Whoops! There I was dropping off for a month or three's worth of hibernation, somebody didn't set the alarm and suddenly here we are more than half way through the year.
Oh well, here comes a bumper crop of wonderful recordings fom the first sx months of 2013.
January:
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (Latin Music from Tudor England) sung by Magnificat on Linn. A late start so here's some Early Music from Byrd, Parsons and White sung beautifully by Philip Cave's top notch choir (he being an ex-conductor of the Oxford Harmonic Society).
Norgard Libra, Danish National Vocal Ensemble on Dacapo. By turns highly accessible and mysteriously unpredictable this music is hard to tie down to a particular time or location. Apparently Norgard reconnected with tonality through fractal geometry. Probably best to just listen and enjoy the music rather than trying to comprehend the unfathomable.
February:
Schumann Missa Sacra, Les Cris de Paris on Aparte. Okay, hands up if you didn't know about this Mass by Schumann. Me too. Possibly Schumann's most neglected major work this recording brings it to life and makes you want to sing it yourself as well as immeditely listen to it again.
March:
Gabriel Jackson A Ship Unfurled Sails, State Choir Latvia on Hyperion. A dazzling combination of a wonderful Baltic choir (and I've already made my position clear on how good Baltic composers and choirs are) plus a contemporary British composer who always produces music worth listening to. It just had to be a winner.
April:
Freislich Passio Christi, Goldberg Baroque Ensemble on Sarton. A Polish Baroque Passion Oratorio by a composer you've probably never heard of. Probably only one for lovers of Baroque music who want to spread their wings a little wider than the usual culprits. I won't pretend that it is the best thing since sliced bread (and who the hell likes sliced bread anyway), but of historical interest and not likely to upset your elderly relatives if they hear it playing in the background.
May:
Glass The Passion of Ramakrishna, Pacific Chorale and Symphony Orchestra on Orange Mountain Music. Okay if you don't like Glass move on to the next item now. This is another attempt at Indian mysticism and unlike the lengthy Satyagraha (which I thought was wonderul live, but is a bit much to listen to simply as a recording) it is compact and tightly bound to its subject making it more accssible to the average listener and a little less like Glass simply churning out his usual stuff. I'm a semi-Glass fan anyway (a Glass half full type snake maybe) so this gets a pretty high rating from me as one of his best recent works.
June:
Levine The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostum, Tenebrae on Signum. Moscow born composer Alexander Levine draws heavily on the great Russian choral tradition in this work but adds a vibrancy and colour palette of his own which Tenebrae make the most of. I think the description heavenly just about sums it up.
Enough. I'll need another hibernation if I don't have a rest now. Hopefully the next installation will be a bit more timely.
Friday, 2 August 2013
Monday, 3 December 2012
Recordings review Oct to Dec 2012
Christmas is approaching fast, and if you're wondering what to buy a music-lover this year you could do a lot worse than this bunch of stocking fillers. As usual I've selected one recording from each issue of Gramophone magazine, which makes four in total this quarter because of the additional 'Awards' edition of the magazine.
Actually I'm lying, it makes six in total as I've bunged in a couple of proper Christmas recordings of carols old and new as a bonus.
Awards edition:
Barber (An American Romantic) performed by Conspirare and Company of Voices on Harmonia Mundi. Including the inevitable but ever-beautiful Adagio in its choral arrangement Agnus Dei, but much more too. Barber was a lot more than a one-trick pony and his choice of texts combined with a wide variety of musical styles always provides interest.
October:
Graupner's The Seven Words of Christ on the Cross performed by Les Idees Heureuses on Analekta. No, I'd never heard of him either. This is Christoph Graupner by the way, a contemporary of J.S. Bach who was equally prolific but didn't leave a vast number of offspring or students to safeguard his legacy, rather than the later composer Gottlieb Graupner who travelled to America and in his attempts to popularise Negro songs apparently took to blacking himself up and introducing himself as 'The gay Negro boy'! I digress. This is obviously serious and heartfelt music and Graupner seems to be a composer well worth getting to know better.
November:
Nordic Sounds 2 performed by the Swedish Radio Choir on Channel Classics features a range of more contemporary, but almost as obscure composers - I'd only heard of a couple of them before and I'm a big fan of Baltic and Scandinavian choral music in general. Anyway, it certainly doesn't disappoint with some wonderfully virtuosic singing and a range of styles from rugged folk to ethereal spirituality. Definitely one for my stocking.
December:
Pater noster (a choral reflection on the Lord's Prayer) performed by the King's Singers on Naxos. A beautifully sung collection selected from over 6 centuries of Christian church music, and a bargain to boot! Some surprises too from composers such as Stravinsky and Poulenc.
And those bonus carol recordings:
The old (going way back to the 15th century) is Deo Gracias Anglia (Medieval English Carols from the Trinity Carol Roll), performed by Alamire on Obsidian, while the new (featuring contemporary and 20th century composers) is This Christmas Night performed by locals in the form of the Choir of Worcester College Oxford on Resonus. Both well worth listening to in very different ways.
