02-12T12:49:00.008+01:00

Andrew Lloyed Webber, the composer of the world famous musicals Cats, Evita, Starlight Express, wrote a Requiem for tenor, soprano and treble, choir and orchestra.

Two events set the Requiem in motion. The first was the death of Andrew Lloyd Webber's father in 1982 and the second was a story about Cambodia in an obscure corner of the New York Times, concerning a boy who was faced with the choice of killing his mutilated sister or being killed himself. Cambodia has no musical influence on the score, but it did give Andrew Lloyd Webber the idea of scoring the Requiem for a boy, a girl and a man: in other words, treble, high soprano aqnd tenor. The writing is strictly along cathedral lines, but Lloyed Webber admits that it might not always be academically correct - "My father insisted that I should not be over-trained musically."

Lloyed Webber Snr. was an organist at All Saint and at the Central Hall, Westminster, as well as being a composer of sacred music.

The first draft of the Requiem was heard during the 1984 Sydmonton Festival. After that he "polished" the work. The polishing took a further half-year, probably the most concentrated and lengthy period of work Lloyed Webber has given to any of his compositions to date. Nothing has been allowed to distract from the Requiem.

Thank you, Andrew Lloyd Webber, for composing this masterpiece. The "Pie Jesu" will always be in my heart !

The Compact Disc was released by EMI, 1985, (DDD). CDC 7471462.

Tenor: Placido Domingo ("the best tenor I have ever heard")
Soprano: Sarah Brightman ("this angel voice is brilliant")
Treble: Paul Miles-Kingston

Winchester Cathedral Choir, English Chamber Orchestra, Conductor: Lorin Maazel

Track List:

Requiem & Kyrie (6'39")
Dies Irae ... Rex Tremendae (6'00")
Recordare (3'21")
Ingemisco ... Lacrymosa (7'40")
Offertorium (5'19")
Hosanna (4'51")
Pie Jesu (3'53")
Lux Aeterna & Libera Me (7'29")

E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) - Miserere in B flat minor

2009-02-12T01:34:00.004+01:00

The Miserere in B flat minor for soloists, chorus and orchestra shows the unique position occupied by E.T.A. Hoffmann in musical history. Of all composers of the Romantic period it was Hoffmann who thought most deeply and wrote most perceptively about the aesthetics of his art and in particular about the true nature of church music. It is therefore no coincidence that the first of his writings to appear in print bears the title "Epistle of a Monastic City". Although the article appears to be chiefly concerned with the role of the chorus in the theatre since the time of the ancient Greeks, Hoffmann's main preoccupation is in fact the art of choral writing in the musical sense, a problem therefore whose solution is to be sought principally in church music.

During the next two decades Hoffmann wrote many more essays on musical problems and works, most of them appearing in three instalments in 1814 under the title Church Music Ancient and Modern. As the date of his Miserere falls almost exactly half-way between the dates of the first essay and this comprehensive collection of writings, posterity has the comparatively rare advantage of being informed by the composer exactly what aims and ideals were influencing him at the time of composition.

The lyrical and dramatic elements which are clearly an important part of Hoffmann's individuality as a composer are evident in the Miserere. Yet he carefully avoids operatic devices in his vocal writing, especially the arias. Quite outstanding thoughout the entire work is his impeccable Latin prosody, i.e. his musical diction and respect for the text, although in fact he chose not to set the whole of the psalm; some passages are omitted, as can be seen from the printed text, and this gives the work a structural balance that is almost classical.

Hoffmann's Miserere is the work of a man well acquainted with tradition and confident in handling it as the fugal sections clearly show - but one who openly admitted to being a romantic innovator in the realm of large-scale church music.

Being a Protestant, Hoffmann had not grown up with this tradition, unlike Haydn and Schubert. Mentally and technically he had to acquire it before he could use it as a medium for his own personal feelings.

In the Miserere he finally made the style his own. This is why the Miserere can undoubtedly be ranked among the relatively few masterpieces of church music music written at the beginning of the Romantic Era.

The Compact Disc was released by Koch Schwann, 1997, (DDD). Koch 3-1148-2.

Soprano: Camilla Nylund
Mezzo-Soprano: Arantxa Armentia
Alto: Lioba Braun
Tenor: Rodrigo Orrego
Bass: Johannes Schmidt

Süddeutsches Vokalemsemble, Concerto Bamberg, Conductor: Rolf Beck

Track List:

Misere mei, Deus (5'57")
Ecce enim (3'06")
Ecce enim veritatem (2'40")
Asperges me (3'41")
Auditui meo dabis (1'44")
Averta faciem tuam (3'22")
Redde mihi (3'45")
Docebo iniquos (2'18")
Libera me (2'41")
Sacrificim deo (5'01")
Benigne fac (1'59")
Ut aedificentur (3'26")

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) - Messa di Gloria

2009-02-02T15:45:00.007+01:00

"Rossini's Messa di Gloria is not just a masterpiece, but also a work of outstanding significance. It is the first sacred composition of Rossini's maturity, and, indeed, the only sacred work from this period of his compositional activity. It shows the influence of his Neapolitan operas, above all, 'Mosè in Egitto', in its masterly handling of the orchestra, its feeling for detail and mastery of the whole range of stylistic methods, while at the same time clearly representing the composer's search for his own particular style for a sacred work. The Messa is a work that has earned the right, after a hundred years of silence, to be performed and accepted as one of the great sacred compositions of the nineteenth century." (quotation from the world-famous Rossini expert, Professor Gosset)

The first performance of the Mass took place on 24 March 1820 in the church of Saint Ferdinand, in Naples. The "Giornale delle due Sicilie", on 31 March described the music as masterly, worthy and uplifting.

