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Post by jk on Feb 25, 2024 7:25:05 GMT -5
The Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds (born 1977) can do little wrong in my eyes (or perhaps that should be ears). This was confirmed yet again this morning when I heard his In paradisum (2012) on Dutch radio. To quote Robert Deutsch, "In paradisum […] produces a ravishing but wordless choral tapestry behind the solo instruments, its vocal tonalities shimmering subtly and changing, making it the most beautiful choral recording I've encountered" ( source). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92riks_E%C5%A1envalds
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Post by jk on Mar 7, 2024 7:32:52 GMT -5
Most regrettably, whenever I hear the names of the German Baroque composers Samuel Scheidt and Johann Schein mentioned in the same sentence (as here at 0:40), I'm inevitably reminded of that wonderful American expression, "You can't shine a turd." But I digress. In the snippets from rehearsals for that particular concert from a decade ago you can hear works by the two composers in question that "my" choir has been working on recently for a concert of its own, one being Schein's setting of "Die mit Tränen säen, werden mit Freuden": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Hermann_Schein
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Post by jk on Mar 10, 2024 8:06:15 GMT -5
Today I heard part four, "Et incarnatus est", of the 6-voice Missa Corona Spinea (Crown of Thorns Mass) by the English composer and organist John Taverner (c. 1490–1545; not to be confused with the better-known John Tavener), performed by Peter Phillips & The Tallis Scholars. Those stratospheric soprano lines are a thing of wonder: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taverner
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Post by jk on Mar 15, 2024 5:12:51 GMT -5
One of the prides of my record collection is this LP from 1961 of music by Francis Poulenc (1899–1963): The Gloria long took a back seat in my listening habits to the "flipside", Poulenc's Organ Concerto, one of my two favourites in the genre (the other being Alban Berg's Concerto for Violin) and an all-time favourite work in any genre. But once I discovered the qualities of the choral work I played it almost as often as the concerto. Scored for soprano solo, SATB chorus and orchestra (piccolo, 2 flutes [2nd doubling 2nd piccolo], 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp and strings), Poulenc's Gloria is performed here, as on the album, by Rosanna Carteri and the French National Radio Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Georges Prêtre: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_(Poulenc)
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Post by jk on Mar 16, 2024 8:51:28 GMT -5
Benjamin Rimmer's exquisite In The Shining Blackness, which I heard this morning during today's radio hour of religious and spiritual music, was composed towards the end of 2015 and in early 2016. Its text is an adaptation of translations (by Philip Dutton and Ian Mikyska) of an untitled poem (1940) by the Czechoslovakian Jewish refugee Jiří Glaser. Those close intervals in the high sopranos are something else: www.benjaminrimmer.com/
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Post by jk on Apr 18, 2024 9:14:49 GMT -5
Now here's a magnificent work for mixed a cappella choir by the Armenian musician-priest Komitas Vardapet (1869–1935). We heard it live a short while back sung by Capella Amsterdam under Leonard Evers, in the same arrangement by fellow countryman Vache Sharafyan. www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kEIg2mWEkPJ3tJGh4Snuvvchpu-JL8AL4In the version we heard, the choir sang the following six sections: 04 – "Annunciation of the Procession" 06 – "Holy God" 09 – "The Body of the Lord" 10 – "Who Is Lord, Our God" 12 – "Christ Among Us" and 14 – "Sanctus": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komitas
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Post by jk on Apr 27, 2024 16:21:26 GMT -5
This is the fourth of the five "desert island discs" Anna Lapwood was asked to choose in the interview posted here. It's William Henry Harris's anthem for unacompanied double choir, Bring us, O Lord God; Anna had no particular version in mind. It's a stunning piece, to be sure: "Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening into the house and gate of Heaven: to enter into that gate and dwell in that house, where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light; no noise nor silence, but one equal music; no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession; no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity; in the habitations of thy Majesty and Glory, world without end. Amen." This prayer, generally ascribed to John Donne, is actually an adaptation by Eric Milner-White from the concluding words of a sermon (CXLVII) preached by Donne on February 29, 1628 at Whitehall ( source). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Harris
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