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Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent - William Byrd: Infelix ego (2014)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent - William Byrd: Infelix ego (2014)

Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent - William Byrd: Infelix ego (2014)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 207 Mb | Total time: 49:19 | Scans included
Classical | Label: PHI | # LPH014 | Recorded: 2013

Philippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale Gent present their third project for Phi focussing on vocal music of the Renaissance. This time, it is the English composer William Byrd (c.1540-1623) who is being honoured. The title of the programme is that of Byrd’s motet Infelix ego, one of the greatest artistic statements of the 16th century. Its text is a meditation on Psalm 50, written by the Dominica Girolamo Savonarola, a remarkable man who waged a campaign against the corrupt Medici family in Florence.

The Gesualdo Six, Owain Park - English Motets (2018)

Posted By: Designol
The Gesualdo Six, Owain Park - English Motets (2018)

The Gesualdo Six, Owain Park - English Motets (2018)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 322 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 169 Mb | Artwork included
Classical, Choral, Renaissance | Label: Hyperion | # CDA68256 | 01:13:06

The Gesualdo Six literally made its name with performances of Carlo Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responsories, but that's not the British vocal consort's only specialty. Each of the singers was trained in the English choral tradition, and sacred works of the 16th and 17th century are close to their hearts. This 2018 Hyperion release is a brief survey of motets by Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Thomas Tomkins, John Sheppard, Robert White, John Dunstaple, Thomas Morley, John Taverner, William Cornysh, Orlando Gibbons, and Robert Parsons, which represent the changing theological and liturgical aspects of English religion in the Renaissance. The ensemble, conducted by Owain Park, sings with evenly blended tones and an extraordinary harmonic richness, notwithstanding the assignment of one voice to a part and the exposed polyphony that sometimes creates an austere effect. Also quite noticeable are the cross-relations that add poignant dissonances to the counterpoint, as in Tallis' Loquebantur variis linguis, Taverner's Quemadmodum, Gibbons' O Lord, in thy wrath rebuke me not, and Parsons' Deliver me from mine enemies. This album was recorded in Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge, where The Gesualdo Six gave its first performances, and the sound is enhanced by vibrant acoustics that give the group a radiant aural halo.

Stephen Rice, The Brabant Ensemble - Orlande de Lassus: Prophetiae Sibyllarum (2011)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Stephen Rice, The Brabant Ensemble - Orlande de Lassus: Prophetiae Sibyllarum (2011)

Stephen Rice, The Brabant Ensemble - Orlande de Lassus: Prophetiae Sibyllarum (2011)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 336 Mb | Total time: 74:14 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | CDA67887 | Recorded: 2010

Orlande de Lassus was an undisputed master of all the vocal genres of the late Renaissance, from German Lied to Latin Mass. He was extraordinarily prolific, and this recording features the glorious polyphony of the Missa Amor ecco colei and Prophetiae Sibyllarum, one of his most celebrated works. With the latter’s extreme chromaticism and constant modulation, Lassus stretched the compositional boundaries of the time to produce one of the most important and advanced works to come from the sixteenth century.

Les Cris de Paris, Geoffroy Jourdain - Schumann: Missa Sacra (2012)

Posted By: tirexiss
Les Cris de Paris, Geoffroy Jourdain - Schumann: Missa Sacra (2012)

Les Cris de Paris, Geoffroy Jourdain - Schumann: Missa Sacra (2012)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 58:05 | 298 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Aparté | Catalog: AP044

There used to be a conventional wisdom that the music of Schumann's last years is not up to much, presumably on account of his mental illness. Perhaps the centrepiece of this prejudice is the fact that his 1853 Violin Concerto was rejected by Joachim, to whom it was dedicated, and was not included in the "complete" Schumann edition compiled by Brahms. It was not released to the public until 1934.

Stephen Rice, The Brabant Ensemble - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Missa Ad coenam Agni (2013)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Stephen Rice, The Brabant Ensemble - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Missa Ad coenam Agni (2013)

Stephen Rice, The Brabant Ensemble - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Missa Ad coenam Agni (2013)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 286 Mb | Total time: 70:37 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | CDA67978 | Recorded: 2012

The Brabant Ensemble, better known for uncovering works by forgotten composers such as Dominique de Phinot, turns to a giant of the Renaissance—perhaps the most celebrated name of the period. Yet within Palestrina’s huge output there are many hidden gems, lacking both recordings and modern performing editions, and it is from among these that the ensemble’s director Stephen Rice has chosen the repertoire for this album. A Mass—Missa Ad coenam Agni, from Palestrina’s first book of Mass-settings—is included, plus antiphons, motets and five Eastertide Offertories. Each work is, as Stephen Rice states in his typically informative booklet notes, ‘a finely crafted addition to the liturgy’.