No further performance of the work is recorded. It first appeared in print in Paris in the 1860s in a piano reduction; the score survives only as copies.

Only the first sheet of the "Domine Deus" survives in Rossini's autograph. The composer himself separated it from the autograph score in 1846, and presented it to the librettist Gustave Vaez.

This complex tale of sources may perhaps be the reason why the work remained hidden from pulic view until the mid-1960s.

More recently, since the performance under the auspices of the Rossini Opera Festival in Paesaro on 29 February 1992 (the composer's 200th birthday), the work has at last begun to find its way into the repertoire, as one of the most refined examples of Italian church music of the first half of the nineteenth century.

The Compact Disc was released by ARTE NOVA, 2000, (DDD). ARTE NOVA 74321777112.

Soprano: Doreen Maria de Feis
Mezzo-Soprano: Caroline Odermatt
Tenor: Patrizio Saudelli
Bass: Christian Tschelebiew

Landesjugendchor Baden-Würtemberg, European Festival Orchestra, Conductor: Wilhelm Keitel

Track List:

Kyrie Eleison (4'25")
Christe Eleison (3'06")
Kyrie Eleison (3'51")
Gloria (6'05")
Laudamus (7'55")
Gratias (8'42")
Domine Deus (6'35")
Qui tollis (11'45")
Quoniam (7'58")
Cum Sancto (4'36")

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) - Missa Sacra in C minor op. 147

2009-02-02T14:57:00.007+01:00

Robert Schumann wrote the Mass in February and March 1852, directly before the Requiem op. 148. It is written for solo voices, choir and orchestra.

Parts of the Mass were rehearsed with his "Singekränzchen" for the first time on April 18, 1852. But his hopes of having it ready for performance in the early summer were dashed by ill health, and it was not until the beginning of the next year that he was able to conduct renewed rehearsals and then perform the Kyrie and Gloria sections at the Geissler Hall on March3, 1853.

Schumann did not live to hear his only Mass performed in its entirety. And even after his death in 1856, obstacles stood in the way of its gaining widespread acceptance.

Clara Schumann herself finally sought to dispel the reservations Johannes Brahms and Joseph Joachim had expressed regarding its publication.

After the Aachen premiere under the baton of Franz Wüllner in July 1861, she wrote to Brahms: "You can't imagine how beautiful it sounds. Certain lines in the Sanctus have such a wonderful effect that cold shivers run down your spine."

The Compact Disc was released by Capriccio, 2002, (DDD). Capriccio 67001.

Soprano: Anke Hoffmann
Tenor: Hein Heidbüchel
Bass: Franz Gerihsen

WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln, Conductor: Helmuth Froschauer

Track List:

(11) 1. Kyrie (4'04")
(12) 2. Gloria (8'59")
(13) 3. Credo (7'26")
(14) 4. Offertorium (2'17")
(15) 5. Sanctus (10'24")
(16) 6. Agnus Dei (4'40")

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) - Messa di Gloria

2009-02-02T13:46:00.006+01:00

As the son of a well-known composer and organist, he was still only fourteen when he followed in the family tradition and became organist at San Martino in Lucca, but, far from confining himself to organ music, he soon evinced an interest in the orchestra, completing his Preludio Sinfonico in 1876.

Rediscovered more than a century later thanks to the researches of Pietro Spada, this brief prelude already attests to Puccini's remarkable skill in handling orchestral forces, a skill that was to be confirmed in 1880 with his much more ambitious Messa di Gloria.

Intended as his final exercise at the Instituto Musicale Pacini, this work already finds the young composer developing a wholly unmistakable style of his own.

The mass in A flat major is distinguished by the beauty of its vocal writing and by a heart-warming lyricism underscored by extremely inventive instrumentation.

Although the Mass remained unpublished, Puccini was clearly sufficiently proud of the piece to reuse certain of its themes: the Agnus Dei is reused more or less in identical form in the opera Manon Lescaut.

The Capriccio Sinfonico - written in 1883 at the end of his period of study at Milan Conservatory - contain a number of themes that listerners can identify in La Bohème.

The Compact Disc was released by ERATO, 1978/1996, (ADD). ERATO 0630-12818-2.

Tenor: Wlliam Johns
Bass: Philippe Huttenlocher

Symphony Chorus & Orchestra Of The Gulbernkian Foundation Lisbon, Conductor: Michel Corboz

Track List:

Kyrie (4'46")
Gloria (19'26")
Credo (15'50")
Sanctus (3'19")
Agnus Dei (2'42")
Preludio Sinfonico (9'59")
Carpriccio Sinfonico (12'32")

Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937) - Symphonie Antique op. 83 (with the "Te Deum Laudamus")

2009-02-01T17:44:00.008+01:00

Like many other composers also Widor passed through different phases in the development of his style of composing. He wrote salon music, chamber music and his four organ symphonies after his studies with Lemmens and Fétis. The other organ symphonies, the piano concertos, orchestral works, ballets, operas and mélodies were composed in his maturer years.

Being organist of Saint-Sulpice (1870-1934) Widor spent most of his lifetime in the service of the Church, apart from his activities as a composer and teacher. The Symphonie Gothique, the Symphonie Romane and the Sinfonia Sacra are all based on liturgiacl themes.

In the Symphonie Antique Widor used the themes of Te Deum and Lauda Sion.

