Great European Choral Works
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CORO CORO Claudio Monteverdi Sounds Sublime Selva morale e spirituale – Vol. I The Essential Collection (2CD set) Great European Choral Works Some of the most “This promises to celebrated recordings be a series well from Harry Christophers worth collecting.” and his award-winning gramophone ensemble, these discs provide a definitive collection of familiar classics and lesser-known treasures. cor16087 cor16073 Great British The Earth Resounds Choral Works Josquin, Brumel, Lassus “If you aren’t hooked All of the repertoire on The Sixteen from the Choral already, then this Pilgrimage 2012. might be the perfect way to sample the wide range of periods “This is a thrilling disc.” they have opened up international to us over the years.” record review cor16092 new directions cor16097 The Sixteen To find out more about The Sixteen, concert tours, and to buy CDs visit HARRY CHRISTOPHERS www.thesixteen.com cor16102 1 G.F. Handel Dixit Dominus (from Dixit Dominus) 5.16 Great European Choral Works Elin Manahan Thomas soprano, Ruth Massey alto, Mark Dobell tenor 2 Claudio Monteverdi Beatus vir (Primo) a 6 7.56 Elin Manahan Thomas, Grace Davidson soprano, Mark Dobell alto, ny compilation of Great European Joseph Cornwell, Julian Stocker tenor, Rob Macdonald bass A Choral Works can only touch the 3 G.P. da Palestrina Assumpta est Maria a 6 6.21 surface of the wealth of music that is on 4 Tomás Luis de Victoria Gaude Maria 1.52 offer. However, there are certain iconic Dietrich Buxtehude Cantata I, Ad pedes (To the feet) composers whose sacred music has 5 Sonata 0.47 6 Ecce super montes – chorus 1.10 proved to be landmarks through the 7 Salve mundi salutare – chorus 0.46 centuries. Palestrina, Monteverdi, Bach, Borggreve Marco Photograph: 8 Clavos pedum – soprano solo Carolyn Sampson soprano 1.24 Handel, Mozart, Brahms and Poulenc are 9 Dulcis Jesu – bass solo Simon Birchall bass 1.27 bl very much at the top of that list. We have Ecce super montes – chorus 1.20 bm Orlande de Lassus Timor et tremor 4.40 chosen works from all of these composers bn Johannes Brahms Selig sind, die da Leid tragen (from Ein Deutsches Requiem) 9.46 which demonstrate pivotal changes in the bo W. A . Mozart Laudate Dominum (from Vesperae solennes de Confessore) 3.59 perception and character of sacred music Elin Manahan Thomas soprano through the ages. Their music was both bp Frank Martin Sanctus (from Mass for Double Choir) 3.11 heavily influential on those to come after bq Frank Martin Benedictus (from Mass for Double Choir) 1.17 but also greatly influenced by previous great br Francis Poulenc Judas, mercator pessimus (from Sept Répons des Ténèbres) 2.34 masters; on and by the likes of Victoria, bs Gabriel Fauré Agnus Dei (from Requiem) 5.12 Schütz, Buxtehude, Teixeira, Fauré and bt Heinrich Schütz Canticum B Simeonis ‘Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener’ 4.26 (from Musikalische Exequien) Martin, all of whom feature on this CD. Seraphim I: Libby Crabtree, Ruth Dean, Carolyn Sampson Seraphim II: Lisa Beckley, Sally Dunkley, Rebecca Outram Beata anima cum Seraphinis: Simon Birchall, Robert Evans, Tim Jones bu António Teixeira Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus (from Te Deum) 5.14 cl J.S. Bach O ewiges Feuer, O Ursprung der Liebe (Chorus from Cantata 34) 7.20 Total running time: 75.59 2 3 Great European Choral Works master Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) The 1872 Bösendorfer piano gives an as ‘simply a pleasure!’. Showing off the authentic sound, allowing a very different ver a period of more than thirty years England. It is full of energy and optimism, strengths of members of the choir as performance from the much loved Harry Christophers and The Sixteen and described by Harry Christophers as soloists, the Beatus vir a 6 is performed orchestral version which is better suited to Ohave been at the forefront of choral music- ‘a roller coaster of vocal exuberance’, as with one singer and instrumentalist per the size of the choir. making. This CD is a compilation of music exciting to listen to as to sing. part. Monteverdi can’t help but sparkle from continental Europe, gathered from with this setting of psalm 112. Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) gives us the CORO catalogue. As such it serves as a Hearing the music of Palestrina (1525- another requiem excerpt. His Messe de brief overview of the recording life of The 1594), who lived and worked for most of The music of Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) Requiem is so well-known and loved that Sixteen so far, and invites you to explore his life in Rome, is to be in the presence took on grander proportions thanks to it has been recorded dozens of times, and the full discs from which these individual of a composer whose exquisite music is time he spent in Venice between 1609- is the staple repertoire of many choirs tracks have come. considered by many to be ‘the soundtrack 1612 as pupil of Giovanni Gabrieli. The and choral societies. Fauré regarded of Rome’. He built up a colossal reputation Musikalische Exequien uses the polychoral death as a ‘joyful deliverance’ and his It is of course a regret that more couldn’t during his lifetime, along the way managing techniques and full use of the ecclesiastical musical style reflects the ‘aspiration to a be included on this disc, and these to influence the Council of Trent on the space that Schütz would have seen and happiness beyond the grave’. The Agnus notes must at least mention the Italian very direction of music heard in church. heard in the Basilica at St Mark’s. The Dei movement of the Requiem is featured piece in The Sixteen’s repertoire which He left choirs a huge output of music, so text of this funeral piece gives a message here with its invocation to grant eternal is amongst its most popular, Allegri’s choosing a piece to demonstrate his skill of glorious hope and comfort which is rest to the departed. Sadly there is no Miserere, composed for use in the Sistine is somewhat arbitrary. Included here given heightened emphasis in the rich room for Fauré’s Pie Jesu from the Requiem, Chapel in Rome. Such is its popularity is Assumpta est Maria a 6, an offertory and sonorous scoring. Schütz’s music though the beautiful soprano voice of Elin that it is included on a number of other motet published in the composer’s 1593 was revived by Johannes Brahms (1833- Manahan Thomas can be heard in the CDs by the group, including the double- collection. It is free-composed, that is to 1897), and the Musikalische Exequien was exquisitely lyrical Laudate Dominum by disc compilation ‘Sounds Sublime’ say its melody is not based on a previously especially well-known to the German. Mozart (1756-1791) from the Vesperae (COR16073). Music from Rome is existing piece of plainsong, and displays Indeed, Brahms’s German Requiem uses solennes de Confessore. Mozart sets the included here though, from Palestrina his considerable skill and inventiveness. the same text as heard in the Schütz text of the shortest psalm of them all, the and Handel. The disc opens with Dixit track (‘Selig sind de Toten’). The version two verses of psalm 117 plus doxology, Dominus, completed by the 22 year Harry Christophers describes recording heard here uses the unusual scoring which no doubt would have pleased the old Handel (1685-1759) in 1707 whilst the first volume of the large collection for piano duet originally produced by religious authorities in Salzburg at the time studying in Rome before his move to Selva morale e spirituale by the Venetian Brahms to promote the work in England. of its composition in 1780. Archbishop 4 5 Colloredo’s eye on brevity doesn’t stifle When listening to the dramatic setting of No.34 O ewiges Feuer, O Ursprung der UK – the 400th anniversary of Victoria’s Mozart here as he writes with jaw- the dark text for Maundy Thursday with Liebe (O everlasting fire, O fountain of death. The magazine International Record dropping fluency and beauty. its rhythmic urgency and loud outbursts love) is included on this compilation. As Review wrote of that CD, ‘A more worthy one has the impression that Poulenc has always, Bach takes his lead from the text, tribute to this truly great composer is The Mass for Double Choir by Swiss worked the energy found in New York City for Whitsuntide, which may also have difficult to imagine.’ It is well worth composer Frank Martin (1890-1974), in general, and in Bernstein in particular, been written by him. exploring the rest of Victoria’s music on though popular today, was something of into this characterful piece. the CORO label. a slow burner. Composed over a period António Teixiera (1707-1769) wrote of four years from 1922-26 it wasn’t Dietrich Buxtehude (c.1637-1707) wrote music for both church and opera house in Orlande de Lassus (c.1532-1594) had premiered for four decades and only his Membra Jesu nostri as a meditation, with his native city of Lisbon, and it is clear to a varied and geographically expansive came to international prominence a each of the seven cantatas concentrating hear from the Te gloriosus Apostolorum career. He was something of a polyglot further two decades after that. But Martin on a different part of the body of Christ. chorus from his large-scale Te Deum which is reflected in his musical output for said he didn’t write it with performance Cantata 1 concentrates on the feet, and is setting that he was not afraid to bring the voices.