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

Friday, March 18, 2011

O vos omnes - Tomas Luis de Victoria, The Stairwell Carollers, Ottawa.

DA CAPO -- Stairwell Caroller history -- Spring -- Madrigal time! Ottawa Tulip Festival

3 maids from Medieval times
Dawn, Holly and Diane
Warm weather has me reminiscing to Springs past with the carollers. Singing at the Tulip Festival May 18th and 19th, 1988 was such a time...
At Dows lake, Ottawa in Period wear ready to sing Madrigals
The Stairwell Carollers
The King and Queen of Spring Madrigals
Our Director, Pierre and Denyse
Dashing prince Simon
Simon
Strolling in Long gowns -- not easy!
Walking and singing -- as usual :)
Yes, this is the NAC -- uh huh we sang there
After entertaining the crowds by Dow's lake, the following day we went on to the National Arts Centre to continue singing Madrigals -- and take some pics.
Aren't we cute!
On the stairs in the NAC lobby
We were a small group then and borrowed costumes from Ottawa Little Theatre's "Tickle Trunk" for a song. Not literally -- about $10.00 per person, if I remember correctly. Sue, the costume mistress at OLT, was always wonderful to us and there every time we needed to dress up.
Her dashing Prince!
Dawn and Mike -- newlyweds
I suspect this pose makes me a lady in waiting
Diane, Simon, Me and Marjorie
The courtesan with her King!
Me and Pete -- sigh
The Queen and her Prince consort
Denyse and Donald
Loved those costumes -- all from Ottawa Little Theatre -- thx Susan!
One last photo of everyone -- what fun!

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