It is likely that Widor worked on this opus 83 for over two years. Widor himself conducted the premiere which took place on March 22nd, 1911, in the hall of the mansion of Widor's friend, the Comtesse de Bearn. The Gabriel Pierné conducted the first public performance at the end of December 1911. Two years later Widor had a great success when he conducted the Symhonie Antique in Dortmund, together with his first concerto.

The symhonie is in four parts with the movements Allegro moderato, Adagio, Moderato (Scherzo) and Moderato. The first three parts are played by the orchestra alone before the choir joins in to sing the Te Deum Laudamus in the last part, the fourth movement.

It is odd that the organist Widor has made very little use of "his" instrument in this great symphony. The organ only joins in the big finale, leading the choir and the orchestra to a majestic conclusion.

The last part of the Symphonie Antique - which has found its way back to the concert programmes since about 1992 - is the wonderful Te Deum Laudamus, maybe Widor has never composed anything better than this for choir and orchestra.

The Compact Disc was released by MOTETTE, 1996, (DDD). Motette CD 40181.

Radio Sinfonie-Orchester Pilsen, Domkantorei Altenberg, Gürzenich Chor Köln, Deutsch-Französischer Chor Köln, Total Vocal Dortmund, Orgel: Andreas Meisner, Paul Wißkirchen, Leitung: Volker Hempfling

Track List:

Messe fis-Moll op.36 for male choir and two organs

1. Kyrie (2'38")
2. Gloria (4'01")
3. Sanctus (1'31")
4. Benedictus (1'13")
5. Agnus Dei (4'40")

Symphonie Antique mit Schlusschor Te Deum op. 83 for soli, choir, orchestra and organ

6. Allegro Moderato (11'17")
7. Adagio (7'02")
8. Moderato - Allegro (Lauda Sion) (7'29")
9. Moderato: Te Deum Laudamus (24'26")

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) - Messa Da Requiem

2009-02-01T16:57:00.005+01:00

The Requiem has had a chequered career. When his arch rival Bellini died in 1835 Donizetti was asked by Riccordi, their joint publishers, to write something suitable. Lament on the Death of Bellini was the outcome but then, from Naples, came a request for a Requiem Mass.

Donizetti started the project, but there was insufficient time, the promoter backed out and it remained unfinished.

The Mass never received a performance in Donizetti's lifetime and was only published in 1870 and was performed that year in Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo where Donizetti had been a choirboy.

It was later used for the ceremony when Donizetti's remains were moved to a grander setting. So although it was written for Bellini in fact, it was used for the composer. It has been revived serveral times since and is now recognised as one of his most important non-opera compositions.

The Mass lacks certain parts, a Sanctus, a Benedictus and an Agnus Dei, which were presumably never composed. Equally some of the orchestrations differ according to the versions used. However what exists shows Donizetti to be a powerful and compelling religious choral composer and Verdi must have known this piece when he came to write his own version of the Requiem.

The introduction has Mozartian overtones, the Kyrie a particularly strong, woeful feel, heart-breaking in its intensity; whereas the Dies Irae is a splash of colourful orchestral writing - very operatic and dramatic.

There are hints of a Neapolitan song and some music which is delightfully sentimental. The solo parts are well written, especially in the Preces Meae where the brass predominates and in the later sections, where the music takes on an almost impressionistic feel.

The Compact Disc was released by Koch Discover International, 1997, (DDD). DICD 920519.

Soprano: Tiziana K. Sojat
Mezzo-Soprano: Jaroslava Horska-Maxova
Tenor: Vittorio Giammarrusco
Baritone: Zdenek Hlavka
Bass: Marcel Rosca

Virtuosi di Praga, Prague Chamber Choir, Conductor: Alexander Rahbari

Track List:

Introduzione (8'28")
Kyrie (2'40")
Requiem (2'49")
In Memoria Aeterna (2'51")
Dies Irae (3'01")
Tuba Mirum (3'06")
Judex Ergo (4'37")
Rex Tremendae Majestatis (4'25")
Ingemisco (4'41")
Preces Meae (2'32"9
Confutatis Maledictis (2'25")
Oro Supplex (3'03")
Lacrymosa Dies Illa (4'31")
Offertorium (5'11")
Libera Me (8'42")

Georges Bizet (1838-1875) - Te Deum

2009-01-31T12:38:00.008+01:00

Bizet won the Rome Prize in 1857. The Prize enabled Bizet to enjoy the life of an independant artist in Rome without financial concerns. He began many projects during his years there but completed only a few of them, including the Te Deum.

He began working on it in February 1858, had the fully instrumented score ready in May, and submitted it to the Rodrigues Competition in Paris. Only recipients of the Rome Price were eligible to participate in this competition for new sacred compositions.

The prize came along with a handsome sum of 1.500 francs, and Bizet already had plans to use the prize money for a trip to Naples. He was thus very disappointed when Barthe was awarded the prize. Although he regarded himself primarily as a victim of Paris intrigues, he was honest enough with himself to admit that he did not have the religious convictions necessary to compose such a work.

Bizet also did not have a feel for Latin. In numerous cases the musical accentuation conflicts with the accentuation of the Latin language. Although he had set himself the task of learning Latin in Rome, he cannot have progressed very far with his studies. Moreover, he took a number of liberties with the traditional text. He inserted the Sanctus out of its usual order and entirely ommited two verses, Et rege eos and Dignare Domine. The members of the Paris jury can hardly have allowed such imperfections to go through.

On the whole the Te Deum may be said to pick up on the style of the Italian church music of the time. The Maestoso at the beginning and end in particular is of the sort of disarming exteriority for which the Italians are both criticized and admired.

