Friday, March 25, 2011

CD RECS -- "Sacred Music - From the Middle Ages to the 20th Century" Box Set of 29 CDS

CD list, and notes from an unknown reviewer: 
(shared by David Rain, Tenor)

CD1 Early Christian Chant (5th -13th Century)
Chant, chant, chant! You won't want to listen to this many times unless you are a chant specialist.
CD2 Gregorian Chant
Includes Messe de Requiem gregorienne, Cistercian Chant and Magnus liber organi More chant...
CD3 Birth of Polyphony (1100-1300)
Includes music from Notre-Dame School, hockets from the Bamberg Manuscript, etc., etc. Now it's getting more interesting!
CD4 Polyphonic Motet from Ars Antiqua to the Renaissance
Includes 14th Century English music (Hilliard Ensemble), Dufay, Dunstable, Plummer, and from the Renaissance Desprez, Janequin, Byrd, Gesualdo and Hassler
CD5&6 Polyphonic Mass from Middle Ages to the Renaissance
Machaut - Messe de Notre Dame, Desprez - Missa Pange Lingua, Janequin - Messe `La Bataille'
Lassus - Missa `Tous les regretz', Palestrina - Missa `Viri Galilaei, Byrd - Mass for 4 Voices
CD7 French `Petit Motet' and `Grand Motet'
Dumont, Lully, Delalande and Charpentier Te Deum.
CD8 Lamentations & Tenebrae
Music by Massaino, Lassus, Charpentier, Couperin, and Krenek
CD9/10 Monteverdi Vespro della beata Vergine - Herreweghe
In my opinion not such a good recording as the one by Rene Jacobs, but nice to have to compare.
Also Vespro Solenne by G Rovetta (1596-1668) from Cantus Colln and Konrad Junghanel. This is beautiful!
CD11/12 Alessandro Scarlatti - Cain overo Il Primo Omicidio - Rene Jacobs
A great recording of Scarlatti's oratorio of the story of Cain and Abel. Good orchestral playing, excellent soloists.
CD13/14 Handel - Messiah - Les Arts Florissants, William Christie
A very creditable Messiah. It certainly beats both my Huddersfield Choral Society and my Bernstein version, and comes pretty close to the more exciting Rene Jacobs version. The soloists here are good - Barbara Schlick, Sandrine Piau, Andreas Scholl (excellent), Mark Padmore and Nathan Berg.
CD15/16 Mendelssohn - Paulus - Herreweghe
This work was new to me, and on a single hearing is beautifully performed, if perhaps a little understated.
CD17 Music for the Reformed Church
Music by Sermisy, L'Estocart, Tallis, Purcell, Schutz, Bruhns and a Missa brevis in F by Bach.
The Bruhns cantata made me want to investigate his music further.
CD18&19 Bach - Christmas Oratorio - Rene Jacobs
A simply stunning recording. Soloists are Dorothea Roschmann, Andreas Scholl, Werner Gura and Klaus Hager.
CD20&21 Stabat Mater
On these CDs we get Stabat Maters by Pergolesi (the well known Rene Jacobs/Sebastian Hennig performance), Boccherini (Agnes Mellon/Ensemble 415/Chiara Banchini), Vivaldi (Scholl/Ensemble 415/Chiara Banchini) and Rossini (RIAS Kammerchor/Creed). The Rossini work was new to me, and particularly appealed.
CD22/23/24 Requiem
On three CDs we get the Requiems by Mozart (Herreweghe), Brahms (Herreweghe), Faure (1893 version) (also Herreweghe), and Durufle (Magdalen College Oxford)
CD25/26/27/28 19th & 20th Centuries
Beethoven - Missa Solemnis (Herreweghe), Mendelssohn - various motets, Bruckner - motets
Poulenc - 8 motets & Messe en Sol majeur, Bernstein - Mass - what a gloriously mixed up work - bass guitar meets marching band with a bit of West Side Story and Jesus Christ Superstar thrown in for good measure!
CD29 Orthodox Church Music - 80mins
Various pieces from the 17th & 18th century and Rachmaninov - All Night Vigil Op37 Vespers all superbly sung by the Estonian Chamber Choir.
CD30 PDF file of all the texts
CD Box set available at Amazon here

1 comment :

  1. One of our new members emailed me with this rec --

    I bought this lovely collection a year or so ago and it is great - nice versions of works!

    Jan

    ReplyDelete

You can also email your questions to me - info (at) stairwellcarollers (dot) com.
Thanks,
Holly :)

You May also Like...

  • Top 10 reasons to Audition for The Stairwell Carollers - 3...2...1!29.08.2018 - 0 Comments
  • Le chant des oyseaux -- Clément Janequin -  The Stairwell Carollers, Ottawa.20.09.2011 - 2 Comments
  • Silent Night in 3 languages -- German, English and French.21.09.2010 - 3 Comments
  • The Stairwell Carollers perform 18.01.2018 - 0 Comments
  • Please Vote for Pierre Massie in CBC's 2014 Searchlight Contest27.03.2014 - 0 Comments

Popular Posts

Tags

1988 1997 2000 2001 2003 2006 2007 2009 2010 2011 Spring Season 2011 Xmas Season 2012 Spring Season 2012 Xmas Season 2013 Spring Season 2013 Xmas Season 2014 Spring season 2014 Xmas season 2015 Christmas Season 2015 Spring Season 2016 Christmas Season 2016 Spring Season 2017 2017 Christmas Season 2017 Spring Season 2018 2018 Christmas Season 2018 Spring Season 2019 Christmas Season 2019 Spring season 2020 Spring season 2020Christmas season 2021 Christmas season 2021 Spring Season 2022 Christmas season 2022 Spring Season 2022 Xmas Season 2023 Christmas 2023 Spring season 2024 Spring Season 2025 Spring season 30th Anniversary 40th Anniversary a cappella altos Apt 613 Auditions awards basses BEHIND THE SONG benefit bilingue Blogging breath control Canada Carillon Caroling CBC Radio CD Spotlight CFMO radio CFRA Radio Chanteurs Stairwell Charity choir choir christmas carol CHOIR HOW-TO choir promotion choral choral workshop chorale Christmas Christmas carol Christmas Exchange Broadcast Churches Classic FM classical music Composing concert Concert Tickets concerts Contemporary Music Contest coping Costume Covid-19 Da Capo -- Stairwell Caroller History Digital Download directing the choir Donate ear training En Français event Fiddle Folk fundraising Gabriel Lewis-O'Connor Gatineau Gifting Gord Atkinson Governor General Award In Memoriam inspirational iTunes John Rutter Just for Fun Kiwanis Local Venues madrigal Mark Sirett masked music Masterclass Medieval music MOLTO MONDAY Movable Do Music and Beyond music theory National Gallery New Music Newspaper Articles NOTEable Mention OMFA Orpheus Ottawa Ottawa Magazine Outaouais pandemic Peace Tower Carillon Photography Pierre Massie Podcast Premiere press release Program Booklet Quebec radio interview Recordings Regional Contact Renaissance review Rhythm Rideau Hall Romantic Period Sacred sacred music safe singing SATB scholarship secular music Singing Sir David Willcocks SMP Press Social Media Solo Saturday sopranos Spanish Sponsorship St Charles church Stained Glass Stairwell Carollers Stairwellers Steering committee Summer Hiatus Tech Notes Tenors The Square The Stairwell Interviews Tutti Thursday TV Appearances Video Virtual choir vocal vocal music vocal training Vocal warmup volunteering Xmas youtube
Real Time Web Analytics Google
Google