Stephen Rice, The Brabant Ensemble - Pierre de La Rue: Missa Nuncqua fue pena mayor & Missa Inviolata (2016)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Stephen Rice, The Brabant Ensemble - Pierre de La Rue: Missa Nuncqua fue pena mayor & Missa Inviolata (2016)

Stephen Rice, The Brabant Ensemble - Pierre de La Rue: Missa Nuncqua fue pena mayor & Missa Inviolata (2016)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 348 Mb | Total time: 78'55 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | CDA68150 | Recorded: 2015

Pierre de la Rue is another of those composers who contributed so prolifically to the richness of musical life in the Low Countries during the late fifteenth century. If today he is less well known than some of his contemporaries, the distinguished advocacy of Stephen Rice and The Brabant Ensemble should do much to redress the balance.

Konrad Junghänel, Cantus Cölln, Concerto Palatino - Biber: Litaniæ de Sancto Josepho; Muffat: Missa in labore requies (1999)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Konrad Junghänel, Cantus Cölln, Concerto Palatino - Biber: Litaniæ de Sancto Josepho; Muffat: Missa in labore requies (1999)

Konrad Junghänel, Cantus Cölln, Concerto Palatino - Biber: Litaniæ de Sancto Josepho; Muffat: Missa in labore requies (1999)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 316 Mb | Total time: 69:27 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Harmonia Mundi | # HMC 901667 | Recorded: 1998

The 17th-century Austrian composer Heinrich Biber is remembered today for his extraordinary solo violin music–collections such as the Mystery Sonatas. He wrote a number of large-scale instrumental works and choral pieces as well, but their reputation is not as high. They include a lot of grand gestures for brass, but they tend to be harmonically static and often seem long-winded. So Konrad Junghänel and his superb musicians have really achieved something by making the works on this disc sound so appealing.

David Rowland, Christ College Choir, Cambridge - A. Scarlatti: Missa breve & Six Motets; D. Scarlatti: Stabat Mater (2009)

Posted By: ArlegZ
David Rowland, Christ College Choir, Cambridge - A. Scarlatti: Missa breve & Six Motets; D. Scarlatti: Stabat Mater (2009)

David Rowland, Christ College Choir, Cambridge - Alessandro Scarlatti: Missa breve & Six Motets; Domenico Scarlatti: Stabat Mater (2009)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 288 Mb | Total time: 59:33 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Regent Records | # REGCD283 | Recorded: 2008

The program is a strong point straight off here; the Alessandro Scarlatti Missa Breve and the Stabat Mater by his son Domenico are both rich, fascinating works that progressively deconstruct the model of making music around two (or more) separate choirs, a century old by the time the Scarlattis took it up. The Stabat Mater is a really lovely work, but it's been hampered in the repertory but uncertainty over performance practice; it's not clear how many singers should be used, or how they should be deployed in solos and massed groups (if any). It is not really a double-choir work at all but a mass in 10 parts, with those subdivided into various groupings including five plus five.

The Benedict XVI Choir & Orchestra, Richard Sparks - Frank La Rocca: Requiem for the Forgotten; Messe des Malades (2024)

Posted By: delpotro
The Benedict XVI Choir & Orchestra, Richard Sparks - Frank La Rocca: Requiem for the Forgotten; Messe des Malades (2024)

The Benedict XVI Choir & Orchestra, Richard Sparks - Frank La Rocca: Requiem for the Forgotten; Messe des Malades (2024)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 285 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 158 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:08:00
Classical, Sacred, Choral | Label: Cappella Records

Cappella Records proudly announces the release of Frank La Rocca’s Requiem for the Forgotten – Messe des Malades, performed by Benedict XVI Choir and Orchestra, directed by renowned international conductor Richard Sparks.

Choir of Girton College, Cambridge - Marc’Antonio Ingegneri, Vol. 4 (2024)

Posted By: delpotro
Choir of Girton College, Cambridge - Marc’Antonio Ingegneri, Vol. 4 (2024)

Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, The Western Wyndes, Jeremy West & Gareth Wilson - Marc’Antonio Ingegneri, Vol. 4: Missa Gustate et Videte; Motets for Holy Week and Easter (2024)
MP3 CBR 320 kbps | Digital booklet | 01:16:43 | 180 Mb
Classical, Sacred, Choral | Label: Toccata Classics

The Cremonese composer Marc’Antonio Ingegneri (c. 1535/36–92) is chiefly remembered as the teacher of Claudio Monteverdi while, for well-nigh 500 years, his own achievements were left to sit in the shadows. This fourth in a series of pioneering recordings from the Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, presents a sequence of music for Holy Week and Easter, confirming Ingegneri to have been one of the masters of his age. The striking range of moods heard here will confound conventional expectations of Renaissance polyphony: Ingegneri’s emotional palette extends from tender intimacy in some of these motets to dancing, celebratory jubilation in the Mass setting – all of it music of breathtaking richness and beauty.

