October 30, 2010
Coro Cervantes - Espana
Coro Cervantes is the only U.K. choir dedicated to the classical music of the Iberan Peninsula and Latin America. It was founded in 1995 by Carlos Aransay, under the auspices of the Instituto Cervantes in London. Its repertoire spans a wide variety of music from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the 21st Century, with a special emphasis on Romantic Music. Coro Cervantes often performs with distinguished solists and instrumentalists and contributes to the international propagation of Hispanic choral music through its performances, recordings and research. Its repertoire includes works sung in Latin, Spainsh (Castilian). Quechua (language of the Incas), Nahuatl (language of the Aztecs), Mediaeval Galician, Catalan, Basque and even in English.
2316 CD 16.95
Posted by acapnews at 12:00 AM
October 28, 2010
Cambridge Singers - A Song In Season
Song In Season is a major collection of new choral music by John Rutter, featuring a host of previously unrecorded works in glittering performances by the Cambridge Singers and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Conducted by the composer, John Rutter: A Song in Season ranges across the church's year, incorporating music for Christmas, Epiphany, Pentecost, Easter and Harvest. The first album of new anthems and canticles by Rutter since his landmark 2002 recording of the Mass of the Children, this beautifully-packaged release promises to delight both seasoned Rutter followers and new listeners.
2367 CD 15.95
Posted by acapnews at 1:18 AM
October 26, 2010
Stile Antico - Puer Natus Est
Stile Antico's program centers on Thomas Tallis's magnificent seven-part Christmas Mass, based on the festive plainchant Puer natus est ('A boy is born'). The mass is interspersed with seasonal Tudor music, including William Byrd's exquisite Propers for the fourth Sunday of Advent, responsories by Taverner and Sheppard, Robert White's exuberant setting of the Magnificat, and Tallis's own sublime Videte miraculum.
2372 SACD 17.95
Posted by acapnews at 12:05 AM
October 16, 2010
St. Olaf Choir - Repertoire for Mixed Voices Vol. II
For nearly a century the 75-voice a cappella St. Olaf Choir, long regarded as one of the finest college a cappella choirs in the United States, has maintained its original purpose--study and preparation of choral literature for public performance. Recorded live in St. Olaf's Boe Memorial Chapel between 2001 and 2008, "Repertoire for Mixed Voices" is a generous, impressive 2-CD set, with 11 songs on each disc, is a powerful, joyous, sometimes accompanied collection of sacred Christian music. Some favorites are Lassus' "Jubilate Deo," Byrd's "Ave Verum Corpus," a pair by Bach, "Singet dem Herrn" and "Lobet den Herrn," three by Kenneth Jennings, "The Call," "Prayer" and "Antiphon." On Disc 2 we especially liked G. Randall Stroope's "Conversion of Saul," Tacach's "The Darkling Thrush," Miskinis' "Lucis Creator Optime," "Tankuj Tankuij," Susa's "The Shepherds Sing," Guastavino's "Arroz con leche" and many others. This is a remarkable, inspirational collection that shows of the clear, soaring sound and rich harmonies of the St. Olaf Choir, one of the best in the United States!
2370 2CDs 24.95
Posted by acapnews at 12:00 AM
October 15, 2010
Anonymous 4 - The Cherry Tree
Back in the studio after a four year haitus, Anonymous 4 returns with The Cherry Tree — an instant holiday music classic featuring medieval English carols and Anglo-American spiritual songs. It is the eighteenth original recording for the renowned vocal ensemble and their first since 2006’s Gloryland, which debuted at number three on the Billboard classical chart. Anonymous 4 has been a perennial presence on Billboard’s Top Classical Albums chart and hit number one with their folk-inspired American Angels in 2004. The Cherry Tree is named after the miracle ballad of Joseph and Mary, the earliest text of which survives from a Coventry Play from around 1400. The ‘Cherry Tree’ story persisted in many forms, making its way into medieval British carols of the mid-15th century and into British and American traditional ballads. In it, Joseph doubts the divine origin of Mary’s pregnancy only to hear Jesus speak from within Mary’s womb, causing a cherry tree to bend its branches and offer his mother its fruit. The 2011-12 season marks Anonymous 4’s 25th anniversary and the group will be on tour in the US this fall.
2366 CD 18.95
Posted by acapnews at 12:06 AM
October 1, 2010
Kammerchor Stuttgart - A Cappella
Although it's hard to tell from the cover, this is a compilation of music from six discs by Germany's Kammerchor Stuttgart, under longtime conductor Frieder Bernius. It's a good pick for those interested in this 18-member a cappella group, or in unaccompanied choral music generally; the Stuttgarters must rank among the world's best mixed-gender adult choirs in the sheer consistency and suppleness of their vocal blend. The seven Mendelssohn psalm settings and small vocal works included here are drawn from the group's multi-disc complete recording of Mendelssohn's sacred music, and the works performed here are fine samples that illuminate a largely forgotten repertory and may inspire many buyers to go in search of the original recordings. Beyond Mendelssohn you get good examples of other aspects of the group's work: music by an unfamiliar composer (Gottfried August Homilius), some favorites of the later nineteenth century by Brahms, and some black-belt pieces from the end of the century: hear the tonal consistency at a punishingly high pitch of the Sanctus from Rheinberger's Cantus Missae, Op. 109 (track 13), and marvel. No original recording dates are given, but the recordings must span a considerable length of time; the choir has been in existence since the mid-'80s, and the Mendelssohn project alone involved 12 CDs. Given this, the remastering job is impressive; the sonic ambience is consistent and never less than clear and warm.
2317 CD 18.95
Posted by acapnews at 1:01 AM
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