Bizet, the music dramatist, shows his fire in two passages. He designed the verse Te ergo quaesumus as an operatic prayer scene, as a preghiera. The chromatic thirds together with the violin cantilena soaring up into the heights may seem to border on kitsch to today's hearer, but in Bizet's times they signified an unbridled outpouring of emotion. The Judex crederis esse venturus also takes the form of a dramatic scene. The choir's cries of horror, judex, judex, resound into the Last Judgement. The choir thus not only tells of the events but also participates in it.

Bizet may have been familiar with the important settings of this passage from Berlioz's Te Deum. This work of Bizet's youth also heralds a major musical talent.

The Compact Disc was released by Calig, 1996, (DDD). CAL 50956.

Soprano: Angela Maria Blasi
Tenor: Christian Elsner
Baritone: Dietrich Henschel

Münchner MotettenChor, Münchner Symphoniker, Conductor: Hans Rudolf Zöbeley

Track List:

Charles Gounod - St. Cecilia Mass (for Soli, Choir & Orchestra)

1. Kyrie (5'48")
2. Gloria (8'55")
3. Credo (12'57")
4. Sanctus (6'00")
5. Benedictus (2'48")
6. Agnus Dei (4'45")

Georges Bizet - Te Deum (for Soli, Choir & Orchestra)

7. Te Deum laudamus (5'14")
8. Tu rex gloriae Christe (3'32")
9. Te ergo quaesumus (5'19")
10. Fiat misericordia tua (4'28")

Max Reger (1873-1916) - Requiem op. 144b/op. 145 a/Dies Irae

2009-01-25T19:16:00.010+01:00

The works in this recording shed valuable light on Reger's aesthetic position.

Based on a well-known poem entitled "Requiem" by the great German dramatist Friedrich Hebbel Reger's so-called Hebbel-Requiem makes an almost classical impression although it is far from classical in conception.

The dominant mood is one of a nation's simple grief; the work is dedicated to "the memory of the German heroes falling in the Great War".

Reger had already used Hebbel's poem once before in a setting for unaccompanied choir.

His "War Requiem" makes it into an apotheosis of death and eternal life. Emotive elements are not lacking but a restrained dignity predominates, as in the impressive final section where the Lutheran funeral hymn "Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden" enters the polyphonic structure.

Fritz Stein, Reger's friend and biographer, mounted the first performance of the opening movement of Reger's Latin Reuqiem op. 145a in Berlin in 1938: it is given this name to distinguish it from the so-called "Hebbel-Requiem" op. 144b.

The second movement, now presented on this CD, a fragmentary Dies Irae, was not performed in 1938.

Reger who was working on the composition with real enthusiasm suddenly abandoned the project and never took it up again. It has been suggested that when Straube saw the score of the first movement on its way to the printer's, he advised Reger not to go on with it. This prompts one to wonder what Straube's attitude to Reger was ? It must have been basically constructive because after all he was the chief interpreter of Reger's important organ music.

Reger for his part was far too productive to cling to a project once one of his trusted advisers had warned him off it.

The surviving fragments of the work suggest that it would probably have been one of the last liturgical requiems in the nineteeth-century sense of the word.

Reger was working in terms of broad expanses of tonal colour without polyphonic complexities: he contrasts his solo quartet with the main choir in an almost responsorial way, provides his orchestra with almost every conceivable type of instrumental accompaniment, and goes all out for the musical effects which the wording of the text inspires.

Intensely contemplative supplication swells to despairing entreaty, then ebbs away with the despairing insight that man is ultimately powerless.

The Dies Irae then unlocks the flood-gates of terror to evoke visions of horror and nightmare akin, though perhaps unconsciously on the composer's part, to both James Ensor and Hieronymus Bosch.

The Compact Disc was released by Koch Schwann, 1988, (DDD). Koch Schwann 313004 H1.

Soprano: Yoko Kawahara
Alto: Marga Höffgen
Tenor: Hans-Dieter Bader

Chor des Nord Deutschen Rundfunks, Sinfonieorchester des NDR Hamburg, Conductor: Roland Bader

Track List:

Requiem op. 144b based on a poem by Hebbel (15'24")
Latin Requiem op. 145a - Opening Movement (22'04")
Dies Irae - Fragmentary Movement (13'48")

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) - Messe Solennelle (North American Premiere Performance)

2009-01-24T16:05:00.009+01:00

The Messe Solennelle is the earliest large-scale work by Berlioz to have survived. It was composed in 1824 when Berlioz was 20 years old.

Berlioz went to Jean-Francois Lesueur for some instruction in composition. In his early years he was very productive under Lesueur.

According to Berlioz's Memoirs he composed a cantata, an opera, A Latin oratorio, and a dramatic scene before embarking on the Mass.

All these works, including the Mass, were soon destroyed by the composer.

The Mass was performed in 1825 in the Church of St. Roch, Paris and again in 1827 in the church of St. Eustache before Berlioz turned against it. He decided to burn all the sheets of vocal and orchestral parts of the Mass - the autograph survived.

It was Franz Moors, a school teacher in Antwerp, Belgium, who discovered of the autograph among a small collection of miscellaneous music kept in the organ gallery at the church of St. Charles Borromaeus in 1992.

