I'm delighted to announce the release on the Naxos label of the recording made in the spring of 2008 by Yale Schola Cantorum, Collegium Players and Voxtet of the Magnificats in D by Bach and the very young Mendelssohn, produced by Malcolm Bruno.

 

J.S. Bach's famous Magnificat and that of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel were the templates for the teenage Mendelssohn's first major work for soloists, chorus and full orchestra, a brilliant setting of the Blessed Virgin Mary's song of praise, composed in 1822, floridly Baroque in conception and similar in scale to the Bach settings. His Ave Maria of 1830 again evokes Baroque splendour, but also points towards his later oratorios, Paulus and Elijah.