To tell you the truth I could easily have chosen several other recordings from December which featured a whole host of worthwhile pieces including a Deutsche Messe by Mendelssohn (but this time Arnold, rather than his better known cousin Felix), a beautiful Requiem by Gabriel Jackson, patriotic splendour from Parry courtesy of the BBC National Chorus, and a rather oddly timed release of La Fiesta de Pascua en Piazza Navona which recreates a 16th century Roman Easter procession! What a wonderful and wide-ranging bunch.
Have a very Happy Christmas and hopefully phantomchoralsnake will return early in the New Year, probably a few pounds heavier. Have you ever seen a snake eat a turkey whole? It's not as easy as it looks, all of that jaw dislocation lark, and you have to avoid sneezing, which isn't easy with that many feathers going past your nose.
Actually I'm lying, it makes six in total as I've bunged in a couple of proper Christmas recordings of carols old and new as a bonus.
Awards edition:
Barber (An American Romantic) performed by Conspirare and Company of Voices on Harmonia Mundi. Including the inevitable but ever-beautiful Adagio in its choral arrangement Agnus Dei, but much more too. Barber was a lot more than a one-trick pony and his choice of texts combined with a wide variety of musical styles always provides interest.
October:
Graupner's The Seven Words of Christ on the Cross performed by Les Idees Heureuses on Analekta. No, I'd never heard of him either. This is Christoph Graupner by the way, a contemporary of J.S. Bach who was equally prolific but didn't leave a vast number of offspring or students to safeguard his legacy, rather than the later composer Gottlieb Graupner who travelled to America and in his attempts to popularise Negro songs apparently took to blacking himself up and introducing himself as 'The gay Negro boy'! I digress. This is obviously serious and heartfelt music and Graupner seems to be a composer well worth getting to know better.
November:
Nordic Sounds 2 performed by the Swedish Radio Choir on Channel Classics features a range of more contemporary, but almost as obscure composers - I'd only heard of a couple of them before and I'm a big fan of Baltic and Scandinavian choral music in general. Anyway, it certainly doesn't disappoint with some wonderfully virtuosic singing and a range of styles from rugged folk to ethereal spirituality. Definitely one for my stocking.
December:
Pater noster (a choral reflection on the Lord's Prayer) performed by the King's Singers on Naxos. A beautifully sung collection selected from over 6 centuries of Christian church music, and a bargain to boot! Some surprises too from composers such as Stravinsky and Poulenc.
And those bonus carol recordings:
The old (going way back to the 15th century) is Deo Gracias Anglia (Medieval English Carols from the Trinity Carol Roll), performed by Alamire on Obsidian, while the new (featuring contemporary and 20th century composers) is This Christmas Night performed by locals in the form of the Choir of Worcester College Oxford on Resonus. Both well worth listening to in very different ways.
To tell you the truth I could easily have chosen several other recordings from December which featured a whole host of worthwhile pieces including a Deutsche Messe by Mendelssohn (but this time Arnold, rather than his better known cousin Felix), a beautiful Requiem by Gabriel Jackson, patriotic splendour from Parry courtesy of the BBC National Chorus, and a rather oddly timed release of La Fiesta de Pascua en Piazza Navona which recreates a 16th century Roman Easter procession! What a wonderful and wide-ranging bunch.
Have a very Happy Christmas and hopefully phantomchoralsnake will return early in the New Year, probably a few pounds heavier. Have you ever seen a snake eat a turkey whole? It's not as easy as it looks, all of that jaw dislocation lark, and you have to avoid sneezing, which isn't easy with that many feathers going past your nose.
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Oxford College Choirs
I've just discovered an interesting series of short videos about Oxford College choirs on the Oxford Today website. Currently there are 4 videos to watch, but there will be 6 by December as they are adding one each month. Worth a watch as they give an interesting insight to life behind the scenes at these well known, and well loved institutions.
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Choral recordings July to September 2012
Another batch of fine recordings as featured in Gramophone Magazine's reviews for the last quarter and available now from a record shop (or website) near you.
For a change I'm heading back in time a bit further than usual.
July:
Gesualdo Quinto libro dei madrigali performed by the Hilliard Ensemble on ECM New Series. Gesualdo, the master of surprise dissonances is one of my favourite early composers and his works are just the sort of thing the Hilliard Ensemble excel at. I could hapily listen to them for hours (particularly live) but in this recording you get the added bonus of a countertenor and soprano thrown into the mix making the whole sound lighter and more vibrant.
August:
Zelenka's Responsoria pro Hebdomada Sancta & Lamentatio Ieremiae Prophetae performed by Collegium Vocale 1704 on Accent. I'm becoming a bit of a fan of both Zelenka and performances of his works by this choir (check out the Missa Votiva too). Vaying in mood from serious and contemplative to wonderfully bouncy this is quite simply glorious Baroque music from the 1720s, wonderfully sung.