An inscription on the manuscript helped to explain how it got there: "The score of this Mass, entirely in Berlioz's hand, was given me as a souvenir of the longstanding friendship that binds me to him," signed "A. Bessems, Paris 1835." Bessems was a Belgian violinist, born in Antwerp, who went to Paris to study under Baillot at the Conservatoire in 1826 and thus enrolled at the same time as Berlioz. He probably played in the second performance of the Mass in 1827. He also played in Berlioz's Paris concerts in 1835, at which point - it is assumed - Berlioz gave him the Mass manuscript, perhaps in lieu of a fee. Bessem's career thereafter diverged from Berlioz's, since although he remained in Paris for most of his life, he specialized in chamber music and taught privately. After his death in 1868 the manuscript passed to his brother Joseph, who was in charge of the music at St. Charles Borromaeus in Antwerp, and after Joseph's death in 1892 it remained in the old oak chest in the oragn gallery where Moors found it a hundred years later !

My verdict: this recording is a real gem, Thank You Mr. J. Reilly Lewis !

The Compact Disc was released by Koch International Classics, 1994, (DDD). Koch 3-7204-2 H1.

Baritone: Terry Cook
Soprano: Rosa Lamoreaux
Tenor: Gene Tucker

Washington National Cathedral Choral Society, Music Director: J. Reilly Lewis

Track List:

Introduction (1'38")
Kyrie (7'07")
Gloria (5'00")
Gratias (6'19")
Quoniam (1'48")
Credo (3'43")
Incarnatus (3'14"9
Crucifixus (2'35")
Resurrexit (7'22")
Motet pour l'offertoire (3'13")
Sanctus (2'39")
O Salutaris (3'52")
Agnus Dei (3'24")
Domine Salvum (3'25")

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) - Messa Solenne (World Premiere Recording)

2009-01-24T14:22:00.022+01:00

Verdi began and ended his composing career with sacred music.

His Messa Solenne had its first performance on 15. September 1835 in the church of Sant'Anna fuori le mura in Busseto.

The use of a soprano in the Qui tollis is rather surprising - it appears to be the first time a female voice was ever heard in any of the churches in Busseto.

The Mass cannot be considered as a complete work; for example the Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris and Quoniam tu solus Sanctus section are lost.

Verdi definitely composed the mass under the influence of Rossini and Bellini.

The Compact Disc was released by DECCA, 2001, (DDD). DECCA 467280-2 (DH).

The CD contains 5 Premiere Recording. These early works by Verdi were recently discovered by Professor Dino Rizzo, whose critical editions were used for this recording.

Soprano: Elisabetta Scano
Soprano: Cristina Gallardo-Domas
Tenor: Juan Diego Flórez
Tenor: Kenneth Tarver
Bass. Eldar Aliev
Bass: Michele Pertusi

Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Conductor: Riccardo Chailly

Track List:

Kyrie Eleison (World Premiere Recording) (1)
Christe Eleison
Kyrie Eleison (2)
Gloria in excelsis Deo
Qui tollis peccata mundi
Cum Sancto Spiritu
Qui Tollis (World Premiere Recording) (6'05")
Tantum Ergo in F Major (World Premiere Recording) (5'27")
Laudate Pueri (World Premiere Recording) (6'28")
Tantum Ergo in G Major (World Premiere Recording) (5'32")
Pater Noster (5'49")
Ave Maria (5'36")
Libera Me (Messa Per Rossini) (1869 Version) (12'03")

Friedrich Kiel (1821-1885) - Missa Solemnis

2009-01-21T16:37:00.009+01:00

"Unlike some of his Berlin contemporaries, Friedrich Kiel did not stick to a drily academic imitation of historical composition techniques. His style opended up to the innovations of the time. It is among his merits to have breathed the spirit of Romanticism into the circle of Berlin academics.

Thus we find in the monumental Missa Solemnis a style that integrates linear, contrapuntal thought into the tonal aestetics of the late 19th century.

Thus Friedrich Kiel, in contrast to Beethoven, places the chorus at the centre of his solemn Mass and thereby creates a massive sonority which, in combination with the dense polyphonic complexity, makes great demands on the recipients.

The Missa Solemnis of Friedrich Kiel is a clear stylistic confession of a Protestant articulated on the Basis of the Catholic liturgy. Since, however, large-scale Masses in that phase of musical history had in any case long been seculrised, the composer saw himself to no conflict of belief, for this work also clearly has its place in the concert-hall."

The Compact Disc was released by Capriccio, 1998, (DDD). Capriccio 10 587.

Soprano: Brigitte Lindner
Mezzo-Soprano: Regine Röttger
Alto: Elisabeth Graf
Tenor: Thomas Dewald
Bass: Karl Fäth

Kölner Rundfunkchor, Kölner Rundfunkorchester, Conductor: Helmuth Froschauer

Track List:

Kyrie (5'13")
Gloria (16'48")
Credo (13'52")
Sanctus (8'26")
Agnus Dei (7'43")
Ouverture À Grand Orchestre, Opus 6 (8'46")

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) - Messe Solennelle (Orch. Rossini)

2009-01-18T16:31:00.013+01:00

Rossini is remembered primarily for his immense contribution to the Italian operatic repertoire, but he also produced two important pieces of sacred music that are notable for their overtly operatic style.

These two important religious works are the STABAT MATER (1842) and the PETITE MESSE SOLENNELLE (1863). Rossini didn't compose nothing of significance during the last 40 years of his life; within this span of life he retired completely, and composed "Stabat Mater" and "Petite Messe Solennelle".

The Petite Messe Solennelle is the most substantial of the works written during Rossini's Indian summer of composition. It was composed in 1863 for private performance and is scored for four soloists and chorus, with harmonium and piano accompaniment.

