I post these playlists weekly with the hope that you might find them useful as you plan your programs. All of my playlists are on Spotify for you to enjoy at your convenience.
GSM – December 9, 2018 https://spoti.fi/2QQQYI4
Don’t forget that we have more choral and organ music programmed
on Sunday evenings beginning at 10 p.m. eastern.
Rob Kennedy
WCPE The Classical Station
Web: TheClassicalStation.org
Facebook: www.facebook/theclassicalstation
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Traditional, 12th-century carol: O come, o come Emmanuel
Bach Collegium Japan Chorus, Masaaki Suzuki
William Byrd: Rorate caeli desuper
The Cardinall’s Musick, Andrew Carwood
Leo Sowerby: Benedicite Omnia Opera
Choir of Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York, Larry King
English scholar John Mason Neale translated the Latin text of “O come, o come, Emmanuel” which he found in Thesaurus Hymnologicus. English musician Andrew Carwood has been Director of Music at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, since 2007. Dr. Leo Sowerby (1895-1968) was considered by most Episcopal church musicians to be the unofficial Dean of American Church Music.
Jean Mouton: Nesciens mater virgo virum
Elora Festival Singers, Noel Edison
Imant Raminsh: Ave verum corpus
Vancouver Chamber Choir, Jon Washburn
J.S. Bach: Chorale Prelude: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645
Marie-Claire Alain, organ
Jean Mouton (1459-1522) was a French renaissance composer of whose output over 15 masses and 100 motets survive. Latvian-born composer Imant Raminsh (1943-) emigrated to Canada in 1948. He is active as a composer and a violinist. Bach’s publisher, Johann Georg Schübler, issued the Six Schübler Chorale Preludes in 1748, just two years before Bach’s death. Much of the material comes from previously composed works. This chorale-prelude, for instance, comes from the 4th movement of BWV 140
GSM Commentary – Rabbi Eric Solomon
W.A. Mozart: Ave verum corpus, K. 618
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Robert Shaw
Anthony Piccolo: I look from afar
Choir of Bath Abbey, Peter King
Marcus Sealy, organ
Mozart wrote this much-loved motet in 1791 whilst writing his opera Die Zauberflote. Anthony Piccolo is a native of New Jersey and a graduate
of Peabody Conservatory.
Josef Haydn: Missa “Rorate coeli desuper”
Choir of Christ Church Cathedral Oxford;
Academy of Ancient Music, Simon Preston
George Frideric Handel: And He shall purify
Boston Baroque Orchestra and Chorus, Martin Pearlman
Max Reger: Chorale Prelude on Sleepers, Awake!, Op. 67 No. 41
Martin Welzel, organ
Johannes Klais organ, Trier Cathedral
Austrian composer Josef Haydn’s Missa “Rorate coeli desuper” takes remarkably little time to perform because each voice in the choir sings a different line of the text in the Gloria and the Credo. German-born English composer George Frideric Handel composed his oratorio Messiah in 1741 for modest musical forces. In the 19th and 20th centuries the fashion was to perform it with enormous orchestras and choruses. The version which we shall hear in “and he shall purify” reverts to the kind of early music performance practice which might be more akin to what Handel had in mind, and, indeed, was accustomed to. The Johannes Klais organ in Trier Cathedral, Germany is nicknamed the “swallows nest organ” perched as it is high on the wall of the north transept.
J.S. Bach: Cantata 140, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”
Choir of St. Thomas Church, Leipzig; Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Kurt Thomas
Elisabeth Grummer, soprano; Marga Hoffgen, alto;
Hans-Joachim Rotzch, tenor; Theo Adam, bass
Cantata 140 is one of Bach’s best-loved works. Craig Smith write: “The Philipp Nicolai hymn ‘Wachet auf!’ is the basis for our cantata. Two great Nicolai hymns are used prominently in the second Jahrgang: ‘Wachet auf!’ in BWV 140 and ‘Wie schön leuchtet den Morgensten’ in BWV 1. Both are large-scale bar-form pieces, with three big phrases repeated in the Stollen (the A section of the chorale tune, repeated once, literally translated as ‘stanza’), the lower voices gradually ‘catch up.”
Thomas Tallis: Suscipe quaeso
Handel and Haydn Society Chorus, Grant Llewellyn
Some scholars think that “Suscipe quaeso” dates from 1554 and is a companion piece to Tallis’ Christmas mass Missa Puer natus est nobis.
Anonymous: Magnificat in C
Kenneth Gilbert, organ
1981 Helmut Wolff organ, McGill University.
“Le Livre d’orgue de Montreal” is an 18th manuscript brought to Montreal in 1724 by Jean Girard, a Sulpician cleric.
John Rutter: Magnificat
Cambridge Singers; City of London Sinfonia, John Rutter
Patricia Forbes, soprano
English composer John Rutter (1945-) conducted the first performance of his Magnificat in Carnegie Hall in May 1990.
Walter Piston: Psalm and Prayer of David
Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Gerard Schwarz
This is Walter Piston’s only religious composition. It was premiered at Brandeis University on May 9, 1959.
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