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 – February 10, 2019 https://spoti.fi/2UWtTST
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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Sir Hubert Parry: Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
Choir of Wells Cathedral, Malcolm Archer
Rupert Gough, organ
Claudio Monteverdi: Christe, adoramus te
The Sixteen, Harry Christophers
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford: The Lord is my shepherd
Choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral, John Scott
Andrew Lucas, organ
English composer Sir Hubert Parry’s tune for the hymn “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind” was written for a contralto aria in his oratorio “Judith.” John Wenham writes about the Monteverdi motet: “This short but very moving motet was one of two on the same text published in 1620 in an anthology compiled by Giulio Cesare Bianchi, a cornett player who was then working in Milan, but had earlier studied composition under Monteverdi at Mantua. The text is found in devotional Books of Hours as part of the Hours of the Cross.” Jeremy Dibble notes about the Stanford: “Completed in May 1886, The Lord is my shepherd is one of Stanford’s finest examples of musical prose. His technique of overlapping irregular phraseology, gleaned from Brahms, gives the overall musical fabric a seamless quality. This is impressively essayed in the pastoral sonata scheme of the first section and in the more contrapuntal finale (‘But thy loving kindness’) Stanford’s tonal thinking is equally imaginative. After firmly establishing F major in the much larger first part, the choral recitative provides both tonal and textural contrast with a shift to D minor (‘Thou shalt prepare a table’). A continuation of this tonal area, modally altered to D major, accompanies the beginning of the finale; but this is in fact only preparation for a return to F major, a move which both heightens the sense of tonal return but at the same time enhances the textual meaning (‘And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever’). Stanford’s coda, which elusively recalls the opening material is also deliciously romantic with its yearning appoggiaturas.”
H. Walford Davies: Psalm 103, “Praise the Lord O my soul”
Ely Cathedral Choir, Paul Trepte
David Price, organ
Gabriel Jackson: Hymn to the Trinity
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Graham Ross
Anglican musicians in the English Reformation era developed a harmonized version of chanting the psalter. This is now known as Anglican Chant. Gabriel Jackson’s motet takes its text from the Sixth Respond at Matins, Trinity Sunday.
Commentary – Alan McLellan
Guillaume Dufay: Nuper rosarum flores
Pomerium, Alexander Blachly
Dominique Phinot: O sacrum convivium
The Brabant Ensemble, Stephen Rice
This motet was composed for the consecration of Florence’s great Cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore. The Latin translates as “Recently garlands of
roses.” Franco-Flemish composer Dominique Phinot (c.1510–c.1556) was active as a musician in the south of France and Italy.
Domenico Scarlatti: Salve Regina
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Jeanne Lamon
Marie-Nicole Lemieux, contralto
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) is known more for his operas than his sacred music. In fact one commentator referred to Scarlatti’s sacred music as ‘comparatively unimportant’. I believe that his setting of ‘Salve Regina’ refutes that general statement.
J.S. Bach: Motet No. 2: “Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf”, BWV 226
Vocal & Instrumental Ensemble of Lausanne, Michel Corboz
The English translation is “The Spirit gives aid to our weakness”. Musicologists seem to think that several of Bach’s six motets including this one were written for funerals.
Antonio Vivaldi: Magnificat, RV 611
Akademia (vocal ensemble); Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Deborah York, soprano; Patrizia Biccire, soprano
Sara Mingardo, alto
Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi composed several settings of the Magnificat. RV 611 dates from the 1730s.
Jonathan David Little: Woefully arrayed, Op. 13
Vox Futura, Andrew Shenton
Australian musician Jonathan David Little (1965-) is a contemporary classical composer now based in the U.K. According to Donald Rosenberg in Gramophone, “What is most important is the music itself, which sounds at once ancient and modern. Little shows masterly command of the choral idiom in the luminous interweaving of voices and occasional solo flights.”
J.S. Bach: Missa en B moll (1733 version)
Pygmalion, Raphael Pichon
Bach used the five months of public mourning following the death of August II of Poland to compose his Mass. He recycled music from earlier works and added some new music when he completed the Mass in the last years of his life.
Antonio de Cabezon: Diferencias on the Milanese Galliard
Robert Parkins, organ
1976 Flentrop Organ in Duke University Chapel
Dr. Robert Parkins has been the University Organist of Duke University since 1985.
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