Alfred Deller - The Complete Vanguard Recordings, Vol.4 - Music of Handel, Bach and the English Renaissance (2008) {6CD Set, Vanguard Classics MC195}
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© 2008 Vanguard Classics / Musical Concepts | MC 195
Classical / Baroque / Renaissance / Choral / Vocal Music

CD1 Handel, where we find Alfred Deller and his partners conducted by Antony Lewis. It is the occasion to hear beautiful tunes, although it seems to me that Deller is not in the repertoire which suits him best. CD2 again Handel, "Ode for the birthday of Queen Anne", it is deeper and more lively, more embodied. Sacred pages of Bach follow; and there, we must hear Deller, this disturbing, unique timbre, so different from more recent interpretations … an angel.

Joseph Martin Kraus was born in the same year as Mozart and died only one year after him; like him, he was also a musician who revealed his extraordinary talent at an early age. It is only in recent years, however, that Kraus has again begun to receive somewhat more attention as a multitalented artistic personality. Born in Miltenberg am Main, Kraus enjoyed a career that took him to Stockholm as court music director to the music-loving King Gustavus III. In their originality his sacred compositions tower above the conventional liturgical repertoire produced in Southern Germany during the second half of the eighteenth century.

It's always great to encounter the recording that can "crack" a composer open, making his or her music accessible to a general listening public. And it's all the better when such a recording comes from beyond the usual quarters, as, for example, with this American recording of Renaissance polyphony. Nicolas Gombert was a Flemish Renaissance composer, a successor (and possibly a student) of Josquin who entered the service of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. His music, especially in his masses, tends to present itself as a dense, unbroken flow of polyphony. Gombert is one of the composers music history students tend to slog through in hopes of getting to the good stuff. One noted Renaissance scholar used to refer to him, Adrian Willaert, and Giaches de Wert as "the Ert brothers." All that could change with this disc of Gombert motets and chansons. These works are less dense than his masses, but not by much, and they are considerably less limpid than Josquin's pieces in the same genres. But here it is the performances that clarify them. The Massachusetts ensemble Capella Alamire (the name is a pun on an aspect of an old solmization system) under director Peter Urquhart, recording in a church in Portsmouth, NH, slows the motets down slightly and addresses them with a group of eight singers – the black belt of choral singing.

AAM Records’ newest release features the Academy of Ancient Music joining forces with The Choir of Keble College and director Matthew Martin in a landmark recording of Francisco Vall’s ‘forgotten’ Missa Regalis [1740]. Performed from a new edition by Simon Heighes, Valls’ fascinating (and frequently confusticating) juxtaposition of ancient and ‘modern’ compositional styles provides a intriguing glimpse into the treasure-trove of Spanish baroque music, much of which remains relatively unknown to the wider world.

Born around 1380 in the Duchy of Limburg, possibly in the little town of the same name, Johannes de Limburgia was active for a long time in Liège, then in Italy. We have evidence of his presence in Vicenza between 1431 and 1436, and several of his works refer explicitly to Vicenza, as well as to Venice and Padua, demonstrating a strong connection with northern Italy, where his music was compiled. His output – more than 45 works – is contained in three large manuscripts from the first half of the fifteenth century, alongside music by other composers from north of the Alps, such as Johannes Ciconia and Guillaume Dufay.

Giovanni Battista Fasolo (1598-1680) was born in Asti (Italy) and spent his life as a Franciscan Friar in Rome, Naples and finally as Maestro di Cappella at the Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily. He is mainly known for his “Annuale”, the largest compendium of organ music for liturgical use written in the 17th century.

Allegri’s Miserere, its heartbreaking harmonies, its verses alternately chanted and ornamented, its seraphic voices: sheer Baroque magic. Since its composition in Rome in 1630, the work has constantly been transformed. Le Poème Harmonique approaches the score through the prism of its metamorphoses, the ornaments and transpositions added since the time when Mozart himself transcribed the piece, then jealously guarded by the Vatican, which punished publication of it with anathema.

Cappella Amsterdam does not just sing music that charms and captivates, but does this at the highest possible level. For its performances, the choir has received many prizes and a stream of positive reviews. Cappella Amsterdam offers the classical choir repertoire in all its glory and dedicates itself, every single year, to bring to you the most beautiful and important choral pieces, both old and new. Daniel Reuss is the artistic director of Cappella Amsterdam. Under his guidance the choir has professionalised and risen to international fame.

In perpetual search of unpublished works and forgotten composers, Paul Van Nevel invites us to discover a Requiem Mass for five voices, composed in 1556 by Simone de Bonefont, canon and cantor at Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral. The Missa pro mortuis can be considered as one of the highlights of polyphonic vocal style, encompassing all the characteristics of Franco-Flemish techniques of the period. The richness of de Bonefont’s polyphonic writing and his mastery of counterpoint are truly astonishing. True to form, the Huelgas Ensemble honours this unpublished score with a powerful interpretation, delivering music of incredible luminous tranquility. The programme also includes four compositions by Franco-Flemish masters - that de Bonefont may well have heard - on one of the most profound texts of the Gregorian repertoire: Media vita in morte summus (In the midst of life we are in death).

Together with the Requiem, Mozart's C minor mass is one of the brilliant composer's great unfinished sacred works. The work combines monumental power, solemn spirituality and moving solo passages. This recording under the baton of Baroque and Classical expert Raymond Leppard has great expressive depth, and offers a truly legendary vocal ensemble featuring stars like Kiri Te Kanawa and Ileana Cotrubas.

In this Carus release, Frieder Bernius leads soloists from Kammerchor Stuttgart in a selection of transcriptions by Clytus Gottwald and original compositions for chorus subdivided into multiple parts, in this case, up to 16 parts. The arrangements, here of songs originally for solo voice and piano, demonstrate Gottwald's mastery of this niche genre; he has also made remarkably effective choral transcriptions of chamber music and work for full orchestra. The arrangements, of songs by Ravel, Debussy, and Schumann, work beautifully as choral music, even as independent compositions, considered apart from their sources.

Balthasar Erben, born in Danzig in 1626, was a cosmopolitan. When he applied for the position of Kapellmeister at the main church of St. Mary in his home town at the age of 27, the council granted him a generous grant so that he could "look around the world and perfect himself as a composer". Erben was on the road in Europe for five years and visited all the centers of musical culture up to Rome.

Georg Joseph Vogler, called Abbé Vogler, was born in Würzburg in 1749. He became famous as an expert in music theory, conductor and composer. In 1772, he accepted a position at the court of Prince Elector Karl Theodor in Mannheim and later followed his employer to Munich. From 1786 onwards, he worked at the court of the kings of Sweden as a conductor.

The world has not yet fully discovered the riches of the impressive music libraries and archives of Portugal. They testify to the often complex trajectories followed all over Europe by a repertoire of splendid pieces, many of them showing the extent to which the Italian style had taken root in eighteenth-century Portugal. The superb mass by Pergolesi recorded here is a highly characteristic example. But the ensemble Turicum wanted to go even further in their exploration of this repertoire, accompanying the mass with performances of works by composers now totally (and unjustly) unknown, such as Antonio Gallassi and David Perez, not to mention Leonardo leo, acknowledged in his own time as a supreme master of sacred music.

Collection includes 15 releases. Gregorian is a German band headed by Frank Peterson that performs gregorian chant-inspired versions of modern pop and rock songs. The band features both vocal harmony and instrumental accompaniment.