Rossini discreetly orchestrated the Petite Messe Solennelle during 1866-67, partly for fear that it would be done anyway after his death. Without losing its candor and subtlety, the resulting version had its first public performance on 28 February 1869 , three months after the composer's death, and as close as could be to what would have been Rossini's seventy-seventh birthday— at the Théatre Iatlien, Paris. That year both versions were published.

The Compact Disc was released by DECCA, 1995, (DDD). Decca 444134-2 (DX2).

Soprano: Daniella Dessi
Mezzo-Soprano: Gloria Scalchi
Tenor: Giuseppe Sabbatini
Bass: Michele Pertusi

Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Conductor: Riccardo Chailly

Track List:

CD 1

Kyrie Eleison - Christe Eleison (6'45")
Gloria in excelsis Deo (2'40")
Gratias agimus tibi (4'47")
Domine Deus (5'17")
Qui tollis peccata mundi (6'55")
Quoniam ti solus sanctus (7'19")
Cum Sancto Spiritu (5'33")

CD 2

Credo in unum Deum (3'58")
Cruxifixus etiam pro nobis (5'15")
Et resurrexit (8'54")
Preludio Religioso (8'36")
Sanctus (3'55")
O salutaris hostia (6'05")
Agnus Dei (7'45")

Pietro Mascagni (1863 - 1945) - Messa Di Gloria

2009-01-17T14:47:00.011+01:00

Pietro Mascagni (December 7, 1863 – August 2, 1945) was an Italian composer, notably known for his operas. He enjoyed immense success during his lifetime, both as a composer and conductor of his own and other people's music.

He also composed a Kyrie for three male voices, an Ave Maria and a Pater Noster for soprano and string quintet. He decided to re-elaborate this material into a Messa di Gloria for soloists, chorus and orchestra.

The first performance was given in April 1888 in the church of Sant'Antonio, being a total and undisputed success.

Feeling, affection, sweetness and at the same time vigour in meldoy: these are the characteristics that are constantly recognised in Mascagni's Mass.

The Compact Disc was released by Nuova Era, 1996, (DDD). Nuova Era 7270.

Tenor: Carlo Allemano
Bariton: Domenico Colaianni

Orchestra Internatzionale d'Italia Opera, Coro da Camera di Bratislava, Conductor: Marko Letonja

Track List:

Kyrie
Gloria
Laudamus
Gratias
Domine Jesu
Qui Tollis
Qui Sedis
Quonaim
Cum Sancto Spiritu
Credo
Et Incarnatus
Et Resurrexit
Sanctus
Elevazione
Benedictus
Hosanna
Agnus Dei

Carl Orff (1895 - 1982) - Carmina Burana (Cantiones Profanae 1936)

2009-01-17T13:27:00.007+01:00

Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff, with optional mimed action, in 25 movements for soprano, tenor, and baritone soloists, boys' choir, choir and orchestra (Fourteen of the movements include the choir). It was first performed in Frankfurt in 1937, San Francisco in 1958, London in 1960 (concert) and continues to be a popular concert choice.

The text is a collection of songs about wine, women and love - based on poems in Latin, Old German and Old French from a manuscript dated 1280 found in the Benedictine monastery of Beuren.

Carmina Burana is the first part of Orff's trilogy "Trionfi", the two other works being Cartulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite.

The Compact Disk was released by Berlin Classics, 1960/2008, (ADD). Berlin Classics 0014372BC.

Soprano: Jutta Vulpius
Tenor: Hans-Joachim Rotzsch
Kurt Rehm: Bariton
Bass: Kurt Hübenthal

Rundfunk Kinderchor Leipzig, Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Rundfunksinfonieorchester Leipzig, Conductor: Herbert Kegel

Track List:

O Fortuna (2'29")
Fortune Plango Vulnera (2'39")
Veris Leta Facies (3'59")
Omnia Sol Temperat (2'05")
Ecce Gratum (2'47")
Tanz (1'36")
Floret Silva Nobilis (2'58")
Chramer, Gip Die Varwe Mir (3'03")
Swaz Hie Gat Umbe Chume, Chum Geselle Min, Swaz Hie Gat Umbe (4'00")
Were Diu Werlt Alle Min (0'54")
Estuans Interius (2'30")
Olim Lacus Colueram (3'57")
Ego Sum Abba (1'37")
In Taberna Quando Sumus (3'05")
Amor Volat Undique (3'21")
Dies, Nox Et Omnia ((2'27")
Stetit Puella (1'52")
Circa Mea Pectora (2'09")
Si Puer Cum Puellula (0'55")
Veni, Veni, Venias (0'56")
In Trutina Mentis Dubia (1'56")
Tempus Est Iocundum (2'08")
Dulcissime (0'44")
Ave Formosissima (1'56")
O Fortuna (2'34")

Johann Georg Lickl (1769-1843) - Requiem C-Moll

2009-01-15T16:13:00.008+01:00

Johann Georg Lickl was born 1769 in Korneuburg in Lower Austria. In his childhood he received a training as a church choir boy; he played the organ and and a number of stringed instruments.

He studied the art of composition under the Albrechtsbergers and Joseph Haydn. He revered Mozart, so it is no wonder that he made for example own copies of Mozart's masses to include them in his repertoire from 1808 right up until his death. It is known that he made a copy of Mozart's Requiem in 1830 precisely, the same year as Lickl composed his Requiem in C Minor.

He was a great composer of church music. A part of his works cover at least 30 masses, 50 graduals, 30 offertories, 5 requiems, and several hyms and vespers.

Lickl's music is rooted in the classical traditions of Austrian and South German church music.
The shape and movement of his works have a beautiful colouring and a variation of tonality.