Matthias Maute, Ensemble Caprice - Antonio Vivaldi: Gloria! Vivaldi et ses anges (2008)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Matthias Maute, Ensemble Caprice - Antonio Vivaldi: Gloria! Vivaldi et ses anges (2008)

Matthias Maute, Ensemble Caprice - Antonio Vivaldi: Gloria! Vivaldi et ses anges (2008)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 310 Mb | Total time: 66:15 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Analekta | # AN 2 9917 | Recorded: 2008

The four works presented here were written for the Ospedale della Pietà, the female orphanage where Vivaldi taught voice and violin. Although the scores for the two choral works on this recording, the Gloria and the Magnificat, are written for the traditional four voices from soprano to bass, we must wonder who could have supplied the tenor and bass voices for concerts given by the orphans. Boys were not admitted to the orphanage, and there were very few men among its staff. In his notes for this recording, conductor Matthias Maute states that the tenor and bass parts were sung by the girls of the Ospedale. Michael Talbot, who has written extensively on Vivaldi’s life and sacred music, agrees with this assertion. According to Talbot, the tenor line would have been sung at the written pitch, while the bass line would have been sung an octave higher.

Jeanne Lamon, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra - Domenico Scarlatti: Salve Regina; Antonio Vivaldi: Stabat Mater (2003)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Jeanne Lamon, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra - Domenico Scarlatti: Salve Regina; Antonio Vivaldi: Stabat Mater (2003)

Jeanne Lamon, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra - Domenico Scarlatti: Salve Regina; Antonio Vivaldi: Stabat Mater (2003)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 273 Mb | Total time: 57:37 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Analekta | # FL 2 3171 | Recorded: 2003

Quebec contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux scored a top rating on her earlier Analekta disc of Handel Italian cantatas, and in that review I expressed a desire for more recordings from this sensational young singer. If you enjoyed the Handel program (and if you don't have it, get it), you'll be just as happy with this new disc that combines two famous Baroque solo-vocal works with some engaging, relentlessly upbeat orchestral selections from the same period. Lemieux continues to impress with her warm, true-contralto tone, fluid legatos, canny phrasing, and total command of the technical aspects of these justifiably popular yet challenging works.

Leif Segerstam, Wiener Jeunesse Chor, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra - Martin: Requiem; Janáček: Otčenáš (2022)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Leif Segerstam, Wiener Jeunesse Chor, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra - Martin: Requiem; Janáček: Otčenáš (2022)

Leif Segerstam, Wiener Jeunesse Chor, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra - Martin: Requiem; Janáček: Otčenáš (2022)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 261 Mb | Total time: 60:59 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Capriccio | # C5454 | Recorded: 1979, 1987

It took Frank Martin a long time to heed his deep-seated inner calling to write a Requiem: 'What I have tried to express here is the clear will to accept death; to make peace with it.' The Requiem was composed in 1971/72, Martin utilizes the whole bandwidth of orchestral sound and explores all opportunities for interplay among the vocalists, as well. Leoš Janácek's setting of the Otcenáš, the Lord's Prayer, is not a conventionally religious work. The Czech composer was more interested in it's social aspects than any theological musings.

Ars Antiqua Austria & Gunar Letzbor - Franz Joseph Aumann: Passion Oratorio (2024)

Posted By: delpotro
Ars Antiqua Austria & Gunar Letzbor - Franz Joseph Aumann: Passion Oratorio (2024)

Ars Antiqua Austria & Gunar Letzbor - Franz Joseph Aumann: Passion Oratorio (2024)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 485 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 258 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:52:00
Classical, Sacred, Oratorio | Label: Accent Records

It was a sensational find in many respects when Gunar Letzbor discovered the Passion by the composer and Augustinian canon Franz Joseph Aumann in the archives of St Florian's Abbey (near Linz, Austria) and other monasteries.

Béatrice Mayo-Felip, Le Concert Calotin - Sébastien de Brossard: Cantates spirituelles et sonates d'église (2004)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Béatrice Mayo-Felip, Le Concert Calotin - Sébastien de Brossard: Cantates spirituelles et sonates d'église (2004)

Béatrice Mayo-Felip, Le Concert Calotin - Sébastien de Brossard: Cantates spirituelles et sonates d'église (2004)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 272 Mb | Total time: 58:22 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Arion | # ARN 68626 | Recorded: 2003

The verse was written by a young man named André de Mézenge, a nephew on his mother’s side of the aforementioned Sébastien de Brossard. This young man showed great promise, not only in poetry, but also in several other arts, but the Lord took him from us in the year 1708, at the age of twenty-two.’ (Brossard, Catalogue, p. 366)