September:
Divitis / de Fevin Requiem performed by Ensemble Organum on Aeon. No this work wasn't written by two composers, they simply aren't sure who did write it, but it was almost certainly one of these two. It's also an early Renaissance work of considerable interest, and performed by a choir that may not be the most refined or balanced at times, but a choir nevertheless that contains a number of superb individual voices such as their basso profundo Antoine Sicot. Other choirs have recorded this work with instrumentation, but here you just have the voices, with no other distractions.
That's it for now, but next time we'll be in the run up to Christmas, so based on my current course there might just be some medieval carols served up with your mince pies, you never know.
For a change I'm heading back in time a bit further than usual.
July:
Gesualdo Quinto libro dei madrigali performed by the Hilliard Ensemble on ECM New Series. Gesualdo, the master of surprise dissonances is one of my favourite early composers and his works are just the sort of thing the Hilliard Ensemble excel at. I could hapily listen to them for hours (particularly live) but in this recording you get the added bonus of a countertenor and soprano thrown into the mix making the whole sound lighter and more vibrant.
August:
Zelenka's Responsoria pro Hebdomada Sancta & Lamentatio Ieremiae Prophetae performed by Collegium Vocale 1704 on Accent. I'm becoming a bit of a fan of both Zelenka and performances of his works by this choir (check out the Missa Votiva too). Vaying in mood from serious and contemplative to wonderfully bouncy this is quite simply glorious Baroque music from the 1720s, wonderfully sung.
September:
Divitis / de Fevin Requiem performed by Ensemble Organum on Aeon. No this work wasn't written by two composers, they simply aren't sure who did write it, but it was almost certainly one of these two. It's also an early Renaissance work of considerable interest, and performed by a choir that may not be the most refined or balanced at times, but a choir nevertheless that contains a number of superb individual voices such as their basso profundo Antoine Sicot. Other choirs have recorded this work with instrumentation, but here you just have the voices, with no other distractions.
That's it for now, but next time we'll be in the run up to Christmas, so based on my current course there might just be some medieval carols served up with your mince pies, you never know.
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Recordings review April to June 2012
It has been a long time since phantomchoralsnake performed his blogging duties, so apologies for the delay (holidays, a generally busy schedule and all sorts of other feeble excuses). It will soon be time for the next quarterly review of recordings, but here's the batch worth checking out from Gramophone Magazine reviews between April and June this year.
To tell you the truth April wasn't actually that exciting so I've chosen one recording from May and two from June to make up for it.
May:
Vasks Plainscapes performed by the Latvian Radio Choir on Ondine. This is a marvellous selection of Vasks' a capella output written from 1978 to 2008. You should know by now how much I love Baltic music in general, but this recording is sublime, shimmering, spiritual, soothing, soaring and a bucketload of other s's big enough to keep any snake happy.
June:
Schnittke Penitential Psalms performed by the SWR Vokalensemble, Stuttgart (no, I'd never heard of them before either) on Hanssler Classic. Written in 1988 to mark the 1,000 year anniversary of Russia's Christianisation this is an interesting take on Russian Orthodox and Gregorian chant traditions. If you know some of Schnittke's more radical works, and you're worrying that this might be equally difficult to approach (although personally I like some of Schnittke's way out stuff quite a lot), don't panic, as this is very accessible, but with an interesting edge to it.
Chilcott Requiem performed by the Wells Cathedral Choir on Hyperion. Something firmly smack bang in the middle of the British choral tradition for those of you who feel more comfortable with that sort of thing. The music is mostly gentle and reflective in tone (no Verdian hystrionics here, more of a Faure Requiem part II) and this popular British contemporary composer has managed to come up with enough innovation and original input to distinguish his Requiem from its many predecessors and make repeated listening an enticing prospect.
That's it for now. Back again soon, I promise.
To tell you the truth April wasn't actually that exciting so I've chosen one recording from May and two from June to make up for it.
May:
Vasks Plainscapes performed by the Latvian Radio Choir on Ondine. This is a marvellous selection of Vasks' a capella output written from 1978 to 2008. You should know by now how much I love Baltic music in general, but this recording is sublime, shimmering, spiritual, soothing, soaring and a bucketload of other s's big enough to keep any snake happy.
June:
Schnittke Penitential Psalms performed by the SWR Vokalensemble, Stuttgart (no, I'd never heard of them before either) on Hanssler Classic. Written in 1988 to mark the 1,000 year anniversary of Russia's Christianisation this is an interesting take on Russian Orthodox and Gregorian chant traditions. If you know some of Schnittke's more radical works, and you're worrying that this might be equally difficult to approach (although personally I like some of Schnittke's way out stuff quite a lot), don't panic, as this is very accessible, but with an interesting edge to it.
Chilcott Requiem performed by the Wells Cathedral Choir on Hyperion. Something firmly smack bang in the middle of the British choral tradition for those of you who feel more comfortable with that sort of thing. The music is mostly gentle and reflective in tone (no Verdian hystrionics here, more of a Faure Requiem part II) and this popular British contemporary composer has managed to come up with enough innovation and original input to distinguish his Requiem from its many predecessors and make repeated listening an enticing prospect.
That's it for now. Back again soon, I promise.
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