The Compact Disc was released by Koch Schwann, 1995, (DDD). 3-1296-2.

Soprano: Maria Zadori
Mezzo-Soprano: Judith Német
Tenor: Boldizsar Keönch
Bass: Tamas Bator

Pécs Chamber Choir, Pécs Symphony Orchestra, Conductor: Howard Williams

Track List:

Requiem C minor

Requiem.Kyrie (4'37")
Dies Irae (7'10")
Domine Jesu (7'05")
Sanctus (1'20")
Benedictus (3'15")
Anus Dei (5'06")

Missa Solemnis F major

Kyrie (4'48")
Gloria (4'56")
Credo (6'35")
Sanctus (1'11")
Benedictus (4'01")
Agnus Dei (3'00")
Dona Nobis (1'23")

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) - Messa Da Requiem

2009-01-15T12:23:00.010+01:00

The reason for composing this masterpiece was primarily the death of Alessandro Manzoni in 1873, Verdi's most revered Italian writer. With this Requiem, Verdi wanted to erect a memorial in Manzoni's honour.

By April 1874, Verdi finished the Requiem in 1874. The performance in the church of San Marco in Milan was an incredible success. Three days after the peformance a second performance was conducted by Verdi at La Scala (!). Franco Faccio conducted a further two.

Is Verdi's Messa Da Requiem sacred music ? The answer may be yes, because there is a liturgical text set to music. Verdi's intention was to express the emotional meaning and implications of the liturgical text. The Requiem unquestionably conveys operatic elements. But nevertheless the Requiem can be performed either in church or theatre.

The Copact Disc (2 CD) was released by Deutsche Grammophon, year of production1972, purchase in 1991, Digitally Remastered, (ADD). Deutsche Grammophon 413215-2 (G/GA2).

Soprano: Mirella Freni
Contralto: Christa Ludwig
Tenor: Carlo Cossutta
Bass: Nicolai Ghiaurov

Wiener Singverein, Berliner Philharmoniker, Chorus Master: Helmuth Froschauer, Conductor: Herbert von Karajan

Track List:

CD 1:

Requiem Aeternam (8'51")
Dies Irae (2'24")
Tuba Mirum (3'42")
Liber Scriptus (5'30")
Quid Sum Miser (3'51")
Rex Tremendae (3'55")
Recordare (4'23")
Ingemisco (3'57")
Confutatis (5'50")
Lacrymosa (6'05")

CD 2:

Offertorio (11'29")
Sanctus (3'05)
Agnus Dei (5'06")
Lux Aeterna (6'42")
Libera Me (13'50")

Joao Domingos Bomtempo (1775-1842) - Messe De Requiem

2009-01-14T23:42:00.007+01:00

Joao Domingos Bomtempo is regarded as one of the first promoters of native Portuguese music. His compositional influences in his music derive from Paris, to which he moved in 1801. In 1821 he finally made his home in Portugal. He had formed Portugal's first concert organization, the Philharmonic Society, in 1822.

The Requiem was composed in Paris in 1819, the original title is: Messe de Requiem consacrée à la mémoire de Camoes.

In the Requiem the choir takes a dominant part of the work, the soloists making only occasional contributions. Many text passages, which are set for solo performance in other great Requiems, remain in the background.

The Compact Disc was released by Berlin Classics,1997, (ADD). Berlin Classics 0092452BC.

Soprano: Ana Pusar
Contralto: Heidi Rieß
Tenor: Christian Vogel
Bass: Hermann Christian Polster

Rundfunkchor Berlin, Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, Conductor: Heinz Rögner

Track List:

Requiem Aeternam (4'54")
Kyrie Eleison (1'41")
Christe Eleison (2'46")
Dies Irae (2'15")
Tuba Mirum (2'06")
Judex Ergo (1'51")
Quid Sum Miser (3'00")
Juste Judex (1'41")
Ingemisco (2'42")
Confutatis (2'45")
Lacrymosa (3'05")
Dona Eis Requiem (1'39")
Domine Jesu Christe (4'27")
Hostias Et Preces (4'42")
Sanctus (2'47")
Benedictus (3'12")
Agnus Dei (9'37")
Requiem Aeternam (2'09")

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) - Requiem R. 488

2009-01-14T22:54:00.005+01:00

The church music of Liszt is the least known part of his works, though the "Gran Mass" and the "Coronation Mass" are occasionally performed in church or at concerts. The Requiem and the psalms - in comparison - lack popularity in so far that they are almost unknown.

Liszt's Requiem was written for male chorus and organ. He adhered to one of the main trends in church music of the time; the movement was called "Celician" that should lead sacred music back to Gregorian chant and Palestrina's style.

The work was composed in the late 60s of the 19th century. It is said that Liszt composed this Requiem in memory of his mother and children.

The Compact Disc was released by Hungaroton Classics, 1994, (ADD). HCD 11267.

Tenors: Alfonz Bartha, Sándor Palcsó
Baritone: Zsoit Bende
Bass: Péter Kovács

Hungarian Army Male Chorus, Organ: Sándor Margittay, Conductor: János Ferencsik

Track List:

Requiem Aeternam (8'45")
Dies Irae (16'02")
Offertorium (8'00")
Sanctus (6'47")
Agnus Dei (5'18")
Libera Me (5'14")

Messa Per Rossini - Requiem In Honour Of Gioacchino Rossini (Completed in September 1869) - World Premiere Recording

2009-01-14T12:24:00.014+01:00

This extraordinary work was composed by thirteen Italian maestri. Verdi contributed as last part of the work the "Libera Me". It differs significantly from that of Verdi's "Messa Da Requiem".

