choral & vocals

Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil / The Clarion Choir

The Clarion Choir and its Artistic Leader Steven Fox make their Pentatone debut with a recording of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s choral masterpiece, the All-Night Vigil, demonstrating their exceptional proficiency in Russian repertoire. The All-Night Vigil is a nocturnal hymn that gradually moves towards daybreak, symbolizing the Resurrection of Christ. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5187019 $15.99

Liszt: Lieder / Jonas Kaufmann

Jonas Kaufmann joins forces with pianist Helmut Deutsch to perform a program of songs by Franz Liszt, a composer for whom both feel a special affinity and whose music has long featured in their shared concert career. Together with a group of six other songs including Vergiftet sind meine Lieder, Der König von Thule and Ihr Glocken von Marling, the demanding Petrarch Sonnets have been a part of Jonas Kaufmann’s repertory for many years. (Sony)

1CD# 19439892602 $11.98

Hans

Leenders – A Musical Portrait

Hans Leenders writes of this new release: “In 2003 I wrote my first mass as music director of the Basilica of our Lady in Maastricht on the occasion of the 200 year anniversary of the Basilica choir. Many new compositions for choir followed, especially for the aforementioned Basilica choir. Specific composition assignments enlarged my horizon, and this album is the sounding result of it.” (Aliud)

1CD# ACDOE1262 $16.99

Molieri (Arias by Mozart & Salieri) / Adam Plachetka

Bass-baritone Adam Plachetka presents Molieri, a program of opera arias by Mozart and Salieri, together with the Czech Ensemble Baroque under the baton of Roman Válek. Molieri brings the two composers together, focusing on bass-8 baritone arias from their opera buffas.

(Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5187022 $15.99

Schultz: Choral Songs

Svend Simon Schultz (1913–1998) is one of the most remarkable Danish composers and as a conductor he made a significant contribution to Danish songs. This is the first of a project to record all his nearly 90 choral songs, all of them musically and technically on the highest possible level. The brilliant Akademisk Kor Århus is now presenting volume 1 of 5 volumes.

(Danacord)

1CD# DACOCD951 $16.99

Chilcott: Canticles of Light

Canticles of Light is Bob Chilcott’s ninth album on Signum Records. Featuring celebrated composers including Cecilia McDowall, Francis Pott and James MacMillan each work has been carefully selected by conductor and professor Agnieszka FrankówZelazny, with the final track written especially for the NFM Choir.

(Signum)

1CD# SIGCD729 $17.99

Grigorjeva: Music for Male Voice Choir

The choral music of Galina Grigorjeva – born in Simferopol in Ukraine in 1962 and based in Tallinn, in Estonia, since 1994 – is deeply rooted in the traditions of the Orthodox Church and in ancient Russian and Slavonic folklore. She has been working with the Estonian National Male Choir – one of the finest in a country full of choirs – for some years now, and some of the works here were composed or arranged specifically for this recording. (Toccata)

1CD# TOCC0679 $18.99

Russian Orthodox Choral Music [6 CDs]

Once more suppressed by the 1917 Revolution, an authentic strain of Russian sacred music had to wait until the era of glasnost in the late 1980s and early 90s. Most of these recordings date from the early 90s, first released on the ‘Saison Russe’ imprint for its renewal. Ensembles such as the of the Chant du Monde label, long unavailable and now reissued here for the first time.

(Brilliant Classics)

6CD# BRI95969 $30.99

Trotta: Intimations of Immortality

This recording includes a five-movement work by Michael John Trotta along with three a cappella traditional works. Intimations of Immortality is based on Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, by English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. (Gia Choral Works)

1CD# GIACD-1129 $16.99

Graupner: Cantatas for Bass Voice

Very often discussions regarding the composer Christoph Graupner (1683–1760) places him in comparison with J.S. Bach. If one has heard of Graupner, it is usually the bit of trivia that he was offered the Leipzig Thomaskirche cantor position before Bach. This recording, featuring cantatas and instrumental works composed between 1720 and 1745, offers the listener a perfect introduction to Graupner. (Affetto)

1CD# AF2301 $16.99