The libretto of the work was already printed in 1869, but unfortunately the first performance came to nothing because of organizational, financial, ideological and cultural-political differences.

Over the years, the existence of the Messa Da Requiem fell into total oblivion.

It was David Rosen who discovered eight of the 13 autographs and two copies constituting the Messa Da Requiem in the archives of the Ricordi publishing house in Milan in 1970 !

The exemplary collaboration of the Internationale Bachakademie, the Verdi Institute in Parma, and the publisher G. Ricordi & C. in Milan led to the discovery of other sources of the Messa Per Rossini in Italy.

After a 119-year-long archival slumber, the World Premiere of the Messa Per Rossini took place on 11 September 1988.

The 2 CD set is a must-have for every collector of classical music !

The Compact Disc (2 CD) was released by hänssler classics, 1989, (DDD). hänssler classic 98.949.

Sopran: Gabriela Benackova
Contralto: Florence Quivar
Tenor: James Wagner
Bariton: Alexandru Agache
Bass: Aage Haugland

Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, Prager Philharmonischer Chor, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Conductor: Helmuth Rilling

Track List:

CD 1:

Antonio Buzzolla - Requiem (6'30"), Kyrie (3'15")
Antonio Bazzini - Dies Irae (5'05")
Carlo Pedrotti - Tuba Mirum (6'21")
Antonio Cagnoni - Quid Sum Miser (7'12")
Frederico Ricci - Recordare Jesu (8'19")
Alessandro Nini - Ingemisco (10'59")
Raimondo Boucheron - Confutatis (3'28"), Oro Supplex (6'09")

CD 2:

Carlo Coccia - Lacrimosa (2'44"), Amen (4'03")
Gaetano Gaspari - Domine Jesu (2'08"), Quam olim Abrahae (1'42"), Hostias (2'45"), Quam olim Abrahae (2'28")
Pietro Platania - Sanctus (4'54"), Benedictus (2'40")
Lauro Rossi - Agnus Dei (6'16")
Toedulo Mabellini - Lux Aeterna (9'32")
Guiseppe Verdi - Libera Me (7'28"), Requiem Aeternam-Libera Me (5'52")

Anton Dvorak (1841-1904) - Requiem, Opus 89

2009-01-13T23:34:00.010+01:00

Anton Dvorak was an undisputed leader of the Czeck symphony. He composed several symphonies and operas. He was familiar with choral mass composition. In 1890 he accepted a commissioned work - a requiem - to be performed in Birmingham in 1891.

Dvorak's requiem is a dramatic composition, more intended for a concert performance rather than for liturgical purposes.

The Compact Disc (2 CD) was released by Forlane, 1991, (ADD).
UCD 16636 Forlane.

Soprano: Elisabeth Rose
Contralto: Gertraud Prenzlow
Tenor: Peter Schreier
Bass: Theo Adam

Choeurs de la Radio de Berlin, Berlin Radio Chorus, Orchestre Symphonique de la radio de Berlin, Conductor: Karel Ancerl

Track List

CD 1:

Requiem Aeternam (10'52")
Graduale (4'54")
Dies Irae (3'46")
Tuba Mirum (6'56")
Quid Sum Miser (5'54")
Recordare, Jesu Pie (6'36")
Confutatis Maledictis (4'42")
Lacrimosa (5'52")

CD 2:

Offertorium (11'20")
Hostias (11'21")
Sanctus (5'54")
Pie Jesu (5'42")
Agnus Dei (10'47")

Franz von Suppé (1819-1895) - Requiem (World Premiere Recording)

2009-01-13T21:29:00.012+01:00

Suppé's Requiem was dedicated to his friend Franz Pokorny. It was finished in 1855. When you listen to the music, you recognize a strong operatic Italian style. It was written for a four-voice choir, four soloists and orchestra. The masterpiece was rarely performed, so it slipped into oblivion later. After the composition had been rediscovered, a World Premiere Recording followed in 1989.

The Compact Disc was released by BNL Productions, 1989, (DDD).
BNL 112774.

Soprano: Ouliana Tchaikowski
Alto: Danielle Michel
Tenor: Gilles Vitale
Bass: Jean-Louis Bindi

Jugendsinfonieorchester de la Ville de Bonn, Chorales Franco-Allemandes de Lyon,
Conductor: Wolfgang Badun

Track List:

Requiem, Kyrie (7'21")
Dies Irae (1'36")
Tuba Mirum (7'11")
Rex Tremendae (1'50")
Recordare (5'23")
Confutatis (3'37")
Lacrimosa (4'56")
Domine Jesu (4'53")
Hastias (6'13")
Sanctus (2'22")
Benedictus (5'00")
Agnus Dei (9'46")
Libera Me (4'32")

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) - Requiem

2009-01-13T19:56:00.013+01:00

This is Bruckner's early Requiem of 1849. It's one of my favourite requiem by a composer. The orchestration of his requiem is simple; it's not a perfect masterpiece. But when you listen to the music you will find so much grace, beautifulness and sadness in it.

The Compact Disc was released by Hyperion, 1987, (DDD). CDA66245.

Soprano: Joan Rodgers
Contralto: Catherine Denley
Tenor: Maldwyn Davies
Bass: Michael George

Corydon Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, Conductor: Matthew Best

Track List:

Requiem Aeternam
Dies Irae
Domine Jesu Christe
Hostias Et Preces
Quam Olim Abrahae
Sanctus
Benedictus
Agnus Dei
Requiem Aeternam
Cum Sanctus Tuis
Psalm 114
Psalm 112